{"id":6154,"date":"2014-11-27T12:38:16","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T19:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=6154"},"modified":"2014-12-01T12:45:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T19:45:58","slug":"rearguard-action-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2014\/11\/27\/rearguard-action-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Rearguard Action For God"},"content":{"rendered":"

from NewStatesman<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The books of revelations: why are novelists turning back to religion?<\/h1>\n

There is a sense that, in recent years, novelists have formed part of a rearguard action in response to Richard Dawkins\u2019s\u00a0New Atheist consensus. Philip Maughan talks to Marilynne Robinson, Francis Spufford and Rowan Williams about God in literature.<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Philip Maughan<\/a><\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Close to the end of White Noise<\/em>, Don DeLillo\u2019s 1984 novel about a professor of Hitler studies who will do just about anything to ease his fear of dying, an elderly nun reveals the secret truth about faith. \u201cDo you think we are stupid?\u201d she asks Jack Gladney,\u00a0bleeding from the wrist at a Catholic hospital following a botched murder attempt. \u201cWe are here to take care of sick and injured,\u201d\u00a0the old nun explains in a halting German accent. \u201cOnly this. You would talk about heaven, you must find another place.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the crosses, devotional images of saints, angels and popes that line the walls of the ward exist merely as set dressing. \u201cThe devil, the angels, heaven and hell. If we did not pretend to believe these things, the world would collapse,\u201d she says. \u201cAs belief shrinks from the world, people find it more necessary than ever that someone<\/em> believe. Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to hear this,\u201d Gladney moans. \u201cThis is terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut true,\u201d the nun says.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the unlikely popularity of religion in contemporary fiction. So far this year we have seen the strange sanctification of a thalidomide victim who died in childhood (Orla Nor Cleary in Nicola Barker\u2019s dazzlingly manic In the Approaches<\/em>), an avowedly atheist dentist lured to Israel by the leader of an underground sect (Joshua Ferris\u2019s Man Booker-shortlisted To Rise Again at a Decent Hour<\/em>), a high court judge, Fiona Maye, ruling on whether a hospital has the right to administer a life-saving blood transfusion to a teenage Jehovah\u2019s Witness (Ian\u00a0McEwan\u2019s The Children Act<\/em>) and, most recently, the voyage of a prim evangelical on a\u00a0mission to outer space (Michel Faber\u2019s Book of Strange New Things<\/em>).<\/p>\n

When you consider these alongside the large volume of books about Jesus published in the past few years \u2013 Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn\u2019s gory reimagining of the Gospels in The Testament of Mary<\/em>, the enigmatic youth David from J\u00a0M Coetzee\u2019s The Childhood of Jesus<\/em>, James Frey\u2019s damaged Ben Zion in The Final Testament<\/em> and Philip Pullman\u2019s warring twins in The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ<\/em> \u2013 you get a sense of bewildered fascination, of a sore that continues to itch.<\/p>\n

[ click to read full article at NewStatesman<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from NewStatesman The books of revelations: why are novelists turning back to religion? There is a sense that, in recent years, novelists have formed part of a rearguard action in response to Richard Dawkins\u2019s\u00a0New Atheist consensus. Philip Maughan talks to Marilynne Robinson, Francis Spufford and Rowan Williams about God in literature. by Philip Maughan Close […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}