American Literature & Christian Doctrine

by Randall Stewart

Essays on famous American literature and it's relationship to Christian beliefs and ideals.

155 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Thomas Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little known book and scholar are perfect for analyzing American literature. While he only covers the greats up to his day (from Edwards to Whitman and Dickinson to Hawthorne and Melville to Henry James and Dreiser to Elliot and Faulkner), I believe his thesis and framework easily apply to any he didn’t cover due to space (such as Twain or Fenimore Cooper) or due to time (such as Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, and Gene Wolfe coming after him).

American letters are fundamentally about the portrayal of, or reaction against, Calvinist anthropology: man’s reason isn’t enough for the need of faith, man is tainted with sin rather than inherently good, and man has moral agency rather than being subject to his circumstances.

This would make an excellent backbone to a course in American literature.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

An obscure book I happened to find at a library book sale. I would have probably skipped it entirely if it wasn’t for a passing reference to it in a book by Mark Noll.

I found it to be a helpful guide to the way American literature (and more specifically, the most significant “classic” American authors) have ideas that intersect in interesting ways with orthodox Christian doctrine.

A helpful, highly readable introduction for anyone interested in literature and/or history and the religious ideas.