John Updike and Religion: The Sense of the Sacred and the Motions of Grace - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802838731 ISBN 13: 9780802838735

Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co, 1999

Synopsis

"This book is the first to take an in-depth look at the religious vision of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike. In his very first piece of autobiography, first published in 1962 and later titled "The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood," Updike characterized religion as one of "the three great secret things" in human experience, the others being sex and art. Since then his literary production of more than fifty books in four main genres - novels, short stories, poetry, and critical essays - has consistently and insightfully explored a wide range of religious issues. The essays collected here evaluate the religious dimension of Updike's prodigious literary vision, looking broadly at Updike's understanding of religion in ordinary human experience, in the context of historic Christianity, and in contemporary American culture."--BOOK JACKET.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Yerkes, professor of religion and philosophy at Moravian College, edits this eminently readable collection of essays exploring the religious dimensions of Updike's work and vision. Authored by an interdisciplinary group, the collection benefits by avoiding both excessively technical and tendentiously "churchy" language. As insightful as it is with respect to Updike's writing, it also effectively uses Updike as a lens, creatively bringing into focus American democracy, civil religion and the Protestant tradition with which Updike converses. The 15 essays fall under three sections: "Updike and the Religious Dimension," "Updike and the Christian Religion" and "Updike and American Religion." The book is noteworthy not only for its interdisciplinary approach but, as Yerkes himself points out, for the time it spends on writings regarded by establishment critics to be among Updike's worst. The anthology opens with a poem and an essay by Updike himself and closes with a useful bibliography, including Internet sources on Updike's work. For readers who have never explored Updike, these essays serve as a provocative invitation to do so. Readers who have already engaged Updike in depth will find in these pages a rich and critical conversation, revealing Updike's intricate vision of religion and human experience. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0802838731
• ISBN 13: 9780802838735
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 290
• Editor: Yerkes James O.