Routledge Revivals: God, Literature and Process Thought

(Originally published in 1981 God, Literature and Process ...)

Originally published in 1981 God, Literature and Process Thought looks at the use of God in writing, as a part of the creative advance, immersed in the processes of reality and affected by events in the world. This edited collection outlines and promotes the novel view that there is much to be gained when those who value the insights of process thought ‘encounter’ the many and varied writers of literature and literary theory. It also celebrates the notion of process poesis, a fresh way of reflecting theologically and philosophically that takes account of literary forms and promises to transform creatively the very structure of process thought today.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1138541893/?tag=2022091-20

2002

Theology After Reading: Christian Imagination and the Power of Fiction

(Theology After Reading explores how recent novelists, alo...)

Theology After Reading explores how recent novelists, alongside certain post-War Christian theologians, appear to be challenging, inverting, reinterpreting, and sometimes even affirming, the basic questions and answers of more traditional theologians. Focusing on five novels, Darren Middleton's book illustrates how literary art provokes theological reflection. Examining Graham Greene's The End of the Affair, Toni Morrison's Sula, Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ, Earl Lovelace's The Wine of Astonishment, and Paul Thigpen's My Visit to Hell, Middleton deftly illuminates the expression of both mainstream and progressive Christian doctrines as themes in these selected works of fiction, ultimately reaffirming the graced search for meaning in the mindful Christian life.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1602581584/?tag=2022091-20

Rastafari and the Arts: An Introduction

(Drawing on literary, musical, and visual representations ...)

Drawing on literary, musical, and visual representations of and by Rastafari, Darren J. N. Middleton provides an introduction to Rasta through the arts, broadly conceived. The religious underpinnings of the Rasta movement are often overshadowed by Rasta’s association with reggae music, dub, and performance poetry. Rastafari and the Arts: An Introduction takes a fresh view of Rasta, considering the relationship between the artistic and religious dimensions of the movement in depth. Middleton’s analysis complements current introductions to Afro-Caribbean religions and offers an engaging example of the role of popular culture in illuminating the beliefs and practices of emerging religions. Recognizing that outsiders as well as insiders have shaped the Rasta movement since its modest beginnings in Jamaica, Middleton includes interviews with members of both groups, including: Ejay Khan, Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, Geoffrey Philp, Asante Amen, Reggae Rajahs, Benjamin Zephaniah, Monica Haim, Blakk Rasta, Rocky Dawuni, and Marvin D. Sterling.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/041583189X/?tag=2022091-20

Approaching Silence: New Perspectives on Shusaku Endo's Classic Novel

(Shusaku Endo is celebrated as one of Japan's great modern...)

Shusaku Endo is celebrated as one of Japan's great modern novelists, often described as "Japan's Graham Greene," and Silence is considered by many Japanese and Western literary critics to be his masterpiece. Approaching Silence is both a celebration of this award-winning novel as well as a significant contribution to the growing body of work on literature and religion. It features eminent scholars writing from Christian, Buddhist, literary, and historical perspectives, taking up, for example, the uneasy alliance between faith and doubt; the complexities of discipleship and martyrdom; the face of Christ; and, the bodhisattva ideal as well as the nature of suffering. It also frames Silence through a wider lens, comparing it to Endo's other works as well as to the fiction of other authors. Approaching Silence promises to deepen academic appreciation for Endo, within and beyond the West. Includes an Afterword by Martin Scorsese on adapting Silence for the screen as well as the full text of Steven Dietz's play adaptation of Endo's novel.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1623569834/?tag=2022091-20

Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years On

(2005 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Nikos Kazantzakis'...)

2005 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ. Since Kazantzakis ranks as one of the twentieth century's most important European writers, and given that this particular work of his has garnered so much publicity, this collection of essays re-assesses the novel, though not forgetting the movie, in light of one half century's worth of criticism and reception history. Clergy and laity alike have denounced this novel. When it first appeared, the Greek Orthodox Church condemned it, the Vatican placed it on its Index of Forbidden Texts, and conservative-evangelicals around the world protested its allegedly blasphemous portrayal of a human, struggling Messiah who "succumbs" to the devil's final snare while on the Cross: the temptation to happiness. Assuredly, the sentiments surrounding this novel, at least in the first thirty years or so, were very strong. When Martin Scorcese decided in the early 1980s to adapt the novel for the silver screen, even stronger feelings were expressed. Even today his works are seldom studied in Greece, largely because the Greek government is unable or unwilling to anthologize his material for the national curriculum. After fifty years, however, the time seems right to re-examine the novel, the man, and the film, locating Kazantzakis and his work within an important debate about the relationship between religion and art (literary and cinematic). Until now a book-length assessment of Kazantzakis' novel, and the film it inspired, has not appeared. No such volume is planned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the novel's publication. For those who work in Kazantzakis studies, a focused anthology like this one is missing from library collections. The volume contains original essays by Martin Scorcese, the film critic Peter Chattaway, and Kazantzakis' translator, Peter A. Bien.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826416071/?tag=2022091-20

