An Introduction to Religion and Literature

Description

Religion has always been an integral part of the literary tradition: many canonical and non-canonical texts engage extensively with religious ideas, and the development of English Literature as a professional discipline began with an explicit consideration of the relationship between religion and literature. Literature also plays an important role in religious writing, as twentieth-century work on narrative theology has acknowledged. Both the recent theological turn of literary theory and the renewed political significance of religious debate in contemporary western culture have generated further interest in this interdisciplinary area. An Introduction to Religion and Literature offers a lucid, accessible and thoughtful introduction to the study of religion and literature. While the focus is on Christian theology and post-1800 British literature, substantial reference is made to earlier writers, texts from North America and mainland Europe, and other faith positions. Each chapter takes up a major theological idea and explores it through close readings of well-known and influential literary texts.

Mark Knight is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto, Canada. His books include Chesterton and Evil (2004), Biblical Religion and the Novel, 1700-2000 (co-edited with Thomas Woodman, 2006), Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature: An Introduction (co-written with Emma Mason, OUP, 2006), An Introduction to Religion and Literature (2009) and Religion, Literature and the Imagination (co-edited with Louise Lee, 2009). Current projects include: a monograph entitled Good Words: Evangelicalism and the Victorian Novel; a co-authored book (with Emma Mason) entitled Faithful Reading: Poetry and Christian Practice; and a co-edited volume (with Jo Carruthers and Andrew Tate) entitled A Bible and Literature Reader. With Emma Mason, Mark Knight edits the book series New Directions in Religion and Literature for Bloomsbury Academic.

"A brilliant and concise introduction to the increasingly innovative and ever-urgent relationship between religion and literature. Knight's lucid and percipient grasp of theological and biblical debate, as well as of recent theoretical and philosophical methodologies, grants his close readings a rare insight students and academics will readily appreciate. In his sharp exploration of ideas such as the creation, sin and eschatology, Knight leads us through a dazzling array of literary texts (from Shakespeare and Donne, to Rossetti and Dickens, Rushdie and McEwan) to illustrate what it means to pursue a religious reading. In doing so, he reveals that religious reading, an approach often wrongly assumed to be dependent on sacred or moral content, is rather grounded in the critical ability to renew and re-imagine language within a framework that opens up new ways of thinking about subjectivity, community, hope, vision and love." - Emma Mason, Senior Lecturer, University of Warwick, UK "This is, it must be said, an accomplished book. It resonates at times like a well-tempered doctorate...The publisher, I should add, is to be congratulated on a workmanlike production, in typography and presentation, that has served the author well." The Glass, February 2010 This book provides a consistent engagement with literature, divining human paths to divine topics. At all times Knight produces a thoughtful engagement, occasionally leading the reader down paths less often taken. While the language and style is light, the thoughts bring the reader into a richly textured conversation. -- Interpretation