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Displacing the Divine : The Minister in the Mirror of American Fiction / Douglas Walrath.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Religion and American CulturePublisher: New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2010]Copyright date: ©2010Description: 1 online resource (400 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780231151061
  • 9780231521802
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 813/.00935823 22
LOC classification:
  • PS374.C55 W36 2010
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part I. Exposing the Divine: 1790s- 1850s -- i. Faltering Fathers and Devious Divines -- ii. Clerics in Contention -- iii. Vulnerable Divines -- Part II. Discrediting the Divine: 1860s- 1920s -- iv. Compulsives and Accommodators -- v. Con Men in Collars and Heroes of the Cloth -- vi Activist Preachers and Their Detractors -- vii. Champions of the Faith -- viii. Foundering Divines -- ix. Flawed Divines -- Part III. The Legacy: 1930s- 2000s -- x. Fallen Divines -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: As religious leaders, ministers are often assumed to embody the faith of the institution they represent. As cultural symbols, they reflect subtle changes in society and belief-specifically people's perception of God and the evolving role of the church. For more than forty years, Douglas Alan Walrath has tracked changing patterns of belief and church participation in American society, and his research has revealed a particularly fascinating trend: portrayals of ministers in American fiction mirror changing perceptions of the Protestant church and a Protestant God.From the novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who portrays ministers as faithful Calvinists, to the works of Herman Melville, who challenges Calvinism to its very core, Walrath considers a variety of fictional ministers, including Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon Lutherans and Gail Godwin's women clergy. He identifies a range of types: religious misfits, harsh Puritans, incorrigible scoundrels, secular businessmen, perpetrators of oppression, victims of belief, prudent believers, phony preachers, reactionaries, and social activists. He concludes with the modern legacy of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century images of ministers, which highlights the ongoing challenges that skepticism, secularization, and science have brought to today's religious leaders and fictional counterparts. Displacing the Divine offers a novel encounter with social change, giving the reader access, through the intimacy and humanity of literature, to the evolving character of an American tradition.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780231521802

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part I. Exposing the Divine: 1790s- 1850s -- i. Faltering Fathers and Devious Divines -- ii. Clerics in Contention -- iii. Vulnerable Divines -- Part II. Discrediting the Divine: 1860s- 1920s -- iv. Compulsives and Accommodators -- v. Con Men in Collars and Heroes of the Cloth -- vi Activist Preachers and Their Detractors -- vii. Champions of the Faith -- viii. Foundering Divines -- ix. Flawed Divines -- Part III. The Legacy: 1930s- 2000s -- x. Fallen Divines -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

As religious leaders, ministers are often assumed to embody the faith of the institution they represent. As cultural symbols, they reflect subtle changes in society and belief-specifically people's perception of God and the evolving role of the church. For more than forty years, Douglas Alan Walrath has tracked changing patterns of belief and church participation in American society, and his research has revealed a particularly fascinating trend: portrayals of ministers in American fiction mirror changing perceptions of the Protestant church and a Protestant God.From the novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who portrays ministers as faithful Calvinists, to the works of Herman Melville, who challenges Calvinism to its very core, Walrath considers a variety of fictional ministers, including Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon Lutherans and Gail Godwin's women clergy. He identifies a range of types: religious misfits, harsh Puritans, incorrigible scoundrels, secular businessmen, perpetrators of oppression, victims of belief, prudent believers, phony preachers, reactionaries, and social activists. He concludes with the modern legacy of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century images of ministers, which highlights the ongoing challenges that skepticism, secularization, and science have brought to today's religious leaders and fictional counterparts. Displacing the Divine offers a novel encounter with social change, giving the reader access, through the intimacy and humanity of literature, to the evolving character of an American tradition.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)