Christian literature

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The Heliand , one of the most important testimonies of the early written German language, recounts the life of Jesus Christ . In the picture a fragment, approx. 850.

Christian literature is that fictional and non-fictional literature that is based on the Christian worldview and in which Christian topics are treated. Since Western literature was largely created on a Christian basis, Christian literature only gained its more solid shape as a counter-movement to the atheistic currents of the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The corpus of Christian literature is extremely extensive and encompasses a considerable range of forms and contents.

The Holy Scriptures

Since Luther at the latest, in view of the linguistic power of its pictorial speech , the Bible is no longer just a canonical script, i.e. a standard for the practice of religion, but also as literature. The King James Bible (1611) is one of the Bible translations whose literary quality is traditionally particularly valued ; it is considered a masterpiece of English literature .

Christian poetry

The Christian epigrams by Angelus Silesius are among the most important poems of the German-speaking Baroque .

The history of Christian poetry begins with the New Testament . Cantica like the Magnificat or the Nunc dimittis (both in the Gospel of Luke ) are formally based on the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible . Since the contemporary Greek and Latin poetry was difficult to ignore for the early Christians, in the texts of poets like Ausonius, in addition to the Christian motifs, allusions to e.g. B. on pagan deities. In his Psychomachia , one of the most important works of the Christian Latin epic, Prudentius dispenses with references to Greek mythology , but continues to use traditional literary forms. Venantius Fortunatus, on the other hand, whose poems are still used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church today, abandoned the Greek meter and found his own forms.

Christian poems are the oldest surviving evidence of vernacular poetry in many European cultures. One of the earliest known texts in Old English literature is the 10th century poetry Dream of the Rood . The Divine Comedy is one of the first masterpieces of Italian literature. An example for the German-speaking area is the Heliand .

The most important Christian poets of modern times include John of the Cross (Spain), John Donne , George Herbert , John Milton (all three England), Anne Bradstreet , Martha Wadsworth Brewster (both USA), Henry Vaughan , Ann Griffiths (both Wales), Thomas Traherne , Emily Brontë , Christina Rossetti , Gerard Manley Hopkins (all four England), John Greenleaf Whittier , Khalil Gibran (both USA), Gabriela Mistral (Chile), RS Thomas (Wales), Thomas Merton and Geoffrey Hill (both USA) .

Important German-speaking authors of Christian poetry were Angelus Silesius and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff . Among the contemporary authors of Christian poetry in the German-speaking area are u. az B. Hortense von Gelmini and Maria Ullmann .

Christian drama

One of the earliest forms of Christian drama was the religious games and Easter games of the High Middle Ages, in which, for example, the resurrection of Christ was depicted. In the 14th and 15th centuries, mystery games telling stories from the Bible were performed across Europe . Moralities , allegorical pieces with a religious and educational character, developed from this in the 16th and 17th centuries . At the same time, the Jesuit theater , which was used in Jesuit schools to impart Roman Catholic teaching, was created. Subsequently, in many countries, the Church began to condemn the theater. In German-speaking countries, this rejection of the theater for religious reasons was closely linked to the Reformation .

Christian drama only experienced a revival in the 20th century. In 1941/1942, Dorothy L. Sayers ' radio play The Man Born to be King caused a sensation in Great Britain because Jesus was played by an actor in it, which many listeners considered blasphemy . TS Eliot premiered his verse drama Murder in the Cathedral about the martyrdom of Thomas Becket as early as 1935 . Before the First World War, the Catholic poet and playwright Reinhard Sorge worked in Germany .

The later Pope John Paul II , Karol Józef Wojtyła, wrote a play rich in Christian motifs Przed sklepem jubilera / The Jeweler's Shop in 1960 . The passion story of Christ hit New York's Broadway in 1971 as the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar . The Jesus musical Godspell , which was made at the same time, was performed in off-Broadway theaters.

Non-fictional Christian literature

Theological writings

Augustine of Hippo (354-430). Painting by Sandro Botticelli from the 1490s.

A large number of mostly non-fictional writings have come down to us from the time of the Church Fathers (epoch of the early church , 1st to early 8th century), including letters, theological treatises, biblical commentaries and saints' biographies . Among the best-known works from this corpus are Augustine's Confessiones and De civitate Dei . The theological discipline that deals with the Christian texts of this time is patristic .

