The Calvinist Roots of the Modern Era

Multidisciplinary views of Calvinism's dynamic, diverse, and persistent influence on modern American literature and thought.

Many of America's philosophical, social, and religious traditions are founded upon Calvinist beliefs, and that heritage inevitably permeates our literature, too. While the debt of 18th- and 19th-century writers to Calvinism as theological doctrine and secular ideology has already been well documented, this collection of essays traces Calvinism's presence in 20th-century literature and demonstrates its impact as psychological construct, cultural institution, and socio-political model. From Pound to Faulkner, Eliot to Wharton, modern American poets, novelists, and film-makers of different religious, ethnic, and regional backgrounds have breathed in the Calvinist atmosphere. With fresh illuminations of the works of Marianne Moore, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Elizabeth Bishop, Kate Chopin, and others, this book cuts across disciplines, periods, and genres to examine the presence of such Calvinist concepts as election, conversion experiences, duty, sexual repression, and apocalypse. The editors conclude that, rather than being a monolithic force, Calvinism has "instead been dynamic, as different writers redefine and restructure it to fit their purposes and beliefs."

Aliki Barnstone is Assistant Professor of English at Bucknell University. Michael Tomasek Manson is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Carol J. Singley is Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ.