This writing intends to rouse would-be believers to faith--or enhance the faith of others--through the adventure of modern fiction. While taking note of the secularity of our era, the author insists the Spirit of God has not departed the scene. The opening poem by Emily Dickinson, ""Tell all the truth but tell it slant,"" proposes the author's contention that the ""indirect discourse"" of fictional writers may welcome readers to faith's door in ways sermonic speech never did. The modern authors chosen for this purpose are Izak Dinesen, Annie Dillard, Kent Haruf, Loren Eiseley, Gary Trudeau, Garrison Keillor, William Golding, Walker Percy, Frederick Buechner, and Gabriel Marcel. Having explained one work each by these noted authors, the book closes by pointing to ways in which embedded faith may rise out of these pages to meet the reader where he or she lives.
This writing intends to rouse would-be believers to faith--or enhance the faith of others--through the adventure of modern fiction. While taking note of the secularity of our era, the author insists the Spirit of God has not departed the scene. The opening poem by Emily Dickinson, ""Tell all the truth but tell it slant,"" proposes the author's contention that the ""indirect discourse"" of fictional writers may welcome readers to faith's door in ways sermonic speech never did. The modern authors chosen for this purpose are Izak Dinesen, Annie Dillard, Kent Haruf, Loren Eiseley, Gary Trudeau, Garrison Keillor, William Golding, Walker Percy, Frederick Buechner, and Gabriel Marcel. Having explained one work each by these noted authors, the book closes by pointing to ways in which embedded faith may rise out of these pages to meet the reader where he or she lives.
David B. Bowman is the author of two autobiographical books: Saints Along the Way (2015) and Parish, the Thought (2018). He holds a PhD from Glasgow University (Scotland) and has provided ordained ministry for over four decades. Bowman is married to Dianne. They live in Saratoga, California.
"With elegance and erudition, Bowman elaborates on Emily
Dickinson's famous maxim for artists to tell the truth but 'tell it
slant.' His novel contribution is to explore this strategy
theologically, finding in a wealth of modern writers the indirect
workings of faith. In so doing, Bowman not only offers original
readings of fiction but supplies a theological perspective for late
modernity where faithful speech may be best encountered indirectly
and through hidden, broken places."
--Charles Andrews, Whitworth University
"A profoundly deep, heart-penetrating, magnificently written, and
spiritually courageous exploration of the intrinsic relationship
between certain religiously crucial types of literature and their
essential capacity of implicitly and indirectly conveying
powerfully inviting and felt hints and glimpses of those shards of
Light that are continually penetrating the otherwise
all-encompassing darkness of our human condition."
--Russell Pannier, William Mitchell College of Law
"Surely even our increasingly utilitarian culture in its frenetic
search for satisfaction includes many reflective people who have
rejected the simplistic banalities of so much 'religion, ' . . .
who will find food for thought in these chapters."
--Thomas A. Noble, Nazarene Theological Seminary
"Always a close study, David Bowman does an excellent job of
sifting through some of our most important modern fiction."
--Armand E. Larive, author of After Sunday: A Theology of Work
"St. Augustine wrote, 'You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and
our hearts are restless until they rest in you.' David Bowman
discusses ten modern writers whose characters display such restless
hearts. This is a book concerned with the intersection of
literature, philosophy, and theology. . . . It is a humane book, in
that it presents people in all their humanity. It is by an author
steeped in the Christian tradition, but anyone open to the
possibility of spiritual experience will find it rewarding. It is a
kind of book too little seen these days: a contribution to the
conversation about the meaning of human existence."
--William J. Prior, Santa Clara University
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