This is a rather specialist book which won’t interest all of our readers, but it might prove very beneficial for some when considering which novels, poems and other works of fiction to read.

Interactions with faith

The author, a former Bishop of Oxford, has treated us to his personal exploration of some of the great poets and novelists whose interactions with the Christian faith find expression in their works and who demonstrate the different forms such faith can take.

The author chooses twenty writers, some very well known (Dostoevsky, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Becket, W. H. Auden, Graham Greene, and C. S. Lewis being the most notable) and several whom most people will never have heard of. Harries points out that in some cases the struggles of these authors do not end successfully. Each author has to be “taken on their own terms, with the reader taking seriously what they took seriously” (p.xv). As such, their writings must be seen as literature and not attempts at propaganda or apologetics.

C. S. Lewis is linked with Philip Pullman, which is an interesting juxtaposition.

Each chapter starts with a short introductory paragraph setting out a few basic facts about the author under discussion, and the order of the chapters is based on their dates of birth. As there are only 15 chapters covering all 20 writers, some chapters group two or more together, for instance C. S. Lewis is linked with Philip Pullman, which is an interesting juxtaposition. Four Catholic authors share a single chapter – Graham Greene, Flannery O’Connor, Shusaku Endo, and Evelyn Waugh.

Faith refracted in fiction

For completeness, the remaining writers chosen by Harries are Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Thomas, Stevie Smith, R. S. Thomas, Edwin Muir, George Mackay Brown, Elizabeth Jennings and Marilynne Robinson. The overall mixture of writers of all kinds adds to the potential of finding a new gem among old favourites.

In his endorsement, Melvyn Bragg exudes: “This book rightly and authoritatively, without beating the drum, resurrects the profound spiritual tradition of Christianity over a century that often claimed to have stamped it out. Here, see it alive and well, subtly and with fine scholarship unveiled”.

The overall mixture of writers of all kinds adds to the potential of finding a new gem among old favourites.

Incidentally, Harries explains that by referring to all of his subjects in the subtitle as modern writers he is not using the term in the way historians might when referring to a period of history, or how others might use the term modernism. Rather, for “the purposes of this book ‘modern’ means beginning with Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81)” (p.xi).

So, if reading poetry or fiction is a hobby or passion for you, or you just fancy widening your scope of reading, then this book might be something to consider for the long summer days ahead.

Haunted by Christ (233pp) is published by SPCK, and is available from Amazon for the remarkably low price of £3.99 (inc p&p).