The most influential Christian writings of the Middle Ages include Thomas Aquinas Summa theologica and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis . To this day, Francis von Sales' Guide to the Pious Life or Philothea , published in 1609, is widespread. In 1536, Johannes Calvin's Institutio Christianae Religionis appeared , which became one of the most important textbooks of the Reformation . Since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, non-fictional texts have also been used to spread the Christian faith. Religious tracts were already in circulation during the Reformation and are still used in missions today. Friedrich Schleiermacher presented his doctrine of faith in German in 1821/22 .

Theological writings are created in the writing rooms of scholars or interested laypeople, who are shaped by the views of countless schools of thought, knowledge, conscience and interpretation families, denominations, denominations, book publishers and teaching institutes. In the heterogeneous world of Christian books, theologians look for points of condensation for their own convictions, for denominational homogeneity or for Bible-based and Christocentric plausibility. The book catalog of their library can offer an insight into the thinking conveyed by a Christian educational institute. The relative intellectual closeness between the educational institutes, or at least their book holdings, can be quantified in a rudimentary manner: If two compared book holdings (using the ISBN) show 10% correspondence, an intellectual relationship can be assumed, with 20% close relationship.

Hymns and liturgical texts

The texts that are used in the liturgy and in the singing of Christian worship can also be counted as part of Christian literature.

Edification literature

The edifying literature , which has existed at least since the late Middle Ages , generally endeavors to elevate piety , but can also show dogmatic intentions that are packaged in a generally understandable form. Typical traditional forms are the legend of saints , the devotional book , the prayer book , the book of hours and the collection of sermons .

In the field of theological books and edification literature, publishers in the USA and Germany are particularly productive, in the German-speaking area especially in the closer and wider context of pietism and evangelicalism . The most famous publishing houses include the Christian Media Foundation , the Brunnen Verlag (Gießen) , Gerth Medien , the Neukirchener Verlagsgesellschaft , the Francke Bookshop Marburg an der Lahn, the Christian Verlag Dillenburg, the Joh.Brendow & Sohn Verlag and the Christian literature distribution Bielefeld.

Modern apologetic literature

An English-language classic of Christian apologetic literature is GK Chesterton's work Orthodoxy (1908). Authors of apologetic - especially Protestant - literature achieve high editions in North America. B. David Wilkerson ( The Cross and the Switchblade , 1962), Francis Schaeffer ( The God Who Is There, 1968; A Christian Manifesto, 1981), Peter Kreeft ( Between Heaven and Hell, 1982), Charles Colson ( How Now Shall We Live, 1999) and Rick Warren ( The Purpose Driven Life, 2002).

One of the best-known German-language Christian books of the twentieth century comes from the Protestant pastor and preacher Wilhelm Busch (1897–1966): Jesus our fate. It has appeared in many languages, and millions of copies in German alone. In 2009 Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis wrote a book fromm! An invitation to relive the Catholic with all your senses . Esther Maria Magnis quarrels much more than the aforementioned author in her book God Doesn't Need You , which was published in 2012, but also describes the difficult way she finally found back to him.

Hagiography and historical novel

The most popular genres of Catholic literature traditionally include hagiography and biography, or the biographical or historical novel. The transitions between these forms are fluid.

In the High Middle Ages, Konrad von Megenberg, among others, contributed to hagiographic literature . In the modern age, Louis de Wohl is one of the most successful German-speaking authors of Catholic historical novels; after the Second World War he published a multitude of exciting novels centered around saints , including Thomas Aquinas , Augustine , Paul , Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola .

In North America, Mark Twain contributed the historical novel Personal Memories of Joan of Arc (1896). Lew Wallace's Roman historical novel Ben Hur (1880) about the life of a fictional Jewish prince who was converted to Christianity was one of the most successful books of the 19th century and was later made into several films. Lloyd C. Douglas ' crucifixion novel Das Gewand , published in 1942, was also made into a lavish film . Since the 1940s, the Canadian Mary Fabyan Windeatt (1910-1979) wrote a large number of exemplary researched Catholic biographies, including a. about Catherine of Siena and about Martín de Porres . More recently, the Opus Dei priest Michael E. Giesler published a small series of novels from the early Christian period . Another recent example is William Boardman's novel about Joseph of Arimathea , Sun and Wind (2007).

Narrative literature

Since Christian themes are not necessarily explicit in narrative literature, fictional Christian literature is less easy to define than non-fictional literature. Even texts in which classical Christian motifs such as the Incarnation of God are hardly or not at all comprehensible can be carried through and through by the spirit of Christianity. So was z. B. CS Lewis ' fantasy cycle The Chronicles of Narnia classified as a relevant work of Christian fiction based on its allegories, although it focuses on motifs from Greek , Roman and Turkish mythology . In the cases of many other works in which Christian motifs also appear, but which take a back seat in the overall balance, the classification as Christian literature is controversial; this concerns z. B. JRR Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings , the fantasy novels by George MacDonald and the Pater Brown novels by GK Chesterton .

Christian allegory

Starting with the parables of Jesus , there is a rich tradition of Christian allegories . The most significant examples include the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri , Piers Plowman by William Langland and the Pilgrimage to Blessed Eternity (1678) by John Bunyan .

Christian narrative literature

The Russian Orthodox Faith in Literature

Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1879, while working on The Karamazov Brothers . In the fifth chapter of the novel, Dostoevsky poses the theodicy question.

The Russian literary tradition has its origins in the work of the missionaries Cyril and Method , who made Old Church Slavonic the written language of the Eastern Slavs . After the Kiev Empire opened itself to Christian Byzantine cultural heritage in 988, important translations such as the Ostromir Gospel were written there . Religious literature flourished again in the late Middle Ages with authors such as Nil Sorski and Joseph von Wolokolamsk . At the same time Moscow rose to become a cultural metropolis; Epifanij Premudryjs wrote important hagiographies, and in the 16th century the entire Bible was translated into Church Slavonic for the first time .

With the support of Peter the Great , the European cultural tradition found its way into Russian literature in the 18th century. Secular literature began to supplant religious literature, and authors such as Nikolai Karamsin also drove the remaining church-language elements out of the literary language.

The Christian poet Alexei Khomyakov was a co-founder of the Slavophile movement in the mid-19th century . Fyodor Dostoyevsky was fervently attached to the Russian Orthodox faith at the latest since his imprisonment in the camp and his exile in Siberia (1850-1859) . His religious convictions have found clear literary expression in the novels Schuld und Atonement (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1878–1880). Lev Tolstoy was strongly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount and, influenced by Schopenhauer , turned to Christian asceticism , which found literary expression in his story Father Sergius (1899), among others . Similar to Dostoyevsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn came to the Russian Orthodox faith while he was in camp. None of his literary works is religious in the narrower sense, his main work Der Archipel Gulag (1973) z. B. is strongly permeated with religious thoughts.

Catholic literature

Germany

The Münstersche Kreis made an important contribution to the development of modern Catholic literature in Germany . In 1786, Princess Amalie von Gallitzin's salon visited authors such as Johann Georg Hamann and Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg , who dealt with the Enlightenment and on this basis developed a new understanding of the Christian faith. Stolberg wrote a 15-volume history of the religion of Jesus Christ . Even Clemens Brentano wrote a number of Catholic works, including the bitter suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ (1833) and Life of the Virgin Mary (1852, posthumously). The work of the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , especially the clerical year , is shaped by her struggle for the Catholic faith.

In the 20th century, only the representatives of the Renouveau catholique emerged as important authors of Catholic narrative literature in Germany (see below ). Alfred Döblin ( Die Pilgerin Aetheria , 1949; Der Kampf mit dem Engel , 1952) and Heinrich Böll ( At the Edge of the Church , 1939, publ. 2004; Der Engel schwieg , 1949/50, publ. 1992; Views of a Clown , 1963) are not “Catholic writers” in the narrower sense, but have also repeatedly dealt with questions of Catholic faith in their works. Alongside Hortense von Gelmini, one of the most noticed younger Catholic authors is Martin Mosebach, who has won multiple awards but is also controversial because of his radical positions .

