Deep Splendor : A Study of Spirituality in Modern Literature.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vande Kappelle, Robert P.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spirituality in literature.

Religion and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (228 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Eugene : Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2021.

Summary:

People concerned with spirituality are seekers; instead of possessing truth, they seek to be possessed by it. Thus, a fully spiritual person is forever learning and growing. William Blake, the seminal mystic poet who worked to bring about change both in the social order and in common ways of thinking, taught that "all we need to do is cleanse the doors of perception, and we shall see things as they are--infinite." And nothing cleanses--and enlarges--the doors of perception like great literature. Whether it be poetry, a short story, a novel, historical fiction, fantasy literature, or biographical writing, the literary experience is slightly beyond a reader's horizon of understanding. When literature enhances spirituality--as is true of the dozen or more selections examined in Deep Splendor--each literary moment confounds in order to keep us forever enthralled, forever longing. The authors and works examined in this study explore timeless spiritual themes such as coming of age, relationships, self-integration, the struggle of good versus evil, the nature of change, and the corruptive aspects of power.When we think about great literature, it is easy to focus objectively on the literature itself, on what makes literature "bad" or "good." However, another essential distinction involves the reader, replacing the category "good book" with that of "good reader." As master teacher C.S. Lewis wrote, a quality of good readers is that they seek an enlargement of their being. Deep Splendor will teach you how to read great literature and how to be a good reader.

Contents:

Title Page

Preface

Chapter 1: James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Chapter 2: Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon

Chapter 3: Evangeline Walton’s The Mabinogion Tetralogy

Chapter 4: T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

Chapter 5: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Chapter 6: J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Chapter 7: J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Heptalogy

Chapter 8: C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce

Chapter 9: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables

Chapter 10: Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick

Chapter 11: Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground

Chapter 12: D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow

Chapter 13: Hermann Hesse’s Demian

Appendix: Miguel de Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, Martyr

Bibliography Generated by AI.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

9781666794441

1666794449

OCLC:

1288318926