cover image John Updike and Religion: The Sense of the Sacred and the Motions of Grace

John Updike and Religion: The Sense of the Sacred and the Motions of Grace

. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, $24 (303pp) ISBN 978-0-8028-3873-5

Yerkes, professor of religion and philosophy at Moravian College, edits this eminently readable collection of essays exploring the religious dimensions of Updike's work and vision. Authored by an interdisciplinary group, the collection benefits by avoiding both excessively technical and tendentiously ""churchy"" language. As insightful as it is with respect to Updike's writing, it also effectively uses Updike as a lens, creatively bringing into focus American democracy, civil religion and the Protestant tradition with which Updike converses. The 15 essays fall under three sections: ""Updike and the Religious Dimension,"" ""Updike and the Christian Religion"" and ""Updike and American Religion."" The book is noteworthy not only for its interdisciplinary approach but, as Yerkes himself points out, for the time it spends on writings regarded by establishment critics to be among Updike's worst. The anthology opens with a poem and an essay by Updike himself and closes with a useful bibliography, including Internet sources on Updike's work. For readers who have never explored Updike, these essays serve as a provocative invitation to do so. Readers who have already engaged Updike in depth will find in these pages a rich and critical conversation, revealing Updike's intricate vision of religion and human experience. (Oct.)