The Sacred Desert: Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture

Jasper, David

ISBN 10: 1405119748 ISBN 13: 9781405119740

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004

Synopsis

The Sacred Desert is a reflection on the role of the desert in theology, history, literature, art and film.

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• An original reflection on the role of the desert in theology, history, literature, art and film.
  
• Discusses figures as diverse as Jesus, the early Christian Desert Fathers, T.E. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Georgia O’Keeffe, Wim Wenders and Jim Crace.
  
• Makes connections across millennia of desert literature.
  
• Deepens the reader’s understanding of the desert as a real place, as an interior space, and as a textual site,
  
• Concludes with comments on the recent conflicts in Iraq.
  
• Written in a readable and engaging style.

About this title

About the Author

David Jasper is Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Glasgow, and was the founding editor of the journal, Literature and Theology. He is the author of The Sacred and Secular Canon in Romanticism (1999) and co-editor of The Bible and Literature: A Reader (edited with Stephen Prickett, Blackwell Publishing, 1999) and Religion and Literature: A Reader (edited with Robert Detweiler, 2000).

From the Back Cover

The Sacred Desert is a fascinating and original work, which reflects on the role of the desert in theology, history, literature, art and film.

Engaging with figures as diverse as Jesus, the early Christian Desert Fathers, William Blake, T.E. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Georgia O’Keeffe, Wim Wenders, Bill Viola, and Jim Crace, author David Jasper explores deserts as real places, as interior spaces and as they feature in numerous texts. He makes connections across millennia of desert texts, meditating on the mystical, religious and theological meanings that emerge. Underlying these interdisciplinary wanderings in the wasteland is the author’s quest for a new form of religious thought and language. Lively and lucid, this outstanding work stretches from the Bible – perhaps still the greatest of our desert texts – through to contemporary experiences of the desert. It is truly an original work of theology, and a captivating journey through the history of religion.

Engaging with figures as diverse as Jesus, the early Christian Desert Fathers, William Blake, T.E. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Georgia O’Keeffe, Wim Wenders, Bill Viola, and Jim Crace, author David Jasper explores deserts as real places, as interior spaces and as they feature in numerous texts. He makes connections across millennia of desert texts, meditating on the mystical, religious and theological meanings that emerge. Underlying these interdisciplinary wanderings in the wasteland is the author’s quest for a new form of religious thought and language. Lively and lucid, this outstanding work stretches from the Bible – perhaps still the greatest of our desert texts – through to contemporary experiences of the desert. It is truly an original work of theology, and a captivating journey through the history of religion.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1405119748
• ISBN 13: 9781405119740
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232