Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief - Softcover

Pearce, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586171593 ISBN 13: 9781586171599

Publisher: Ignatius Press, 2006

Synopsis

The 20th century has been marked both by belief and unbelief. While attendance at church has declined dramatically, the lives of many leaders have been influenced and inspired by Christianity. Joseph Pearce explores the world of some writers in the English language who have believed. Most of those included converted to Roman Catholicism and some to Anglicanism. The list includes Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, T.S. Eliot and J.R.R. Tolkien.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph Pearce is the author of WISDOM AND INNOCENCE, a biography of GK Chesterton (Hodder), TOLKIEN: MAN AND MYTH (HarperCollins), TOLKIEN: A CELEBRATION (HarperCollins) and SOLZHENITSYN: A SOUL IN EXILE (HarperCollins).

From Publishers Weekly

This erudite book vividly contrasts the faith that marked the lives of many of Great Britain's more prominent writers of the 20th century with the unbelief that, the author believes, largely marked their times. Many of the book's "converts" began life as Anglicans and then converted to Roman Catholicism, though some, such as C.S. Lewis and T.S. Eliot, remained with the Church of England. Pearce is at his best when he situates writers within the frameworks of a changing Church and a changing world. For example, he claims that the Catholic Church's move away from the Latin mass hastened the emotional deterioration that directly preceded Evelyn Waugh's death. Pearce suggests that because of communist attacks on Catholics in Spain, Scottish poet Roy Campbell supported Franco and was somewhat sympathetic to Nazism. In discussing the post-World War II era, Pearce loses some of his focus: too many minor figures, including Ronald Knox and novelist Robert Hugh Benson, crowd the stage and detract from his more compelling descriptions of such deeply influential authors as G.K. Chesterton, Waugh, Eliot and Graham Greene. Despite its flaws, this volume nonetheless will edify and absorb the reader. (Mar.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1586171593
• ISBN 13: 9781586171599
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 464