Austria

Among the most important Catholic writers in Austria are Enrica von Handel-Mazzetti (1871–1955) and Gertrud Fussenegger (1912–2009), the latter a representative of the Renouveau catholique. Robert Musil (1880–1942) dealt intensively with questions of faith, for example in his diaries, but cannot be classified as a Catholic author in the narrower sense.

Renouveau catholique

Led by François-René de Chateaubriand , a late counter-movement against the Enlightenment and secularism emerged in France in the first third of the 19th century, mainly supported by writers . The Renouveau Catholique had no formulated program, but endeavored to renew literature and society by reviving original Catholic values. Its most important representatives in France were Georges Bernanos and François Mauriac . In the German-speaking area, the movement joined u. a. Gertrud von le Fort ( The Last One on the Scaffold , 1931), Franz Werfel ( The Song of Bernadette , 1941), Werner Bergengruen , Elisabeth Langgässer , Reinhold Schneider and Gertrud Fussenegger . The Renouveau catholique was also influential in Great Britain, where it found representatives such as TS Eliot , Evelyn Waugh ( Helena , 1950) and Graham Greene ( The Power and Glory , 1940).

North America

In keeping with the minority status that Catholics in the USA had and still have today, Catholic novels of considerable literary history were written in this country only late, namely in the early 20th century. Francis J. Finn's moralistic youth book Tom Playfair (1890) about the adventures a ten-year-old boy experiences in a Catholic boarding school is considered a classic . The book was so popular that a German translation followed shortly after it was published. The youth book Mr. Blue in 1928 , in which Myles Connolly tells the story of a modern Francis of Assisi , was similarly successful . Catholic motifs also appear in the novels by Willa Cather , Walker Percy , JF Powers, and Flannery O'Connor . In 1950 Henry Morton Robinson published his novel Der Kardinal about the life of a Catholic priest, which Otto Preminger filmed in 1963 with Tom Tryon and Romy Schneider .

After the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), which professed ecumenism , many Catholics saw their cultural identity in question. In the United States, popular Catholic literature disappeared from the book market. Successful Catholic authors such as Walker Percy , Mary Higgins Clark , Ralph McInerny ( The Red Hat , 1998), Andre Dubus , Dean Koontz , Ron Hansen ( Mariette in Ecstasy , 1991; Exiles , 2008) and Mary Gordon continued to appear who even used Catholic motifs on occasion; however, they no longer wrote for a Catholic public, but for the mainstream . At the same time, authors such as Andrew Greeley (1928–2013) and the Australian Morris L. West ( In the Fisherman's Shoes , 1963) became popular in the USA ; their fictional heroes take a critical look at their Catholic heritage.

Popular Catholic narrative literature experienced a certain revival in the 1990s with novels that often had the apocalypse as their theme. Examples of this genre, which is popular with Catholics and the like. a. Not only met with approval due to its strong evangelical tendencies, Pierced by a Sword (1995) by Bud McFarlane Jr. , Father Elijah (1998) by Canadian writer Michael O'Brien and the Christ Clone Trilogy (1998) by James BeauSeigneur . Another author who has recently contributed to popular Catholic prose is Canadian Carmen Marcoux (* 1966), who promotes traditional Catholic values ​​such as chastity in works such as Arms of Love (2001) and Surrender (2007) . A Catholic milieu also forms the framework for the action in Roger B. Thomas ' volume of short stories The Last Ugly Person (2003) and in the fairy tale novels by Regina Doman .

Protestant literature

Lutheran and Pietist Literature in Germany

In the 18th century, Hermann Samuel Reimarus wrote some writings on his ideas of a " natural religion ", which Gotthold Ephraim Lessing published in several parts after Reimarus' death (1774–1778) and sparked what is known as the fragments dispute, which was the most important controversy between of the Enlightenment and Lutheran Orthodoxy . The Enlightenmentist Lessing, who did not fully share Reimarus' positions, faced the Lutheran theologian Johann Melchior Goeze in this dispute and answered him in 1778 in a series of writings ("Anti-Goeze"). When Lessing was banned from publishing texts on religion in the same year, he decided to continue arguing with literary means and wrote the drama Nathan the Wise .

