James Wood on the New Atheism

James Wood has been one of the most consistently interesting critics writing about religious themes in contemporary fiction, and I note another very useful essay in the Guardian Saturday Review.

The Rainbow

I note an interesting essay by Rachel Cusk on D.H. Lawrence's Women and Love and The Rainbow, around the same time as the BBC were screening an adaptation of the two novels. I'm fairly sure that religious historians are not at all finished with Lawrence's curious religion of the sensual, and his treatment of 'religious' characters.

Another 'Catholic novel'

What could be more Catholic than a novel set in Lourdes ? Such is Michael Arditti's latest, Jubilate, which is reviewed in the Telegraph, the Independent, and by Peter Stanford in the Guardian

Frank Kermode

Rather belatedly, I note two obituaries of Frank Kermode in the Guardian and Independent. Both pick up on his interest in religious narrative, which issued in the The Literary Guide to the Bible (1987), co-edited with Robert Alter.

Dorothy L. Sayers and William Temple

I'm delighted to report the publication of the latest Miscellany from the Church of England Record Society, which includes my own edition of and introduction to the correspondence relating to Temple's offer of a Lambeth D.D. to Sayers, which she refused. It's a most interesting episode, which reveals much about the position of the 'Christan writer' in England, and the relationship between the Church of England and the arts.

Penelope Fitzgerald

Rather belatedly, I note an interesting piece by Hermione Lee in the Guardian (April 3rd), in advance of her forthcoming biography. It gives tantalising glimpses, from Lee's work on Fitzgerald's library, with her engagement with religious writing, including Murder in the Cathedral and Bonhoeffer.

The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ

I note an interesting response from Rowan Williams to Philip Pullman's recent offering, in the Guardian on April 3rd.

It is part of an interesting ongoing exchange between the two men: hear a podcast of the two in conversation in relation to His Dark Materials at the National Theatre in 2004, (and an edited transcript in the Telegraph) and an article by Williams on the same in the Guardian, March 10th 2004

The Church and literature

There is now a provisional programme available for the Ecclesiastical History Society's conference in July, to be held at St Andrews. I mention it here for the theme, 'The Church and Literature', and for one of the plenary lectures by Crawford Gribben on rapture fiction.

The deadline for proposals for papers is very soon (tomorrow,, in fact), but there is plenty of time to book to attend. More details are available on the EHS site.

The Children's Book

I am about half-way through A.S. Byatt's latest, the Booker-shortlisted The Children's Book. It touches on the nature of art in several ways; perhaps most interesting for this blog is the portrayal of the potter Benedict Fludd, who (it has been suggested) bears some resemblance to Eric Gill.

It has attracted a good few reviews, helpfully listed at www.complete-review.com. The review by James Wood in the LRB I found most interesting.

Letters of T.S. Eliot

I note the recent appearance of the second volume in the correspondence of T.S. Eliot, covering the period 1923-25. Although Eliot was writing little new poetry in this period, there appears to be much there on more general questions of learned publishing, the circulation of ideas and Eliot's view of what The Criterion was to do. Several reviews have appeared, the most extended of which is by Stefan Collini in the Guardian. Collini has of course written on Eliot in his Absent Minds. Michael Wood in the LRB draws out some traces of Eliot's emerging religious thinking on the importance of suffering and sacrifice.

C.S. Lewis and the planets

There is an interesting and very favourable review by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, in a recent TLS of Planet Narnia, a new book on C.S.Lewis, and in particular the symbolism of the planets embedded in the Narnia series. It argues that themes that are explicit in The Discarded Image and That Hideous Strength can be used as a method of understanding the seven books of the Narnia series.
The author, Michael Ward, has put together a website dedicated to the book. It is available online (to subscribers) at Oxford Scholarship Online.

The Pope and the artist

I note with interest the recent appeal of the Pope for a new relationship with artists, beginning with an event at the Vatican in November, although it isn't clear what the agenda for that meeting is. (See the National Catholic Reporter of Sept 11th.) This seems to pick up some of the themes of John Paul II's Letter to Artists of 1999.

Muriel Spark

I note several reviews of Martin Stannard's new Life of Spark, including Jonathan Bate in the Telegraph and John Carey in the Sunday Times. Most of the reviewers give space to the importance of her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1954.
Stannard himself is based at the University of Leicester and has also published extensively on that other 'Catholic novelist', Evelyn Waugh.

T.S. Eliot

I note that Fulcrum are to re-publish a section from the Cambridge Companion to T.S. Eliot.

It is: Cleo McNelly Kearns, ‘Religion, literature and society in the work of T. S. Eliot’ from A. David Moody (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to T. S. Eliot (Cambridge: CUP, 2002), pp. 77-93.

Andrew Motion on the Bible

Two recent things of note from Andrew Motion:

The first was a piece in the Guardian Education supplement, on the centrality of the Bible to understanding English literature. His comments, from a professed atheist, will set heads nodding among those who have tried to teach religious history, even in a university context.
It provoked a number of responses, including that of Andrew Brown, also in the Guardian.

The second thing was another Guardian piece, this time reflecting on the role of Poet Laureate, which Motion is about to relinquish after ten years.

More on the credit crunch

By way of a footnote to an earlier post, Robert McCrum on the possible effects on publishing and writing, and David Smith on Waiting for Godot as a play de nos jours, both in the Observer.

G. K. Chesterton

I note a review by A. N. Wilson of a new study of Chesterton by William Oddie, in the TLS, 28th Jan. It is also reviewed by Christopher Howse in the Tablet.

Art, culture and the credit crunch

I note a recent spate of articles dwelling on what effects the credit crunch might have on the arts, particularly in connection with the recent BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit. They are all interesting in their various ways for the views they take of the relation between art/culture and the economic 'base', as it were, as well as for their various takes on the virtuousness of thrift more generally. See:
(i) a Guardian review article by Colin Burrow, on the idea of indebtedness in literature from Milton to Martin Amis
(ii) George Walden in the TLS - After the credit crunch - the arts crunch ?.
(iii) A.S. Byatt on Little Dorrit, also in the Guardian.

Rowan Williams on Dostoevsky

For information, some of the early reactions to Rowan Williams' new book on Dostoevsky. The Guardian reviewer finds much interesting thinking in it, but wonders whether it contains "the worst prose ever written by a poet." A.N. Wilson is rather more engaged in the TLS, as is Salley Vickers in the Times. Williams has given interviews to the Guardian and the Telegraph (A.N. Wilson again).

Auden's prose

Following on from an earlier post, another review of the third volume of Edward Mendelson's edition of Auden's prose, this time by Sean O'Brien, reflecting on the cultural distance now evident between Auden and our contemporary life.