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Christian Poetry in America Since 1940: An Anthology
Winner of the 2023 Christianity Book Award — Culture & The Arts!
"One of the best, and least expected, anthologies in decades.” —Joseph Bottum, Poetry editor, New York Sun
Showcasing thirty-five American poets born in or after 1940, this anthology confirms that one of the most vibrant developments in contemporary verse has been a renewed engagement with the Christian faith. Across a full spectrum of Christian belief, including the struggle to believe at all, these poets bring the power of their art to bear on serious how to understand the goodness of God in a fallen and tragic world, how to reconcile universal truths with the particularities of human experience, how to render familiar events of salvation history in new language that generates its own epiphanies. As Christian engagement assumes a multiplicity of modes and voices, so does contemporary poetry in America. This volume, then, selective yet representative, features the work of early-, mid-, and late-career poets, formalists, free-verse poets, and experimenters in prosody. This anthology bears witness to the poetic mind as it seeks that which is above.
"One of the best, and least expected, anthologies in decades.” —Joseph Bottum, Poetry editor, New York Sun
Showcasing thirty-five American poets born in or after 1940, this anthology confirms that one of the most vibrant developments in contemporary verse has been a renewed engagement with the Christian faith. Across a full spectrum of Christian belief, including the struggle to believe at all, these poets bring the power of their art to bear on serious how to understand the goodness of God in a fallen and tragic world, how to reconcile universal truths with the particularities of human experience, how to render familiar events of salvation history in new language that generates its own epiphanies. As Christian engagement assumes a multiplicity of modes and voices, so does contemporary poetry in America. This volume, then, selective yet representative, features the work of early-, mid-, and late-career poets, formalists, free-verse poets, and experimenters in prosody. This anthology bears witness to the poetic mind as it seeks that which is above.
208 pages, Paperback
Published September 6, 2022
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177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 12, 2023
I am no connoisseur of modern poetry -- on the contrary, I'm as traditionalist as they come. Nonetheless, I'm really glad I gave this book a try. So many of the poems made a vivid and lasting impression on me, and made me want to read more by these poets.
February 25, 2024
This had great potential for an anthology idea, but unfortunately it more or less just ends up showcasing the problems of contemporary poetry, which seems to have gone parched of artistry as traditionally defined. There are a small handful of gems in here (I really liked Dana Gioia and Christian Wiman's poems, but then again, they're the most well-known poets in this book for a reason), but there is also a poem called "Little Blessing For My Floater" among other trite and unconvincing selections, and a whole host of poems that try to retell biblical stories in fakey, insincere fashion. Debating whether I'll keep this around or give it as a gift to someone who is less critical of contemporary tendencies than I. (How come no one recognizes that poetry is different than prose for a reason? Creative nonfiction chopped up into lines does not equal poetry).
Read
December 15, 2022Poetry is nearly impossible to review. This anthology is a good starting place to find some poets I'd like to know more of and some simply baffle me.
I wonder if I'd prefer to read the poems and then the bios in the future.
I wonder if I'd prefer to read the poems and then the bios in the future.
July 9, 2024
I've been loving the
Poems Ancient and Modern
newsletter, so I had to try this book co-edited by Sally Thomas. Several names were familiar to me, and many were new. All the authors were born between 1940 and 1990.
Highlights for me included Marilyn Nelson (whose work I'd just picked up at the used bookstore before starting this volume!) and Shane McCrae ("Lord of the Hopeless Also Dear" now lives rent-free in my mind). I doubt I'd read through this anthology again, but I'm eager to pick up more poetry by the authors included here.
Highlights for me included Marilyn Nelson (whose work I'd just picked up at the used bookstore before starting this volume!) and Shane McCrae ("Lord of the Hopeless Also Dear" now lives rent-free in my mind). I doubt I'd read through this anthology again, but I'm eager to pick up more poetry by the authors included here.
Want to read
May 14, 2024I read Micah's introduction sometime in late 2022. In First Things, where Micah is the poetry editor, he writes about the integrity of poetry, claiming that the view of poetry as exclusively moral is too reductive by omitting pleasure. Rusty Reno interviews Micah here. Christianity & Literature review here.
January 31, 2023
This volume has many rave reviews and I picked it up from a review at First Things, hoping that this would open the door to more good poetry. I like an anthology because someone has sifted through the dross for me, and chosen the very best. Many of these poets are award winners. I found one good poet Franz Wright that I am also reading through. He became a Christian later in life, and he has meditations on his life before and after that are perceptive.
But, and this is very disappointing, that such a collection is hailed the best in decades, when this represents the best that Christian poets have to offer. I read these to my wife, and very often I had the same experience with this poetry as she did. Many of these poems began well, or had clear potential, or definitely spoke to me, like sitting and having a conversation with a friend, but then, near the end, the conversation turned, the poem spits in your face, and then your friend is sitting across from you like this was normal. Needless to say, that was very offputting. I enjoy the mundaneity of modern poetry, and that seemed to be a theme that these poems picked up on, yet not a few were clearly gnostic in their interpretation of the world and expression. I think this is largely because of the catholic influence represented here. I contrast this gnostic tendency, with the genuine sacramentalism of TS Eliot who sees the world as the real presence of God, rather than as the barrier that I must escape for a true spirituality. On the lower end, some of this poetry was “Christian” in the worst sense of the word. Neither a meditation on the real world, nor on God himself, or even the Christian life, but in a purely speculative and imaginary reconstruction of Christian characters. One tried to describe the agony of John on the island of Patmos, which was, frankly, laughably Sunday Schoolish. Again, this stems from the modern Roman Catholic influence, which tends to supernaturalize the real world, rather than seeing the grandeur of God in it. The poet is supposed to be an observer of the world in all its aspects, not merely living in the speculation of the mind.