The eighteenth-century literature of sensitivity , a critical reaction to the Enlightenment, had its intellectual historical roots in pietism , a lay movement within Protestantism that emphasized personal piety and the subjective side of faith. Via the Sturm und Drang , the influence of sensitivity extended into the Weimar Classic . Many prominent writers and thinkers of sensibility and classical music - including Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock , Sophie de La Roche , Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Johann Gottfried von Herder - came from Pietist families. Matthias Claudius , who was also in opposition to the Enlightenment and has dealt mainly with religious topics since 1783, can not be counted as Pietism, although Klopstock had a strong influence on him.

Great Britain

CS Lewis , who was born in Northern Ireland and a close friend of JRR Tolkien , turned from atheism to the Anglican Faith in 1929–1931 . Many of his works - including the novels Demons in the Attack ( The Screwtape Letters , 1942) and The Great Divorce (1945) - are strongly influenced by Christianity. Lewis was an expert on allegory ; In 1936 he published the monograph The Allegory of Love about it . Although he stated that his books were neither conceived as a vehicle for theological concepts nor allegorical, Aslan, the charismatic lion in the Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956), has repeatedly been interpreted as an allegory for Jesus Christ because of the obvious parallels.

Another British author in whose works Christian allegories are evident is Hannah Hurnard . Her best-known work is the 1955 published novel footed as a hind ( Hinds' Feet on High Places ) about a young girl doing a good shepherd loves and decides to follow him.

North America

The United States has a rich tradition of Protestant storytelling. A classic of the genre is Charles Monroe Sheldon's novel In His Steps (1896), in which the author asks the question that is still quoted today: “ What would Jesus do? "; With a total circulation of more than 30 million copies, In His Steps is one of the most successful books in the history of the American book market.

A younger representative is Catherine Marshall ( Christy , 1967). The bestselling author Taylor Caldwell has also frequently taken up biblical themes in her novels ( Beloved and Famous Doctor , 1959; Dialogues with the Devil , 1967; Paulus, mit dem Herz einer Löwe , 1970; Die throw der Erste Stein , 1977).

Inspirational fiction

Secularism took hold in large parts of United States society in the late 1960s and early 1970s . Other parts of the population brought the conservative Christian communities - evangelical and fundamentalist denominations such as the Southern Baptists and the conservative Lutherans - a brisk influx. Some historians, like Robert Fogel , have called this movement the "Fourth Great Awakening ". At the same time, a new genre of Christian fiction was emerging in the United States and Canada, combining a certain type of conservative Christian theology with the literary form of the modern romance novel or thriller . Successful authors of this genre, which is traded as inspirational fiction on the American book market , are Gilbert Morris (* 1929), Janette Oke (* 1935), Jan Karon (* 1937), Judith McCoy Miller (* 1944), Francine Rivers (* 1947), Frank E. Peretti (* 1951), T. Davis Bunn (* 1952), Karen Hancock , Alton Gansky , Lori Wick , William P. Young (* 1955), Randy Alcorn , Angela Elwell Hunt (* 1957), Tracie Peterson (* 1959), Ted Dekker (* 1962), Karen Kingsbury (* 1963), Wayne Thomas Batson (* 1968), Tosca Lee (* 1969) and Bethany Kennedy Scanlon (* 1975). A group of Christian American publishers has been honoring outstanding works of the genre with the Christy Award since 2000 . A special form of inspirational fiction that has only seen a steep rise in recent years is the Amish romance novel .

While most of the inspirational fiction is intended to appeal exclusively to followers of the conservative denominations mentioned, works have occasionally appeared that are aimed at a wider audience, including B. the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye (* 1926) and Jerry B. Jenkins (* 1949).

Mormon literature

Orson Scott Card was already a successful science fiction and fantasy writer when he published his first openly Mormon novel ( Saints ) in 1984 .

As LDS fiction ( Latter-day Saint ) or Mormon fiction novels is called in the United States, the subjects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints treated. The beliefs of this community differ significantly from those of the three main Christian denominations and their affiliation to Christianity is disputed. After a long niche existence of LDS literature, the circulation has recently increased and authors like Stephenie Meyer are now reaching the mainstream reading audience.

