Divinity
Welcome to the Divinity subject guide - your guide to using the library resources, services and facilities for your subject.
Library collections for Religion and Literature
Books relating to Religion and Literature will be found at a variety of locations - check your reading list or DiscoverEd.
Books relating to Religion are mostly classified under B and will be found in the Library Hall and Stack I, New College Library and on the 2nd floor of the Main Library.
Books relating to English Literature are mostly classified under PR and are located on the 3rd floor of the Main Library and in Stack I at New College Library.
Books for Religion and Literature
Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic Religious Studies e-books. These include:
The Bible and Literature by
The SCM Core Text The Bible and Literature explores the crossover between attempts to read the Bible as literature and to read the Bible in literature. It seeks to assess what form a truly inter-disciplinary approach to the reading of the Bible would have to take, taking into consideration the background knowledge, preconceptions and theories of reading which scholars from each discipline, literary and biblical studies, bring to literary and biblical texts.The book covers all the key methods of literary criticism such as narrative criticism, reader-response, intertextuality and feminist criticism and explores how they might be relevant to the crossover between the Bible and literature.The SCM Core Text The Bible and Literature is presented as an undergraduate-friendly textbook and will make a valuable addition to the reading lists of courses on theology and literature, hermeneutics and Biblical Studies.
ISBN: 9780334041665
George Mackay Brown and the Scottish Catholic Imagination by
This lively new study is the very first book to offer an absorbing history of the uncharted territory that is Scottish Catholic fiction. For Scottish Catholic writers of the twentieth century, faith was the key influence on both their artistic process and creative vision. By focusing on one of the best known of Scotland's literary converts, George Mackay Brown, this book explores both the Scottish Catholic modernist movement of the twentieth century and the particularities of Brown's writing which have been routinely overlooked by previous studies. The book provides sustained and illuminating close readings of key texts in Brown's corpus and includes detailed comparisons between Brown's writing and an established canon of Catholic writers, including Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, and Flannery O'Connor. This timely book reveals that Brown's Catholic imagination extended far beyond the 'small green world' of Orkney and ultimately embraced a universal human experience.
ISBN: 9781474411653
Religion and Literature: History and Method by
Religion and literature is the study of interrelationships between religious or theological traditions and literary traditions, both oral and written, with special attention to religious or theological underpinnings of, influences upon, and reflections in, individual "texts" (oral and written) or authors' oeuvres. Religion and Literature: History and Method by Eric Ziolkowski considers the origins and history of, and methods employed in, that scholarly enterprise, focusing on the dual construals of "literature" in religious studies (as a body of sacred writings and as writing valued for artistic merit); the problematics of defining "religion"; the transformation of theology and literature as a "field" (pioneered by Nathan A. Scott Jr. et al.) to religion and literature; the affiliated fields of myth criticism, and of biblical reception; and the institutionalization, globalization, and future of the study of religion and literature.
ISBN: 9789004420540
Faith, Hope and Poetry by
Faith, Hope and Poetry explores the poetic imagination as a way of knowing; a way of seeing reality more clearly. Presenting a series of critical appreciations of English poetry from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day, Malcolm Guite applies the insights of poetry to contemporary issues and the contribution poetry can make to our religious knowing and the way we 'do theology'. This book is not solely concerned with overtly religious poetry, but attends to the paradoxical ways in which the poetry of doubt and despair also enriches theology. Developing an original analysis and application of the poetic vision of Coleridge, Larkin and Seamus Heaney in the final chapters, Guite builds towards a substantial theology of imagination and provides unique insights into truth that complement and enrich more strictly rational ways of knowing. Readers of this book will return to their reading of poetry equipped with new insights and enthusiasm and will be challenged to integrate imaginative ways of knowing into their other academic and intellectual pursuits.
ISBN: 9781351937221
Highlights of Library collections on English Literature
Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, 1632
Special Collections JY 440
Romeo and Juliet. Second quarto, 1599
published during Shakespeare's lifetime - which was presented to the University by the poet William Drummond in 1626. Special Collections De.3.73*
Databases for Religion and Literature
- Atla Religion databaseCovers all aspects of religion. ATLA Serials include full text access to over 330 journals.
- Gale LiteratureGale Literature brings together several of Gale’s literary databases into one seamlessly cross-searchable resource on authors and their works, literary movements or genres, journal articles, literary criticism, as well as reviews of bestsellers.
- ProQuest One LiteraturePrimary texts, criticism (journal articles and dissertations), reference works and contextual literary movements in one place. Author pages also show criticism over time and audio-visual files if available (e.g. recordings of poets reading their own work)
- Twentieth-Century Religious ThoughtTwentieth Century Religious Thought is a multivolume, cross-searchable online collection that brings together the seminal works and archival materials related to key worldwide religious thinkers from the early 1900s until the turn of the 21st century.
Journals for Religion and Literature
Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic Religion and Literature journals. These include:
- Christianity and literatureCall Number: Online
- Literature & theologyCall Number: Online
- Religion and literatureCall Number: Online
- Comparative Critical StudiesCall Number: Online
New College Library Heritage Collections for Religion and Literature
The Spirit of Praise; The Whole Book of Psalms; The Sacred Harp, Bindings. Hymn 2236; Hymn 289; Hymn 2185. New College Library Special Collections, University of Edinburgh.
New College Library holds a huge variety of texts in its Special Collections.These examples are from the Hymnology collection, which includes psalms, sacred songs and poetry as well as hymns, including items intended for children, both for Sunday school and home use. While there is much nineteenth century material representing the Scottish Protestant tradition, the collection also includes rare 17th and 18th century titles as well as works from other countries and denominations.
