Circuitous journeys : modern spiritual autobiography / David J. Leigh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leigh, David J.

Series:

Studies in religion and literature (Fordham University Press) ; no. 2.

Studies in religion and literature, 1096-6692 ; no. 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Autobiography--Religious aspects.

Autobiography.

Spiritual biography--History and criticism.

Spiritual biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Circuitous Journeys: Modern Spiritual Autobiography provides a close reading and analysis of ten major life stories by twentieth-century leaders and thinkers from a variety of religious and cultural traditions: Mohandas Gandhi, Black Elk, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, C. S. Lewis, Malcolm X, Paul Cowan, Rigoberta Menchu, Dan Wakefield, and Nelson Mandela. The book uses approaches from literary criticism, developmental psychology (influenced by Erik Erikson, James Fowler, and Carol Gilligan), and spirituality (influenced by John S. Donne, Emile Griffin, Walter Conn, and Bernard Lonergan). Each text is read in the light of the autobiographical tradition begun by St. Augustine’s Confessions, but with a focus on distinctively modern and post-modern transformations of the self-writing genre. The twentieth-century context of religious alienation, social autonomy, identity crises and politics, and the search for social justice is examined in each text.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

1. Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain

2. Dorothy Day's The Long Loneliness

3. The Psychology of Conversion in G. K. Chesteron and C. S. Lewis

4. The Dual Plot of Gandhi's An Autobiography

5. Malcolm X and the Black Muslim Search for the Ultimate

6. Black Elk Speaks: A Century Later

7. The Remaking of an American Jew: Paul Cowan's An Orphan in History

8. I, Rigoberta Menchu: The Plotting of Liberation

9. Dan Wakefield's Returning

10. Retraveling the Century: Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom

Conclusion

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

978058541680X

9786612698576

9780823246724

0823246728

9781282698574

1282698575

9780823237456

0823237451

9780823219957

082321995X

9780585416809

058541680X

OCLC:

727645693