Reviews for Faith in fiction

The average rating for Faith in fiction based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-09 00:00:00 Daniel Dirusso This book describes the marrying of fiction and faith and how that relationship developed in 19th century America. Ultimately, novelists like Charles Sheldon (In His Steps)discovered fiction was a pleasing package for their religious views after years of seeing fiction as separate and off-limits for religious themes. The author argues that 1785-1850 was a transitional period of central importance in American history that was marked by the "death" of theology in favor of religion. Reynolds also believes the religious novel represents the shift away from Puritan ideals and rigid standards to a "religion of hope" and contrasts with the rhetoric of Jonathan Edwards. The authors of these books had to be entertaining while remaining respectful. Before the Revolution it was taboo to tamper with, heap excessive praise on, or sentimentalize the Bible because it needed no improvement. Several factors changed this: decline of Calvinist doctrine, the rise of Arianism, attacks on the Bible from secularists. Biblical fiction provided a creative outlet for believers in human dignity, a short cut for historians, a solace for baffled theorists, and a diversion for bored Bible readers (130). While Protestants used the medium for sentimentality, Catholics used it to attach Protestant divisiveness, theological evansion, and lack of knowledge. Beyond entertainment, religious fiction became affirming for the faithful (e.g. Ben Hur) and a form of solace from the world's woes.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-21 00:00:00 John Thompson Read the first couple of chapters as preliminary research for my Honours Project before deciding to focus on literature of the 20th century. Interesting, but rather dry and the descriptions of the entire plot of each novel can get rather tedious after a while. Useful if you need extensive details of literature from this time period, and I'm honestly quite surprised that my university library is in possession of this book, considering that it is rather an obscure subject, at least in the UK where religious literature isn't a topic much talked about or studied.