literature
Christians should read books
Jessica Hooten Wilson helps us to see reading as a form of holy play.
On the path to holiness with Dostoevsky
Paul Contino offers a hope-filled reading of The Brothers Karamazov.
Jonathan Franzen writes a family that feels familiar
In Crossroads, a troubled associate pastor faces his deepest desires and doubts.
The voice of God in Malamud, O’Connor, Updike, and Morrison
Peter C. Brown’s project is urgent and personal.
Dorothy Sayers and her equally fascinating friends
How they engaged culture in troubling times
Toni Morrison writes about race, religion, and her own fiction
Our language isn’t neutral. It has history embedded within it.
Essential reading: Fiction
We asked some of our favorite novelists and poets to tell us about three recent works of fiction that speak to them in a deep way.
Toni Morrison on the invention of the stranger
Morrison examines how Western authors define their culture by estranging others.
Flannery O'Connor's demonic characters bear witness to Christ
If O'Connor's stories are shocking, that's only because the gospel is, too.
What I learned from a year of fiction
Like a lot of my preacher friends, I typically read nonfiction, theology, and fiction classics. So, it was a little different for me to delve into the world of hot-off-the-press page-turners. I did it for a year. This is what I learned.
Saved by fiction: Reading as a Christian practice
Reading fiction has done more to baptize my imagination, inform my faith and strengthen my courage than any prayer technique has.
Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
The title of Nathaniel Philbrick’s slim new meditation foregrounds the questions at the heart of every assignment made by every English teacher: Why read this book? Or that book? For that matter, why do we assign reading in the first place?