Contents

Preface

Introduction

Further Reading

Chapter 1. History of the Field and Theoretical Issues

William Wordsworth, The Lyrical Ballads

David Friedrich Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined

Matthew Arnold, "The Study of Poetry"

Soren Kierkegaard, The Point of View for My Work as an Author

T. S. Eliot, "Religion and Literature"

Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture

Nathan A. Scott, Jr., The Wild Prayer of Longing

Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature

Further Reading

Chapter 2. The Exploration of Origins

The Book of Genesis

The Gospel of John

Popol Vuh

"The Woman Who Fell from the Sky'

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Mark Twain, Extracts from Adam's Diary

Joseph Addison, "Ode"

D. H. Lawrence, "The Man Who Died"

Walter Ong, The Presence of the Word

Further Reading

Chapter 3. The Interpretive Tradition of Literature and Religion

Psalm 130, Ezekiel 3, Revelation 10

Augustine of Hippo, The City of God

Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias

Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

Martin Luther, Table Talk

Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

Jacques Derrida, The Gift of Death

Isaac Bashevis Singer, "Jachid and Jechidah"

Paul Ricoeur, "The Bible and the Imagination" Further Reading

Chapter 4. The Language and Literature of Worship

Matthew 26:17—29; Luke 22:7—23

Wole Soyinka, The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite

Jewish and Christian Prayers

Prasna Upanishad

Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

John Donne, "Batter my heart, three-personed God"

George Herbert, "Love"

Herman Melville, Moby Dick: Or the Whale

John Updike, A Month of Sundays Further Reading

Chapter 5. The Literary Structures of Religious Text Genres

The Book of Job

Archibald MacLeish, J. B.

John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

The Book of Ezekiel

William Blake, "And did those feet in ancient time"

Patrick White, Riders in the Chariot

Susanna/The Book of Daniel

William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

The Parable of Simeon and Bar Kappara

Franz Kafka, The Trial

The Gospel of Mark

Jorge Luis Borges, "The Gospel According to Mark"

Paul Ricoeur, "The 'Sacred' Text and the Community" Further Reading

Chapter 6. Religious Dimensions of Literary Text Genres

Simone Well, Intimations of Christianity among the Ancient Greeks

John Milton, Paradise Lost

J. W. von Goethe, Faust

William Blake, "The Garden of Love"

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Sylvia Plath, "Lady Lazarus"

Emily Dickinson, "Title divine—is mine!"

William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano

Peter Meinke, "Liquid Paper," "M3"

Further Reading

Chapter 7. The Great Themes of Literature and Religion

DEATH

Ovid, Metamorphoses

Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death"

T. S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral

CONVERSION AND ECSTASY

The Acts of the Apostles

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain

LOVE AND EVIL

William Butler Yeats, "Adam's Curse"

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Elie Wiesel, Night

VISIONS OF THE END

The Book of Daniel

J. G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan"

Flanner O'Connor, Wise Blood Further Reading

Chapter 8. Interactions: New Challenges to and from Other Fields

SOCIO-POLITICS OF THE BODY, RACE, SEXUALITY, AND AGE

Michèle Roberts, The Wild Girl

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Audre Lorde, "Sister Outsider"

Douglas Coupland, Life after God

SCIENCE

Italo Calvino, "All at One Point"

Tamiki Hara, "The Land of Heart's Desire"

Mark C. Taylor, Nots

INTERMEDIALITY

John Cage, "Overpopulation and Art"

Leo Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion

POSTMODERN FICTION AND LITERATURE

Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies

Edmond Jabès, The Book of Margins

Postscript: From Modernism to Postmodernism

Study Questions

Acknowledgments