To arrange to consult New College Special Collections and archives, please email: HeritageCollections@ed.ac.uk
Reference books for Religion and Literature
Search DiscoverEd to find print and electronic Religious Studies reference books, or browse the shelves in the New College Library Hall. These include:
The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Religion by
Each essay in this Companion examines one or more literary texts and a religious tradition to illustrate how we can understand both literature and religion better by looking at them in tandem. Unlike most literature and religion books, which tend to focus on Christianity and take a highly theoretical approach inappropriate for non-specialists, The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Religion offers an accessible treatment of both Dharmic and Abrahamic traditions. It provides close readings of texts rather than surveys of large topics, making it an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students of literature and religion.
ISBN: 9781316160954
The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion by
This unique and comprehensive volume looks at the study of literature and religion from a contemporary critical perspective. Including discussion of global literature and world religions, this Companion looks at: Key moments in the story of religion and literary studies from Matthew Arnold through to the impact of 9/11 A variety of theoretical approaches to the study of religion and literature Different ways that religion and literature are connected from overtly religious writing, to subtle religious readings Analysis of key sacred texts and the way they have been studied, re-written, and questioned by literature Political implications of work on religion and literature Thoroughly introduced and contextualised, this volume is an engaging introduction to this huge and complex field.
ISBN: 9780415834056
Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature by
The Catholic faith has inspired some of the world's greatest creative works and has been a powerful force in history from the Roman Empire to the present. Catholic writers reflect their heritage in their works, and generations of readers have continued to appreciate the Catholic literary tradition. Many works by Catholic writers hold a high place in the literary canon and have exerted a tremendous cultural and political influence. Still others continue to be widely read by contemporary readers and quietly shape modern society. Some works, too, reflect the conflicts of the Catholic Church in the 21st century and capture the struggles of individual Catholics in a secular society. This encyclopedia covers the vast riches of the Catholic literary tradition from its origins to the present day. Included are substantial entries on more than 70 major works from around the world. A special effort has been made to cover women writers and writers of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, whose works reflect the many dimensions of the Catholic experience. The encyclopedia provides entries on such writers and works as St. Augustine's Confessions, Catherine of Siena's Dialogue, Dante's The Divine Comedy, Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and Muriel Spark's Memento Mori. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography of the writer, a plot summary of a major work, an extended critical discussion, an overview of the work's critical reception, and a selected bibliography. The entries give detailed attention to particular works and explore their relation to Catholic thought. The encyclopedia concludes with a selected, general bibliography. Book jacket.
ISBN: 9780313328039
The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology by
The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology is a defining volume of essays in which leading international scholars apply an interdisciplinary approach to the long and evolving relationship between English Literature and Theology. The volume first offers a chronological account of key moments in the formation of the tradition; goes on to demonstrate literary ways of reading the Bible, theological ways of reading literature, and literary conceptions of theological texts; and finally explores the great themes that have preoccupied the Jewish and Christian traditions. Framing editorial essays describe the history, the cultural implications, and the methodological issues of this now popular interdisciplinary study, before speculating as to its possible futures in a postmodern, multicultural world.
ISBN: 0199544484
Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature by
Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature explores the ways in which 20th-century literature has been influenced by Buddhism, and has been, in turn, a major factor in bringing about Buddhism's increasing spread and influence in the West. Focussing on Britain and the United States, Buddhism's influence on a range of key literary texts are examined in the context of those societies' evolving modernity. Writers discussed include T. S. Eliot, Hermann Hesse, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, Iris Murdoch, Maxine Hong Kingston. This book brings together for the first time a series of context-rich interpretations that demonstrate the importance of literature in this ongoing cultural change in Britain and the United States.
ISBN: 9781474232852
The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction by
Provides critical overviews of the main writers and key themes of Anglophone Jewish fiction This collection of essays represents a new departure for, and a potentially (re)defining moment in, literary Jewish Studies. It is the first volume to bring together essays covering a wide range of American, British, South African, Canadian and Australian Jewish fiction. Moreover, it complicates all these terms, emphasising the porousness between different national traditions and moving beyond traditional definitions of Jewishness. For the sake of structural clarity, the volume is divided into three parts - 'American Jewish Fiction', 'British Jewish Fiction' and 'International and Transnational Anglophone Jewish Fiction' - but many of the essays cross over these boundaries and speak to each other implicitly, as well as, on occasion, explicitly. Extending and redefining the canon of modern Jewish fiction, the volume juxtaposes major authors with more marginal figures, revising and recuperating individual reputations, rediscovering forgotten and discovering new work, and in the process remapping the whole terrain. This volume opens windows onto vistas that previously had been obscured and opens doors for the next generation of studies that could not proceed without a wide-ranging, visionary empiricism grounding their work. The Edinburgh Companion is a paradigm-changing event, and nothing in Jewish literary studies that follows can fail to pay close attention to it. Key Features: Highlights the rich diversity of the field and identifies its key themes, including immigration, the Diaspora, the Holocaust, Judaism, assimilation, antisemitism and Zionism Analyses the main trends in Anglophone Jewish fiction and situates them in historical context Discusses the place of Anglophone Jewish fiction in relation to critical debates concerning transatlanticism and transnationalism; ethnicity and identity politics; postcolonial studies, feminist studies and Jewish Studies. With a preface by Mark Shechner, the volume contains 28 essays by contributors including Vicki Aarons (Trinity University, Texas), Debra Shostak (Wooster College, Ohio), Ira Nadel (University of British Columbia), Efraim Sicher (Ben-Gurion University, Phyllis Lassner (Northwestern University), Sue Vice (University of Sheffield), Lori Harrison-Kahan (Boston College), Ruth Gilbert (University of Winchester), Beate Neumeier (University of Cologne) andSandra Singer (University of Guelph). David Brauner is Professor of Contemporary Literature at The University of Reading. Axel Stähler is Reader in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
ISBN: 9780748646159