LDS literature has a long tradition in the USA. Already in its early days (1830-1880) the movement possessed a rich literature of poetry, whose representatives u. a. Eliza R. Snow , Parley P. Pratt , WW Phelps and the Scot John Lyon were. After the religious community settled in Utah , a narrative literature was also created there. Brigham Young's daughter Susa Young Gates published her novel John Stevens 'Courtship in 1909 , and BH Roberts ' novel Corianton (1902) was adapted by Orestes Utah Bean as a drama that made it to Broadway . However, the most successful example of early LDS literature was Nephi Anderson's debut novel, Added Upon (1898), which tells the stories of human souls before life, in life, and after life.

The following generation of authors, to which Vardis Fisher , Maurine Whipple and Virginia Sorensen belonged, were also noticed by the non-Mormon reading public, but separated themselves from Mormon home literature and lost their close ties to the religious community that Gates, Roberts and Anderson had still owned . Another well-known LDS author of the period is Samuel W. Taylor , on whose story Heaven Knows Why! (1948) based on the comedy film The Flying Pauker . In the 1960s, the poet Clinton F. Larson pioneered the fundamental modernization and de-provincialization of LDS literature. He was followed by editors and authors Douglas Thayer , Donald R. Marshall and Levi S. Peterson . Peterson's 1986 novel The Backslider about the sexual and moral conflicts of a young Mormon received a lot of attention . In the 1970s, a new popular LDS literature emerged, which was linked to the home literature of Gates, Roberts and Anderson. Its authors - Shirley Sealy , Randy Jernigan , Susan Evans McCloud , Jack Weyland , Brenton G. Yorgason and Blaine M. Yorgason - mostly published their work with Deseret , a traditional LDS-owned publisher that only started marketing fictional literature at this time Started.

Among the most important LDS authors of recent times are Orson Scott Card and Gerald N. Lund , whose Mormon family saga The Work and the Glory (1990-1998) has since been filmed. Other successful authors whose work has reflected the Mormon faith include Jack Weyland , Anne Wingate , Dean Hughes , Phyllis Barber , Judith Freeman , Linda Sillitoe , Margaret Blair Young , Neal Chandler , Anita Stansfield , Randy Jernigan , Richard Paul Evans , Walter Kirn , Chris Heimerdinger , Glenn Beck , Rachel Ann Nunes , Robert Farrell Smith , Brady Udall and Robison Wells . Stephenie Meyer has become known even in German-speaking countries , in whose vampire novels, which are designed for young people, Mormon topics can also be demonstrated.

literature

  • Curt Hohoff: What is Christian Literature? Herder, Freiburg 1966.
  • Gisbert Kranz: Lexicon of Christian world literature . Herder, Freiburg 1978, ISBN 3-451-17949-0 .
  • Georg Langenhorst (ed.): Christian literature for our time: Fifty reading recommendations. Verlag Sankt Michaelsbund, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-920821-96-2 .
  • Wolfgang Frühwald: The memory of piety. Religion and literature in Germany from the baroque to the present . Verlag der Weltreligionen, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-458-71009-7 .
  • Alfred Bodenheimer , Georg Pfleiderer, Bettina von Jagow (ed.): Literature in the religious change of the modern age. Studies on Christian and Jewish literary history . TVZ Theologischer Verlag Zurich, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-290-17521-4 .
  • Josef Quack: On Christian literature in the 20th century . Tredition, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8495-7881-7 .
  • Michael Hageböck, Sebastian Engelhardt: Literature in German lessons: Interpretations from a Christian perspective . Christliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Dillenburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-89436-957-6 .
  • Bernhard Lang: Religion and Literature in Three Millennia. A hundred books . Schöningh, Paderborn 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-79227-3 .

