The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion

This unique and comprehensive volume looks at the study of literature and religion from a contemporary, critical perspective. Including discussion of global literature and world religions, this Companion looks at: key moments in the story of religion and literary studies from Matthew Arnold through to the impact of 9/11; avariety of theoretical approaches to the study of religion and literature; different ways that religion and literature are connected, from overtly religious writing to subtle religious readings; analysis of key sacred texts and the way they have been studied, re-written, and questioned by literature; political implications of work on religion and literature. Thoroughly introduced and contextualized, this volume is an engaging introduction to this huge and complex field.

Introduction Religion, Literature, and the Art of Conversation Mark Knight Part I THE MODERN STORY OF LITERATURE AND RELIGION 1 The Inward Turn: The Role of Matthew Arnold, Joshua King 2 Religion and the Rise of English Studies Dayton Haskin 3 Modernism and Religion Anthony Domestico 4 The Influence and Limits of the Inklings Trevor Hart 5 Modern Debates: Christianity and Literature, Literature and Theology and Religion and Literature Matthias Bauer and Angelika Zirker 6 9/11 and its Literary-Religious Aftermaths Mark Eaton 7 The Return to Religion: Secularization and its Discontents Devorah Baum Part II THEORY 8 Postsecular Studies Lori Branch 9 The Importance of Philosophical Hermeneutics for Literature and Religion Jens Zimmermann 10 Reception Duc Dau 11 Political Theology Jared Hickman 12 Phenomenology Kevin Hart 13 Paul Among the Theorists: A Genealogy of the New Universalism William Franke 14 The Aesthetics of Simplicity Jo Carruthers Part III FORM AND GENRE 15 Theological Writing: How to Write a Theological Sentence Stanley Hauerwas 16 Rue Saint-Augustin: The Remembering of God John Schad 17 Epic Peter S. Hawkins 18 Religion and Literary Tragedy: King Lear and the Problem of Evil, Ben Saunders 19 Wes Anderson’s Messianic Elegies Emma Mason 20 Comedy, Levity and Laughter: Parables of Agape Gavin Hopps 21 Gothic Fiction and "belief in every kind of prodigy" Deidre Shauna Lynch 22 The Bible and the Realist Novel Jan-Melissa Schramm Part IV THE LITERARY AFTERLIVES OF SACRED TEXTS AND TRADITIONS 23 Hosting the Divine Logos: Radical Hospitality and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment Valentina Izmirlieva 24 "Found in Every Room": Victorian Devotional Literature Krista Lysack 25 The Bhagavad Gita in American Transcendentalism Alan Hodder 26 The "Problem" of Buddhism for Western Literature: Edwin Arnold to Jack Kerouac James Najarian 27 Midrash in Twentieth Century Jewish American Literature Lesleigh Cushing Stahlberg 28 The Challenges of Re-writing Sacred Texts: The Case of Twenty-First Century Gospel Narratives Andrew Tate 29 The Authority of Sacred Texts in Science Fiction James H. Thrall 30 Apocalyptic Narration: The Qur’an in Contemporary Arabic Fiction Ziad Elmarsafy Part V THE POLITICS OF LITERATURE AND RELIGION 31 Judaism and National Identity in Medieval England Samantha Zacher 32 Hospitality as a Virtue in The Winter’s Tale John D. Cox 33 "Oh, let that last will stand!": Reading Religion in Donne’s Holy Sonnets Susannah Brietz Monta 34 The Life of a Christian Saint: The Biography of Fannie McCray, Born and Raised A Slave Yolanda Pierce 35 Religious Pluralism and the Beats Luke Ferretter 36 From Roshi to Rashi: Leonard Cohen’s Interfaith Dialogue Peter Jaeger 37 Reconciliation in South Africa: World Literature, Global Christianity, Global Capital Colin Jager 38 Imagining Islamism: Representations of Fundamentalism in the Twenty-First Century Arabic Novel Arthur Bradley & Abir Hamdar

Mark Knight is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University, UK.