Like and Unlike God: Religious Imaginations in Modern and Contemporary Fiction

by John Neary

Overview

The "postmodernist context" of contemporary literary studies has seemed to push religious ideas to the margins. Nevertheless, religious concerns are deeply embedded in literature. This book provides a fresh and readable account of the literary and the religious. Drawing upon the work of David Tracy, Neary presents two ways of imagining the human relationship with the divine, the analogical and the dialogical imaginations. After an introductory look at the way in which the Christian theological tradition presents them, the book examines these imaginations and their complicated relationships within the works of two seminal modernist authors of fiction (Joseph Conrad and James Joyce), of a trio of Christian literary critics, and of several contemporary novelists who exemplify both traditional and postmodernist narrative forms (Anne Tyler, Muriel Spark, Thomas Pynchon, and D.J. Thomas).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780788505690
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/02/1999
Series:	AAR Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion , #13
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

Editorial Reviews

Examines two modes of thought for considering the human relationship with the divine: the analogical and the dialectical. Examines these modes through the works of such authors as Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Anne Tyler, Muriel Spark, Thomas Pynchon, and D.M. Thomas, as well as the ideas of some Christian literary critics. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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