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Publication Date: 20 Sep 2018 |
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Publisher: SPCK Publishing |
Page Count: 352 |
Author: Richard Harries |
ISBN-13: 9780281079339, 9780281079346, 9780281079353, 9780281081462 |
Haunted by Christ
In this enormously engaging book, Richard Harries shares with us his reading of many of the great writers of modernity, inviting us to attend with him to their wrestling with the hardest questions of human existence before God – and sometimes before the apparent absence of God. These are enriching and provoking reflections, testimony to the way that the Christian gospel continues to be a vehicle for the most serious thinking and imagining in our culture.
A compelling narrative of the modern quest for meaning and the expression, in literature, of our age’s deep wrestling with faith.
Richard Harries sweeps through writers from Dostoevsky to Marilynne Robinson, including Emily Dickinson, Samuel Beckett and Evelyn Waugh – and points out how their Christianity was sometimes submerged and often neglected by critics and readers. This book rightly and authoritatively, without beating the drum, resurrects the profound spiritual tradition of Christianity over a century that often claimed to have stamped it out. Here, see it alive and well, subtly and with fine scholarship unveiled.
This is a rich and important book. I hugely enjoyed it.
Richard Harries considers the work of twenty of these writers, painting vivid pictures of their lives and times. He also provides numerous critically sympathetic insights into the spiritual dimension of their writings.
The result is a book for readers of all religious persuasions, especially those who are fascinated by the ways in which faith is refracted through the lens of great poetry and fiction.
Also by Richard Harries:
The Beauty and the Horror (SPCK, 2016)
‘A major new defence of Christianity that does not flinch from asking difficult questions about the kind of God who could have created our world.’
The Bookseller
‘A heartening book, confronting the hardest questions with wide knowledge and deep wisdom.’
John Carey, Chief Literary Reviewer, Sunday Times
‘An eloquent, honest and engaging case for Christian faith.’
The Tablet
‘A deeply interesting book.’
Mary Warnock