Religion and Literature

Review of The Cambridge Companion to Bunyan

by David Parry

Published in The Glass, 24 (2012), 57-63

Review of Anne Dunan-Page (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Bunyan (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Literature in the Dramatic Anthropology of Hans Urs Von Balthasar

by Christopher Denny

Ph.D. Disseration; The Catholic University of America, 2004.

How could Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88), who pursued his doctoral studies in German literature, become one of the... more How could Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88), who pursued his doctoral studies in German literature, become one of the most renowned theologians of the 20th century? Throughout his writings, Balthasar interpreted literature theologically. This analysis of literature is interwoven with Balthasar’s formulation of a tragic anthropology. Balthasar understands such an anthropology as humanity’s participation in a biblical tragedy written and directed by the trinitarian God of Christian faith, who in Jesus Christ also plays the leading role. The purpose of this dissertation is to explicate, by a historical-critical and literary study of selected pieces of literary criticism by Balthasar, the tragic anthropology of volume one of his work Theodramatik.
Methodologically, this dissertation begins in chapter one by introducing volume one of Theodramatik. Subsequent chapters present the anthropology and literary criticism of Balthasar’s earlier works, tracing how Theodramatik’s tragic anthropology came to maturation. Chapter two outlines Balthasar’s theological anthropology in mid-career, drawing upon Wahrheit der Welt, Theologie der Geschichte, and Glaubhaft ist nur Liebe. Chapter three shows how Das Ganze im Fragment merges anthropology with literary criticism and thus becomes a milestone in his oeuvre by placing anthropology within a literary framework, describing human life as a tragic quest for integration within a Ganze. Chapter four examines the opening volumes of Herrlichkeit, in which Balthasar’s move from an existential “fundamental” anthropology to a “tragic” anthropology becomes apparent, and chapter five demonstrates that Balthasar considers Greek literature to be normative for tragic anthropology, as its works possesses an unparalleled capacity to contextualize human alienation within a literary Ganze.
The conclusions of this dissertation are contained in its final chapter, which returns to the first volume of Theodramatik to indicate how the preceding works shape Balthasar’s mature tragic anthropology. In summary, Balthasar’s tragic anthropology is a unique contribution to theology. By positing a view of the human person as a tragic character in the theatrum mundi, he provides a theological anthropology that remains viable in a post-modern theological context. Moreover, Balthasar’s tragic anthropology is a model for interdisciplinary theological work, as befits a scholar of German literature who turned his labors to theology.

"Which Holy Child? German Romantic Rivals to Balthasar’s Theology of Youth"

by Christopher Denny

"Which Holy Child? German Romantic Rivals to Balthasar’s Theology of Youth." Communio: International Catholic Review 36/4 (Winter 2009): 673-93.

Balthasar's last complete book, his 1988 Unless You Become Like This Child, is more than a meditation on childhood.... more Balthasar's last complete book, his 1988 Unless You Become Like This Child, is more than a meditation on childhood. This work is the summation of Balthasar's entire theological anthropology. The text begins with two mysterious epigrams from the German Romantic poets Novalis and Friedrich Hölderlin. I argue that these mysterious epigrams are coded attacks by Balthasar upon an entire view of childhood that radiates from German idealism, an idealism that protests against the negative evaluation of childhood as mere pre-adulthood. Novalis and Hölderlin, like Balthasar, reject the condescending view of childhood that modernity offers, and Balthasar appreciates the value that both writers place upon children and young people. In the end, however, because neither philosopher-poet ever
broke completely free of the thrall of an absolute idealism and its individualist conception of selfhood, Novalis and Hölderlin proffered a view of childhood that bears only superficial resemblance to that of the gospels.

Greek Tragedies: From Myths to Sacraments?

by Christopher Denny

“Greek Tragedies: From Myths to Sacraments?” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 9/3 (Summer 2006): 45-71.

Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) made the use of the theatrum mundi metaphor central to his... more Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88) made the use of the theatrum mundi metaphor central to his theological endeavor. A one-time graduate student in German literature at the University of Vienna during the 1920s, who later turned his attention to theology, Balthasar also translated and published editions of the plays of Calderón and Claudel through a publishing house that he founded and directed. In his five-volume Theo-Drama (1973-83), Balthasar applies this dramatic perspective to various subfields of Catholic theology, including theological anthropology, Christology, trinitarian theology, and eschatology. Yet even before undertaking this project, Balthasar had examined the specifically Christian implications of ancient Greek tragedy in the fifth volume of his earlier The Glory of the Lord (1961-69). Balthasar’s claim that Greek tragedy provides a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death at Golgotha merits careful examination from both literary and theological perspectives.
This article will undertake this examination from the viewpoint of Christian anthropology, and it will show why Balthasar values Greek tragedy so highly. First, Balthasar credits ancient Greek tragedy with achieving a model of anthropological integration. In other words, the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides create literary worlds within which human beings are brought into harmony with the whole of being, or with what Hegel would later call the Ganze. Second, the Greek tragedians are the acme of ancient literature, in Balthasar’s judgment, because they demonstrate this integration can only come about through suffering and death. In this insistence their worldview mirrors the Christian focus on the centrality of Christ’s passion. This is why Balthasar claims that the myths of Greek tragedy provide a model of the “tragedy of Christ.”
Moving beyond exegesis to a critical evaluation of this project, one can note that Balthasar’s claim that pagan tragedy can serve as a “quasi-sacramental” event in a Christian worldview prompts reconsideration of what qualifies as specifically “Christian” literature. If the myths of classical Greek drama are capable of conveying grace, even in an attenuated form, then the boundaries between the world of Athens and that of Jerusalem need to be reconsidered, and perhaps redrawn.

A little bit of paradise; Allegories of Eden in The Diamond Lens

by Pete Orford

Leeds Centre Working Papers in Victorian Studies, Vol. 12, 2012

In The Diamond Lens Fitz-James O’Brien presents a lost paradise of infinitesimal size that exists within a single drop... more In The Diamond Lens Fitz-James O’Brien presents a lost paradise of infinitesimal size that exists within a single drop of water, in which the perfect woman Animula lives a utopian life unaware of the horrors in the larger world outside her.

After a brief stint writing for the London journals, O’Brien moved to New York where he received great praise for his short stories and gothic tales; The Diamond Lens caused a literary stir on its first publication in 1858 and remains his most famous work. It details how the narrator becomes obsessed with fashioning the perfect microscope, resorting to contact with the dead through a medium, and the betrayal and murder of his friend to obtain the necessary diamond, before then becoming increasingly obsessed with the beautiful creature he discovers within the waterdrop. The story is celebrated today as a pioneering work of science fiction, and in so doing its spiritual nature is overlooked: here is a tale of the pursuit of Eden and the hellish methods one man will stoop to when trying to spy upon heaven.

This paper will explore the contrast of paradise and the real world within the story, linking this back in turn to O'Brien's own religious and moral outlook.

Towards the Centre of the Self by Getting Inside the Belly of the Dragon: Levels of Initiation in Tolkien's Works

by Robert Lazu

A short version of my paper delivered at the Oxford Tolkien Conference "The Lord of the Rings. Sources of Inspiration" organized by Exeter College, Oxford, Monday 21st to Friday 25th August 2006. Published in "Acta Iassyensia Comparationis", 5/2007.

The methodology used in this paper is that of mythologic analysis (or “mythanalysis”). Established and perfected by... more The methodology used in this paper is that of mythologic analysis (or “mythanalysis”). Established and perfected by historians of religions and literary critics, this method allows a
good degree of interdisciplinarity. Thus, fields as far apart as theology, history of religions and comparative literature can be fruitfully brought together, and the topic of religious symbolism (usually associated with creations of classical mythology and the corpus of Jewish and Christian traditions) can be also discussed in terms of a discreet continuity in modern works such as those of J.R.R. Tolkien. The paper focuses on one recurring symbolic theme in Tolkien’s works: the process of
initiation of the hero, who is confronted with the dragon. Analysed before by some important scholars of folklore and historians of religions, such as V.I. Propp, M. Eliade, W. Bölsche, G.E. Smith, A.R. Radcliff-Brown or E.A.W. Budge, the theme of the hero confronting the monster represents one of the key-stones in the process of initiation underwent by each and every hero of Tolkien’s stories: Beren, Aragorn, Gandalf or even
the little hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Following this hermeneutic path does result (in our opinion) into realizing that religious symbolism is a powerful element in Tolkien’s work, indeed.

Images and Symbols in Tolkien's Works. Hell

by Robert Lazu

Published in "Archaeus. Studies in the History of Religions", XI-XII/2007-2008.

By highlighting the profile of hell as a symbol of evil, constantly encountered as such at all levels of human... more By highlighting the profile of hell as a symbol of evil, constantly encountered as such at all levels of human culture, the author’s aim is to reveal its powerful influence on Tolkien’s works. Just like the paradisiacal paradigm, the “archetype” of hell continues to impregnate deeply “the anthropological structures of the imaginary realm” (Gilbert Durand) even in the context of a radically desacralized culture. Although J. R. R. Tolkien did not consciously and programmatically speculate on such symbols, he had possibly hoped for a more specialized appeal to his readers by introducing these symbols in his literary creation. How does one account for the recurrence of so many symbolic hypostases of hell in Tolkien’s works? Tolkien seems to have been partly aware of the symbolism embedded in the structure of the evil fortresses in Middle-earth. However, we should not conclude that he had a premeditated systematic “plan” of including certain symbols in the framework of his fairy tales.

