University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies

SCS 1543 Religious Themes in Modern Literature

Course Details Modern literature has a curiously indirect relation to religion. Many literary works contain common religious themes (such as salvation, sin, creation) but few depict God in a traditional theological way. This course will examine some of the ways in which modern authors (especially those writing in the twentieth century) display religious themes in their work. While some novels will be discussed, the emphasis will be on short stories and poems, in order to survey a wide range of responses.

Learner Outcomes Knowledge of some of the major religious questions, such as the nature and existence of God and the problem of evil. Understanding of the difference between literature and philosophy, with the aim to introduce students to different intellectual approaches to these issues.

http://learn.utoronto.ca/uoft/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&course Id=938495

SCS 1543 Thu 1:00PM - 3:00PM 6 Oct 2005 to 24 Nov 2005 Number of Sessions: 8

Instructor: Daryl Culp, B.Math, M.Theology, Ph.D. http://individual.utoronto.ca/darylculp

Tentative Schedule:

Week 1: Intro (What's New? or definitions of the modern); rationalism and the loss of faith

William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" http://www.levity.com/alchemy/blake_ma.html

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A. H. H." (Stanzas 54-6) http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet323.html

Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach" http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/dover.html

W. B. Yeats, "The Second Coming" http://www.well.com/user/eob/poetry/The_Second_Coming.html

Week 2: 20th century angst and alienation

Jean-Paul Sartre, "No Exit" http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/hell/sart.html

T. S. Eliot, "The Journey of the Magi" http://lucien.blight.com/~sparkle/poems/magi.html

T. S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"

http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~evans/hollow.html

W. H. Auden, "The Unknown Citizen" http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15549

Arthur C. Clarke, "The Star"

Week 3: art as salvation

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/29/62/frameset.html

Week 4: God makes a comeback

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" http://members.aol.com/ericblomqu/hopkins.htm#100

Philip Freneau, "On the Universality and Other Attributes of the God of Nature" http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/philipfreneau/12007

Alice Meynell, "Christ in the Universe" http://www.bartleby.com/236/265.html

Denise Levertov, "O Taste and See" http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/levertov.htm#_Toc23572783

Week 5: Redemption in modern literature

Rudy Wiebe, Peace Shall Destroy Many http://www.bookclubs.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780676973426

Karol Wojtyla, "Easter Vigil"

Week 6: The problem of evil

Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/sparrow-excerpt.asp

Walter Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0736642676/102-04761643340958?v=glance&vi=excerpt

Week 7: Aliens, other worlds, and imagining God

Robert Sawyer, Calculating God http://www.sfwriter.com/sccg.htm

Philip Pullman, "His Dark Materials" (series)

Week 8: After modernity, does anything go?

Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah" http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Leonard-Cohen/Hallelujah.html

U2, "Grace" http://www.lyrics4all.net/u/u2/all-that-you-cant-leave/grace.php

Robert Priest, "Christ is the Kind of Guy" http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/priest/poem4.htm

Pier Giorgio di Cicco, "Christ" http://www.ascentmagazine.com/webExclusive.aspx?WEID=34&issueID=26&page=re ad&subpage=current

Patrick Friesen, "clearing 3" http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/friesen/poem1.htm

Di Brandt, "missionary position (1) http://web2.uwindsor.ca/dibrandt/questpoem.htm

Critical Essays

John Fletcher, "Sin in Contemporary Literature" http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jul1993/v50-2-article8.htm

Gina Herring, "I Believe in the Afterlife Called Literature:" The Redemptive Power of "the Word" http://cc.cumberlandcollege.edu/acad/rel/webpage/FACULTY/dunston/COURSES/relg 490/relandlit.htm

W. Paul Jones, "Self-Identity and Contemporary Literature" http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jul1962/v19-2-article8.htm Stephanie Lein, "Sartrian Existentialism in 'No Exit'" http://honors.org/AHR/AHR00/sartre2.html

Terry Wright, "Religion and Literature from the Modern to the Postmodern: Scott, Steiner and Detweiler" http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/19/1/3

analysis of Blake: http://www.literatureclassics.com/ancientpaths/blake2.html

commentary on Arnold: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/touche4.html

analysis of Yeats: http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/yeats/section5.rhtml

analysis of Eliot: http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/eliot.htm ; http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/hollow.htm

e-notes on Joyce: http://www.enotes.com/portrait-artist/

papers on Lewis: http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/ ; movie being released Dec. 9, 2005 http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/narnia/lb_main.html

analysis of Hopkins: http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/hopkins/section1.html

summary of Clarke: http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thestar/

commentary on Levertov: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levertov/taste.htm

summary of Russell: http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/russell.html

e-notes on Pullman: http://www.enotes.com/golden-compass-qn/

analysis of di Cicco's poetry: http://www.athabascau.ca/writers/dicicco_essay.html