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Faith and Fiction Christian Literature in America Today
Anita Gandolfo
ISBN: 0-275-99196-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99196-8
208 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 8/30/2007
List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)
Discount Price: $22.48 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Gandolfo's wide survey and careful comparisons help make sense of the flood of Christian fiction, and her study is heartily recommended for all academic libraries.
    —Catholic Library World     March 2008
  • Gandolfo explores the contemporary American phenomenon of the popularity of Christian fiction in both the evangelical and mainstream publishing markets....Each of the book's eight chapters has extensive notes, and the work includes a bibliography and index. Highly recommended for religious and literature collections at college and university libraries.
    —MultiCultural Review     Spring 2008
  • Gandolpho assesses the new crop of fiction and its impact on American popular culture, including the recent blockbuster that had something to do with Da Vinci and the popular series about the Rapture. Along the way she shows how the rise of such pop and serious reading mirrors the preoccupation of the society, noting the particular elements of faith in the most popular products and applying them to recent cultural phenomena.
    —Reference & Research Book News     November 2007
  • Gandolfo offers a concise, insightful study that blends the sociology of current American religious culture, notably the impact of evangelicalism, with literary criticism of novelists addressing Christian themes. In a chapter titled Competing Paradigms, the author provides an excellent brief summary of the sociopolitical aspects of post-WW II Christianity in the US.... the present volume offers a balanced critique of works from the Christian right--for example, the Left Behind sequence of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins and the romance fiction of authors like Karen Kingsbury and Francine Rivers. The author focuses on how their more formulaic novels contrast with works of greater literary merit that offer more complex presentations of faith issue, e.g., work by John Updike, Oscar Hijuelos, and Barbara Kingsolver. This book will find a readership among students of literature, religion, and contemporary culture. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.
    —Choice     2/1/2008
Description: In recent years, there has been an explosion in the market for fiction on religious topics and themes, most notably Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The variety of contemporary religious fiction and the publishing phenomenon surrounding it indicate that this literature transcends any overt religious meaning and is significant in its political and social implications; it is emblematic of the contemporary American Zeitgeist. Traditionally, literature is both mirror and lamp, reflecting the society that produces it and illuminating the values and interests of that society. Recognizing both of those perspectives, Gandolfo examines Christian literature's place in American culture today and explores the cultural meaning and significance of the wildly popular Christian fiction now available.

The phenomenon surrounding Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has led to a cottage industry of interpretations, attacks, and commentaries, but one thing is certain: the book has had an enormous impact on American society, culture, and religious understanding, not to mention the publishing industry, which scrambles to find similar religious books to feed to an eager public. But The Da Vinci Code is not the only book of its type on the market today. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the market for fiction on religious topics and themes, with an entire series devoted to the impending Rapture as described in the Left Behind series. Some fiction does not take an explicitly religious theme as these books do. Instead, writers like Andre Dubus and Ron Hansen imbue their creative work with spiritual and religious themes embedded in the everyday lives and concerns of their characters. Regardless of the specific approach, what is not in doubt is that American readers have made the authors of these works wealthy as bookstores cannot stock their shelves with enough copies. Why the recent surge of interest in Christian fiction? How does it reflect trends in our culture and our lives? How has it changed our society and our understanding of spirituality and religion? How accurate are these books in terms of the theology they espouse?

The variety of contemporary religious fiction and the publishing phenomenon surrounding it indicate that this literature transcends any overt religious meaning and is significant in its political and social implications; it is emblematic of the contemporary American Zeitgeist. Traditionally, literature is both mirror and lamp, reflecting the society that produces it and illuminating the values and interests of that society. Recognizing both of those perspectives, Faith and Fiction examines Christian literature's place in American culture today and explores the cultural meaning and significance of the wildly popular Christian fiction now available.
About the Author: Anita Gandolfo is Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Military Academy where she was the founding Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Professor of English. She is the author of Testing the Faith: The New Catholic Fiction in America (Greenwood, 1992), for which she won a Choice Outstanding Book award.
PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Religion Catalog 2008.pdf
Pop Culture Spring 2008.pdf
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