Disinterring The Grave: Religious Authority, Poetic Autonomy and Robert Blair's Fideist Poetics

by Eric Parisot

Scottish Studies Review 8.2 (2007): 24-35.

This paper revisits Robert Blair's The Grave (1743) - an incredibly popular example of 'graveyard poetry' in its day -... more This paper revisits Robert Blair's The Grave (1743) - an incredibly popular example of 'graveyard poetry' in its day - to present the poem as a fractured expression of his Calvinist and fideist sympathies, and to read the inherent tensions that surface in the poet's attempt to translate religious authority into poetic autonomy.

The Holy Family from Outer Space: Reconsidering Philip K. Dick's The Divine Invasion

by Umberto Rossi

Published in Extrapolation, Vol. 52, n. 2, July 2011, pp. 153-173

Uri Zvi Before the Cross: The Figure of Jesus in the Poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg

by Neta Stahl

Religion & Literature Vol. 40.3 (2008), 49-80.

Trophies and Leverets: Satire and War in French Renaissance Literature

by Pamela Claxton Moffatt

Exil som självförglömmelse. Om Lévinas, Celan och rörelsen mot den andre

by Jayne Svenungsson

Published in Aiolos, 30-31 (2007), 111–116.

Det behornade ansiktet

by Daniel Abrahamsson

Degree thesis for BA in History of Religions, 2011

The aim of this study was to analyze the transtextual relationship between Hjalmar Söderberg's Jahves eld (The Fire of... more The aim of this study was to analyze the transtextual relationship between Hjalmar Söderberg's Jahves eld (The Fire of Yahweh, 1918) and the Book of Exodus. A limitation was set to just focus on the theme regarding the horned face of Moses, which Söderberg extensively discussed in his book, both through narrative and commentary. The methodological and theoretical approach could best be described as a qualitative text analysis where Gérard Genette's model of five types of transtextual relationships (intertextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality, architextuality and hypertextuality) was used in order to systematically classify the various relationships and in a thorough way relate the texts to each other.
The analysis shows that the transtextual relationships are many and varied, and some appears to be more relevant to the study than others. Due to the composition of Jahves eld, its first part (”I österland, i fjärran tid”, most easily described as a paraphrase and pastiche of the Book of Exodus) can be identified as a hypertext to the Book of Exodus, while the second part (”Markels försvar”) is rather a metatext to both the first part and the Book of Exodus. The third and final part of Jahves eld is a metatext to the other two parts as well as to the biblical text. The most relevant and interesting type of transtextual relationship, within this study, has proven to be intertextuality. On the topic of the horned face of Moses, Söderberg frequently reference the Book of Exodus through quotes or allusions, but also by paraphrasing the biblical stories in order to fit his historical-critical purpose. Jahves eld appears to have been written with the aim of reconstructing the narrative of the Book of Exodus in a way that previous mistakes and misinterpretations by theologians, according to Söderberg, are being recognized. This includes the theme of the horned face of Moses.

The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? By Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank, Edited by Creston Davis.

by Maria Soultouki

Anatheism: Returning to God after God. By Richard Kearney.

by Maria Soultouki

"Ye Hearers, Take it of Worth": Participatory Mimesis in Everyman

by Matthew Josiah Miller

Undergraduate publication

Review of Henry Miller and Religion (–By Thomas Nesbit)

by Christine Hoff Kraemer

Religious Studies Review 34:4 (Dec 2008): 284.

ARTICLE: Valis and Modern Gnosis

by Philip Tite

Religiologiques 16 (1997): 135-143.

Gnosticism typically has been studied in its classical - ancient - forms. Modern religious sensibilities, however,... more Gnosticism typically has been studied in its classical - ancient - forms. Modern religious sensibilities, however, include an appropriation by various groups and individuals of what is understood as Gnostic generally. Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices (1945), and the popularity of C. G. Jung's writings, have encouraged such religious appropriation. Considers a modern author's literary expression of Gnosticism. Philip K. Dick's novel Valis - somewhat of a spiritual autobiography - connects Dick's own spiritual self-understanding to Gnosticism. Looks at how Dick's novel expresses this motif primarily through literary articulations of dualism and character development that run throughout the novel.


[Abstract from Religious & Theological Abstracts]

The Theme of Temptation in Milton

by Susheel Sharma

Susheel Kumar Sharma, The Theme of Temptation in Milton (ISBN: 81-7076-058-7, 1996, Delhi: Intellectual Publishing House), Rs. 200/-

Larkin and the Mundane: Mystic without a Mystery

by Ian Almond

Published in James Booth (ed), New Larkins for Old: Critical Essays (Macmillan, 1999)