Money Power Love: A Novel

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1976365112/?tag=2022091-20

Mother Tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, Non-Western Christianity

(Recognizing that one-third of the world's Christians prac...)

Recognizing that one-third of the world's Christians practice their faith outside Europe and North America, the fourteen essays in Mother Tongue Theologies explore how international fiction depicts Christianity's dramatic movement South and East of Jerusalem as well as North and West. Structured by geographical region, this collection captures the many ways in which people around the globe receive Christianity. It also celebrates postcolonial literature's diversity. And it highlights non-Western authors' biblical literacy, addressing how and why locally rooted Christians invoke Scripture in their pursuit of personal as well as social transformation. Featured authors include Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constantine Cavafy, Scott Cairns, Chinua Achebe, Madam Afua Kuma, Earl Lovelace, V. S. Reid, Ernesto Cardenal, Helena Parente Cunha, Arundhati Roy, Mary Martha Sherwood, Marguerite Butler, R. M. Ballantyne, Rudyard Kipling, Nora Okja Keller, Amy Tan, Albert Wendt, and Louise Erdrich. Individual essayists rightly come to different conclusions about Christianity's global character. Some connect missionary work with colonialism as well as cultural imperialism, for example, and yet others accentuate how indigenous cultures amalgamate with Christianity's foreignness to produce mesmerizing, multiple identities. Differences notwithstanding, Mother Tongue Theologies delves into the moral and spiritual issues that arise out of the cut and thrust of native responses to Western Christian presence and pressure. Ultimately, this anthology suggests the reward of listening for and to such responses, particularly in literary art, will be a wider and deeper discernment of the merits and demerits of post-Western Christianity, especially for Christians living in the so-called post-Christian West.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556359659/?tag=2022091-20

Dangerous Edges of Graham Greene: Journeys with Saints and Sinners

(The first volume to be authorized by the Graham Greene Bi...)

The first volume to be authorized by the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust, Dangerous Edges of Graham Greene brings together writers, journalists and scholars to investigate as well as to assess Greene's prolific oeuvre and intense personal interests. Here the reader may explore everything from Greene's Vienna at the time of the filming of The Third Man to his sometimes fraught relationship with Evelyn Waugh, from Greene's unconventional fictional treatment of women to his "believing skepticism 'While Greene often informed friends that 'a ruling passion gives to a shelf of novels the unity of a system' critics of his literary art have found it extraordinarily difficult to define the content of this 'ruling passion' Perhaps this is because Greene's own character seems so paradoxical, ironic even. Moreover, in believing that sin contains within itself the seeds of saintliness, he consistently loiters on what Robert Browning calls 'the dangerous edge of things' In exploring this 'dangerous edge' this book covers the full breadth of Greene's life and literary career.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1441164162/?tag=2022091-20

Broken Hallelujah: Nikos Kazantzakis and Christian Theology

(Broken Hallelujah offers a unique perspective on one of t...)

Broken Hallelujah offers a unique perspective on one of the most prolific and celebrated twentieth-century European writers, Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957). Marking the fiftieth anniversary of Kazantzakis's death, author Darren J. N. Middleton looks back on Kazantzakis's life and literary art to suggest that, contrary to popular belief, Kazantzakis and his views actually comport with the ideals of Christianity. As a theologian and ordained Baptist minister, Middleton approaches Kazantzakisas as a broadly sympathetic spiritual seeker rather than the traditional religious villain as he is routinely portrayed. Based on archival work conducted at the Kazantzakis library in Iraklion and at various monasteries on Athos, Middleton finds important connections between Kazantzakis's work and key themes in Eastern Orthodox theology, especially the "hesychastic" and "apophatic" traditions. This book advances modern Greek studies as well as general theological studies by acknowledging and celebrating Kazantzakis's clear if admittedly uneasy alliance with Christianity. Broken Hallelujah is a fascinating text that will interest scholars in Christianity and Literature studies, as well as those thinking through the faith in this era.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739119273/?tag=2022091-20