English-language literature

  • David S. Reynolds: Faith in Fiction: The Emergence of Religious Literature in America . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1981, ISBN 0-674-29172-7 .
  • David Lyle Jeffrey (Ed.): A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature . Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1992, ISBN 0-8028-3634-8 .
  • John Mort: Christian Fiction: A Guide to the Genre . Libraries Unlimited, Greenwood Village, Colorado 2002, ISBN 1-56308-871-1 .
  • Mary R Reichardt (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 2004, ISBN 0-313-32802-1 .
  • Paul Cavill, Heather Ward (Eds.): Christian Tradition in English Literature . Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 2007, ISBN 978-0-310-25515-4 .
  • David Lyle Jeffrey, Gregory Maillet: Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice . Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois 2011, ISBN 978-0-8308-2817-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gero von Wilpert : Specialized Dictionary of Literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 231). 6th, improved and enlarged edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-520-23106-9 , p. 140.
  2. ↑ Gottfried Bachl: The Bible in the German-Language Literature of the 20th Century , 1999, p. 91; Magda Motté: Esther's Tears, Judith's Bravery , 2003, p. 12
  3. ↑ Leland Ryken: The Legacy of the King James Bible: Celebrating 400 Years of the Most influental English translation. Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois 2011, ISBN 978-1-4335-1388-6 .
  4. ↑ Dream of the Rood original text; Translation into today's English ( memento of the original from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / faculty.uca.edu
  5. ↑ George W. Brandt (Ed.): German and Dutch theater, 1600-1848. Cambridge University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-521-23383-6 , p. 398.
  6. ↑ John Drakakis (Ed.): British Radio Drama. Cambridge University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-521-22183-8 , p. 136.
  7. ↑ The Jeweler's Shop Google Books
  8. ↑ Esther Maria Magnis: Church: God is wild and strange . In: The time . No. 40, September 27, 2012 (preprint)
  9. ↑ Mary Fabyan Windeatt
  10. ^ Nancy M. Tischler: Encyclopedia of contemporary Christian fiction: From CS Lewis to Left behind. 2009, ISBN 978-0-313-34568-5 , p. Xi.
  11. ↑ Jonathan Rogers: The world according to Naria: Christian meaning in CS Lewis' beloved Chronicles. Warner Faith, New York 2005, ISBN 0-446-55692-0 .
  12. ^ Matthew T. Dickerson, Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of the Rings , Brazos Press, 2003
  13. ↑ a b Russian literature ( Memento of February 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Robin Feuer Miller: Dostoevsky's unfinished journey , 2007, p. 4
  15. ^ William J. Petersen, Randy Petersen: 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century , 2000; Niels Christian Nielsen: Solzhenitsyn's religion , 1976; John B. Dunlop, Richard Stanley Haugh, Michael A. Nicholson: Solzhenitsyn in exile: critical essays and documentary materials , 1985
  16. ^ Robert Musil: Diaries. 1899-1941 , ed. v. Philip Payne, Basic Books, 1998, pp. Xlvii
  17. ^ Jean Defrees Kellogg: Catholicism in the United States. The Vital Tradition: the Catholic Novel in a Period of Convergence. Loyola UP, Chicago 1970, pp. 154-155.
  18. ^ The Irish ecclesiastical record. 3rd series, Vol. 13, 1892 ( Google Books ), p. 766.
  19. ↑ The improbable career of Mr. Blue.
  20. ^ John Murphy, Willa Cather and Catholic Themes. In: Western American Literature 17 (1982), pp. 53-60.
  21. ^ Andrew Greeley Official Website
  22. ↑ Carmen Marcoux
  23. ↑ The Last Ugly Person on Google Books
  24. ↑ Friedhelm Ackva: History of Pietism , Volume 2, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck, 1995, p. 738
  25. ^ Marjorie Collins: CS Lewis. In: Academic American Encyclopedia. Aretê pub. Co., 1980, ISBN 0-933880-00-6 , p. 305.
  26. ↑ James S. Bell, Cheryl Dunlop: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Narnia. Alpha, 2007.
  27. ^ Alister McGrath: CS Lewis. The biography. Prophetic thinker. Eccentric genius. Brunnen, Basel 2014, ISBN 978-3-7655-1806-5
  28. ↑ Christy Award Official Website
  29. ↑ Michael Dellwing: The deprivatised religion: religious affiliation beyond choice? , Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2007, p. 125
  30. ^ Terryl Givens: The Latter-day Saint experience in America , 2004, p. 232
  31. ↑ Added Upon Google Books
  32. ^ David J. Whittaker: Mormon americana: a guide to sources and collections in the United States , 1995, p. 473