Overview
W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, William Golding, Elizabeth Jennings, C. S. Lewis, Flannery O'Connor, Stevie Smith . . . These are some of the great poets and novelists whose struggles with faith find expression in their works, and who demonstrate the fascinatingly different forms that faith can take in different times and places. Richard Harries considers the work of twenty of these writers, painting vivid pictures of their lives and times. He also provides numerous critically sympathetic insights into the spiritual dimension of their writings. The result is a book for readers of all religious persuasions, especially those who are fascinated by the ways in which faith is refracted through the lens of great poetry and fiction. Also by Richard Harries: The Beauty and the Horror (SPCK, 2016) 'A major new defence of Christianity that does not flinch from asking difficult questions about the kind of God who could have created our world.' The Bookseller 'A heartening book, confronting the hardest questions with wide knowledge and deep wisdom.' John Carey, Chief Literary Reviewer, Sunday Times 'An eloquent, honest and engaging case for Christian faith.' The Tablet 'A deeply interesting book.' Mary Warnock
Full Product Details
Author: Richard Harries
Publisher: SPCK Publishing
Imprint: SPCK Publishing
ISBN: 9780281079339
ISBN 10: 0281079331
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 20 September 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Reviews
In this enormously engaging book, Richard Harries shares with us his reading of many of the great writers of modernity, inviting us to attend with him to their wrestling with the hardest questions of human existence before God – and sometimes before the apparent absence of God. These are enriching and provoking reflections, testimony to the way that the Christian gospel continues to be a vehicle for the most serious thinking and imagining in our culture. * Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge * A compelling narrative of the modern quest for meaning and the expression, in literature, of our age’s deep wrestling with faith. * Jane Shaw, Principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford * Richard Harries sweeps through writers from Dostoevsky to Marilynne Robinson, including Emily Dickinson, Samuel Beckett and Evelyn Waugh – and points out how their Christianity was sometimes submerged and often neglected by critics and readers. This book rightly and authoritatively, without beating the drum, resurrects the profound spiritual tradition of Christianity over a century that often claimed to have stamped it out. Here, see it alive and well, subtly and with fine scholarship unveiled. This is a rich and important book. I hugely enjoyed it. * Melvyn Bragg, writer and broadcaster *
In this enormously engaging book, Richard Harries shares with us his reading of many of the great writers of modernity, inviting us to attend with him to their wrestling with the hardest questions of human existence before God - and sometimes before the apparent absence of God. These are enriching and provoking reflections, testimony to the way that the Christian gospel continues to be a vehicle for the most serious thinking and imagining in our culture. * Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge * A compelling narrative of the modern quest for meaning and the expression, in literature, of our age's deep wrestling with faith. * Jane Shaw, Principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford * Richard Harries sweeps through writers from Dostoevsky to Marilynne Robinson, including Emily Dickinson, Samuel Beckett and Evelyn Waugh - and points out how their Christianity was sometimes submerged and often neglected by critics and readers. This book rightly and authoritatively, without beating the drum, resurrects the profound spiritual tradition of Christianity over a century that often claimed to have stamped it out. Here, see it alive and well, subtly and with fine scholarship unveiled. This is a rich and important book. I hugely enjoyed it. * Melvyn Bragg, writer and broadcaster *
Author Information
Richard Harries is both a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. After nineteen years as Bishop of Oxford he was made a Life Peer (Lord Harries of Pentregarth) and he remains active in the House of Lords on human rights issue. He is Emeritus Gresham Professor of Divinity and a Visiting Professor of Theology at King's College, London, where he was formerly Dean. His voice is well known to many through his regular contributions to the Today programme. Among his many highly commended books are The Beauty and the Horror (SPCK. 2016), described by Mary Warnock as 'a deeply interesting book', The Re-enchantment of Morality (SPCK, 2008), shortlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize, and Art and the Beauty of God (Continuum, 1993), selected as book of the year by Anthony Burgess in The Observer.
