The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing

by Leland Ryken

Overview

The Christian Imagination brings together in a single source the best that has been written about the relationship between literature and the Christian faith. This anthology covers all of the major topics that fall within this subject and includes essays and excerpts from fifty authors, including C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Dorothy Sayers, and Frederick Buechner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780877881230
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/19/2002
Series:	Writers' Palette Book Series
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Leland Ryken is Professor of English at Wheaton College, where he has taught since 1968. He has published nearly two dozen books on various subjects including literature in Christian perspective, the Bible as literature, and Milton. His previous titles include The Liberated Imagination, The Discerning Reader, A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible, Words of Delight and Realms of Gold.

Read an Excerpt

The Christian Imagination brings together in a single source the best that has been written about the relationship between literature and the Christian faith. This anthology covers all of the major topics that fall within this subject and includes essays and excerpts from fifty authors, including C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Dorothy Sayers, and Frederick Buechner.

Editorial Reviews

This sweeping, magnificent anthology challenges Christians to think more deeply about the connections between faith and literature, creed and imagination. Ryken, who has previously explored the intersection between the literary and the spiritual in How to Read the Bible as Literature and The Discerning Reader, brings together Christian thinkers from a broad spectrum of time periods and literary disciplines. The collection opens with a section called "Christian Philosophy of Literature," which despite its dry title features memorable selections by luminaries such as Annie Dillard, C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer. Other sections address issues such as imagination, beauty, teaching, realism, myth and fantasy, poetry, and narrative; with a collection of this size, it is surprising that the essays are of such consistently high quality. One wishes that all fiction editors at Christian publishing houses would read Richard Terrell's essay "Christian Fiction: Piety Is Not Enough," in which he identifies the problems inherent in creating "safe" fiction that must always be devoid of profanity, violence and sex. Other gems include Frederick Buechner's masterpiece "The Gospel as Fairy Tale," J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Consolation of the Happy Ending" and Madeleine L'Engle's "Is It Good Enough for Children?" Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor offer strong autobiographical essays on being Christian novelists. Poetry is not neglected here, with essays by Luci Shaw, Wendell Berry and others testifying to the importance of poetry in the Christian experience. This is a rich, judicious collection of reflections on Christianity and literature. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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