Christianity and Literature articles from March 2009

Christianity and Literature archives from March 2009

From the editor.(Editorial)
March 22, 2009... In this issue, we are pleased to publish four essays that focus on the relation between women, faith, and writing in nineteenth- and twentieth-century England, France, and America. The essays focus on poetry and fiction and explore the themes...

Son of the Prodigal Speaks.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Son of the Prodigal Speaks My mother married the rich man's Second son. She said he had traveled. He knew things other men didn't, Like the meaning of forgiveness, The cost of infidelity. I spent my childhood...

Nativity in Black and White.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Nativity in Black and White At St. Xenia's Wildwood skete six black-garbed nuns-- black boots, black gloves-- wend their way to prayers at dusk, in sinuous single file, downhill, through trenches...

Faith.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Faith Here it is steadying the heart, taking the air, pedaling to the farmers' market for sweet grape tomatoes. In another decade those calves will be corded with muscle, pumping pure energy, ...

Therese of Lisieux and Alphonse de Lamartine: the spiritual transformation of Romanticism.(Critical essay)
March 22, 2009... There has been some controversy since the death of Therese of Lisieux (Therese Martin) regarding the value of her poetry. Some critics have considered it to be somewhat charming but full of the pious sentimental images typical of her day....

Starlings.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Starlings Starling--how odd the name-- these little birds of blackness, laced with iridescence, thin vestige of the soul; oh little fallen stars, neither bright nor steadfast, you twitch and preen and...

The law of sex and death: religious language and practice in Edith Wharton's summer.(Critical essay)
March 22, 2009... Edith Wharton's novella Summer is many things: a coming-of-age story, a story about social class, a story of young love and abandonment, and finally, a story about sex. Its young heroine, Charity Royall, was, as a child, rescued by her guardian...

Canaan Valley, October.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Canaan Valley, October We've come to expect it from trees, but here even the ground blazes, packed deep with leaf foil red as red gold. At every turn in the road we're jolted by another roar of color--whole hillsides ...

Incarnation, inwardness, and imagination: George Eliot's early fiction.(Critical essay)
March 22, 2009... The secret of our emotions never lies in the bare object, but in its subtle relations to our own past: no wonder the secret escapes the unsympathising observer, who might as well put on spectacles to discern odours. --George Eliot, Adam...

The Buildings of Languedoc, France.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... The Buildings of Languedoc, France The buildings of Languedoc--tell about them. Tell what words rose up like shards from the narrow streets. Tell what the layers of centuries have done and how the adjectives multiplied in...

In praise of John Updike (1932-2009).(In memoriam)
March 22, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When we praise someone in their presence, there is always the suspicion that we are trying to win their favor or influence their reception by others. This is especially true when we try to honor those who are already...

Your Speed.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Your Speed is much too fast. Hey now, the device implies, friendly-like, it's time to think about the forces that propel you. The sign provides a thoughtful report, a welcome assessment. You appreciate...

Marie de France and the Poetics of Memory.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Marie de France and the Poetics of Memory. By Logan E. Whalen. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8132-1509-9. Pp. xii + 208. $59.95. This slim book is best appreciated as an act of homage to two...

The Road to Jerusalem: Pilgrimage and Travel in the Age of Discovery.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Road to Jerusalem: Pilgrimage and Travel in the Age of Discovery. By F. Thomas Noonan. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press in Association with the Library of Congress, 2007. ISBN-13:978-0-8122-3994-2. Pp. 344 + 38 illus. $49.95....

Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in the Merchant of Venice.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in the Merchant of Venice. By Janet Adelman. University of Chicago Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-226-00681-9. Pp. xii + 224 p. $35.00. In Blood Relations, Janet Adelman boldly illustrates the problematic...

John Milton, Radical Politics, and Biblical Republicanism.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... John Milton, Radical Politics, and Biblical Republicanism. By Walter S. H. Lim. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2006. ISBN 0-97413-940-6. Pp. 305. $55.00. Critical interest in Milton's republicanism has until recently focused on...

Gothic Ireland: Horror and the Irish Anglican Imagination in the Long Eighteenth Century.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Gothic Ireland: Horror and the Irish Anglican Imagination in the Long Eighteenth Century. By Jarlath Kelleen. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005. ISBN: 9-781851-829439. Pp. vii + 240. $65. The flowering of nineteenth-century Gothic literature...

Georges Bernanos: The Theological Source of His Art.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Georges Bernanos: The Theological Source of His Art. By Michael R. Tobin. New York: McGill-Queens University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7735-3232-8. $80.00. Professor Michael Tobin's new study of Georges Bernanos is an important contribution...

R.S. Thomas: Poetry and Theology.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... R.S. Thomas: Poetry and Theology. By William V. Davis. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-932792-49-2. Pp. ix + 219. $39.95. In his Preface to this collection of essays, William Davis promises two pilgrimages. The one...

The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. By Diana Pavlac Glyer. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2007. ISBN-10: 0873388909; ISBN-13: 978-0873388900. Pp. 293. $30.00. Collaboration in community...

Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Hunting the Unicorn: A Critical Biography of Ruth Pitter. By Don W. King. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-873338-947-1. Pp. xvii + 342 + 9 illus. $55.00. Most people know of Ruth Pitter, if at all, as the woman...

Conversations with American Writers: The Doubt, the Faith, the In-Between.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Conversations with American Writers: The Doubt, the Faith, the In-Between. By Dale Brown. Grand Rapids, MI: Win. B. Eerdmans, 2008. ISBN-13: 9780802862280. Pp. 288. $18.00. Dale Brown's earlier collection of interviews, Of Faith and...

Home.(Book review)
March 22, 2009... Home. By Marilynne Robinson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 13:978-0-374-299-1. Pp. 325 $25.00 (Hardcover). Marilynne Robinson, both in her earlier novel Gilead and in this sequel of sorts, has demonstrated that literature need...

A Familiar Face.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... A Familiar Face I have seen them, know the dead return: Ancestral stars visible in dreams, Luminaries present in a lingering scent, Someone long passed, nearby in a room, Seated in a wingback chair or at a desk. ...

Romans.(Poem)
March 22, 2009... Romans GET RIGHT WITH GOD corrugated cross among the weeds on the edge of a country road hot with tar and the shiver of hell sweating my hands to the steering wheel dust in the air, in my mouth, the piercing...

The Midwest 2009 Regional Conference.(NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Conference news)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... The Midwest 2009 Regional Conference will be held on September 24-26 at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. The topic is "The City" and keynote speakers will be Andrew Delbanco and Anne Winters. The Midwest regional meeting will explore a...

The Southwest 2009 Regional Conference.(NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Conference news)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... The Southwest 2009 Regional Conference will be held on October 1-3 at Houston Baptist University, Houston, Texas. The topic is "From Lesser Lights to Greater: Grace and Literary Traditions." Phillip Donnelly of Baylor University will be the...

The Northeast Regional 2010 Conference.(NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Conference news)(Brief article)
March 22, 2009... The Northeast Regional 2010 Conference will be held on March 5-7, 2010, in Pace University, New York, NY. The topic will be "Christianity and the Detective Story," and the featured speaker will be Ralph McInerny, author of the Father Dowling...