Overview
George Eliot's Religious Imagination addresses the much-discussed question of Eliot’s relation to Christianity in the wake of the sociocultural revolution triggered by the spread of theories of evolution. The standard view is that the author of Middlemarch and Silas Marner “lost her faith” at this time of religious crisis. Orr argues for a more nuanced understanding of the continuity of Eliot’s work, as one not shattered by science, but shaped by its influence. Orr’s wide-ranging and fascinating analysis situates George Eliot in the fertile intellectual landscape of the nineteenth century, among thinkers as diverse as Ludwig Feuerbach, David Strauss, and Søren Kierkegaard. She also argues for a connection between George Eliot and the twentieth-century evolutionary Christian thinker Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Her analysis draws on the work of contemporary philosopher Richard Kearney as well as writers on mysticism, particularly Karl Rahner. The book takes an original look at questions many believe settled, encouraging readers to revisit George Eliot’s work. Orr illuminates the creative tension that still exists between science and religion, a tension made fruitful through the exercise of the imagination. Through close readings of Eliot's writings, Orr demonstrates how deeply the novelist's religious imagination continued to operate in her fiction and poetry.
Full Product Details
Author: Marilyn Orr
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Imprint: Northwestern University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.20cm
, Length: 22.60cm
Weight: 0.260kg
ISBN: 9780810135888
ISBN 10: 0810135884
Pages: 168
Publication Date: 30 January 2018
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
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Reviews
"""Marilyn Orr is one of the few literary scholars to address so directly the religious themes in George Eliot's fiction. Orr's intellectual range is impressive and offers a unique contribution to George Eliot scholarship."" --Peter Crafts Hodgson, author of The Mystery Beneath the Real: Theology in the Fiction of George Eliot ""Recommended."" --CHOICE Reviews"
Recommended. --CHOICE Reviews Marilyn Orr is one of the few literary scholars to address so directly the religious themes in George Eliot's fiction. Orr's intellectual range is impressive and offers a unique contribution to George Eliot scholarship. --Peter Crafts Hodgson, author of The Mystery Beneath the Real: Theology in the Fiction of George Eliot
Author Information
MARILYN ORR is professor emerita of English at Laurentian University in Ontario.
