Beginning with the Word: Modern Literature and the Question of Belief

Wheaton College English professor Lundin (Believing Again) undertakes a bold and daunting project: winnowing out the metaphysical dimension inherent in good writing— specifically, in the works of the masters of modern literature. Invoking the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, he calls this undertaking the “hermeneutics of testimony,” which places the book comfortably in the camp of theology more than literature, though literature students will be intrigued. Lundin explores the works of such great writers as Flannery O’Connor, Emily Dickinson, and Shakespeare, among others, through the lens of language and its “relationship to truth.” He draws heavily upon the idea that God’s own self-revelation through Christ was realized as the logos – the word. Like the Word that was/is Christ, finite words in literature are not simply a matter of sentence construction and wording. They come together mysteriously and invisibly to render revelation. The writers of great literature become beacons of one’s own time as revealers of the mysteries of God in a moment, a scene, a word. (Dec.)