Things in Heaven and Earth: Exploring the Supernatural

Novelist Fickett (The Holy Fool) collects the writings of novelists like Doris Betts, Madeleine L'Engle, Ron Hansen and Susan Bergman on their experiences with the supernatural. The 14 contributors, who also include philosophers (Deal Hudson) and lawyers (Phillip E. Johnson), write openly about such topics as signs and wonders, miracles, revelation and the relationship between science and the supernatural. In his introduction, Fickett remarks that the writers he has chosen for this project are ""hard thinkers and eloquent witnesses to their experience"" of the supernatural. In his startling reflection, ""Underland,"" novelist David Borofka chronicles his bouts with depression and concludes that heaven and earth are so much a part of each other that the transcendent is found peeking through our ordinariness in little moments of insight. In a reflection both comic and profound, ""The Way of Imperfection,"" Erin McGraw offers a parody of Teresa of Avila's The Way of Perfection as she searches for, and finds, a spiritual model ""who rejoiced when she found her Lord in everyday chores."" Finally, Hudson recalls the work of French Catholic thinker Jacques Maritain and urges, like Maritain, that the supernatural be restored to philosophy. Fickett's collection offers elegant meditations from writers who are attentive to the mystery of the transcendent in everyday life. (Sept.)