Like I said, this volume has received high praise and contains poets who have won many awards and accolades, but I wonder if perhaps therein is part of the problem: rather than an anthology of truly great poetry, it is a collection of poetry admired by a class of people who are not the best judges of what good poetry really is, or, on the other hand, this really is the best that we can do in the past 80 years.
But, and this is very disappointing, that such a collection is hailed the best in decades, when this represents the best that Christian poets have to offer. I read these to my wife, and very often I had the same experience with this poetry as she did. Many of these poems began well, or had clear potential, or definitely spoke to me, like sitting and having a conversation with a friend, but then, near the end, the conversation turned, the poem spits in your face, and then your friend is sitting across from you like this was normal. Needless to say, that was very offputting. I enjoy the mundaneity of modern poetry, and that seemed to be a theme that these poems picked up on, yet not a few were clearly gnostic in their interpretation of the world and expression. I think this is largely because of the catholic influence represented here. I contrast this gnostic tendency, with the genuine sacramentalism of TS Eliot who sees the world as the real presence of God, rather than as the barrier that I must escape for a true spirituality. On the lower end, some of this poetry was “Christian” in the worst sense of the word. Neither a meditation on the real world, nor on God himself, or even the Christian life, but in a purely speculative and imaginary reconstruction of Christian characters. One tried to describe the agony of John on the island of Patmos, which was, frankly, laughably Sunday Schoolish. Again, this stems from the modern Roman Catholic influence, which tends to supernaturalize the real world, rather than seeing the grandeur of God in it. The poet is supposed to be an observer of the world in all its aspects, not merely living in the speculation of the mind.
Like I said, this volume has received high praise and contains poets who have won many awards and accolades, but I wonder if perhaps therein is part of the problem: rather than an anthology of truly great poetry, it is a collection of poetry admired by a class of people who are not the best judges of what good poetry really is, or, on the other hand, this really is the best that we can do in the past 80 years.
November 21, 2024
A wonderful collection.
January 25, 2023
I've flipped and read in this volume a lot now looking for poetry that is Christian rather than just employing language that sounds vaguely spiritual — there are maybe a handful or fewer in the whole volume. For every three poems by William Baer responding to Scripture, there are countless that pray to Eve as if she were divine instead of to God, or that try to reshape God into the image of the Native American "Great Spirit" and ascribe sin and failure to Him in the process, or that elevate human behaviors (even sinful ones) to the status of being holy somehow rather than signs of sin's curse.
There is in most of this less meter or form or skill or semblance of Christianity and more streams-of-consciousness new-age syncretism and pantheism and straight-up secularism.
This reads a bit like what an unbelieving academic who's never encountered Christianity might think is Christian, just by virtue of vague familiarity with some words that TV preachers might have mentioned before.
Which is all to say, it's not worth a space on the shelf, sadly. And I don't feel like I could donate it, since it could give an absolutely false impression of what Christianity is (and for fear that someone younger might pick it up and read the poems that — with no forewarning from this collection's editors — linger on rape and graphically describe lynchings).
There is in most of this less meter or form or skill or semblance of Christianity and more streams-of-consciousness new-age syncretism and pantheism and straight-up secularism.
This reads a bit like what an unbelieving academic who's never encountered Christianity might think is Christian, just by virtue of vague familiarity with some words that TV preachers might have mentioned before.
Which is all to say, it's not worth a space on the shelf, sadly. And I don't feel like I could donate it, since it could give an absolutely false impression of what Christianity is (and for fear that someone younger might pick it up and read the poems that — with no forewarning from this collection's editors — linger on rape and graphically describe lynchings).
May 21, 2023
Summary: An anthology of poetry written by a wide variety of poets who identify as Christian, born between 1940 and 1989.
When I first saw the title of this work, I felt myself cringe. Would this be the schlocky Hallmark poetry with a Christian veneer or something more substantial? I took the chance because Paraclete Press has come to represent intellectual and aesthetic quality in the publications I’ve received from them. I was not disappointed and in the process discovered a wide range of poets, many of whom have won distinguished literary awards or even served as Poet Laureates. The anthology includes poets born between 1940 and 1989, which excludes two of the more well-known poets we may think of–Luci Shaw and Wendell Berry.
What I found instead of saccharine-sweet pretty works were the honest probing of people who have thought deeply about both faith and life. For example Andrew Hudgins (from Ohio State, notes a fellow Buckeye) writes about “Praying Drunk” and stumbling through a rubric that will be familiar to some of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, if he is able to remain awake. Franz Wright opens his poem “Baptism” writing “That insane asshole is dead / I drowned him / and he’s not coming back. Look / he has a new name / a new life….” “Blessings” by Jay Parini writes not only of picking dandelion greens and small potatoes and cliff diving with friends, but also of lying naked with his love. A blessing indeed but adult stuff, where a Christ-informed vision meets the real stuff of human life. We have Christian Wiman’s “After The Diagnosis,” written after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis (although it appears that he is in remission as of this writing), reflects on how change comes into our lives.
The poetry comes in a variety of forms from sonnet to free verse to Shane McCrae’s “visceral, fractured lines.” Few are longer than a page. One of the shorter poems I liked was Marilyn Nelson’s “Incomplete Renunciation,” which asks for the American dream house, concluding “And let it pass / through the eye of a needle.” Dana Gioia’s “Seven Deadly Sins” speaks dismissively in the voice of Pride of the other six sins. Scott Cairns “Possible Answers to Prayer” considers how God may regard some of the things for which we pray and the places of the heart from which we pray.
Each poet is introduced with a one page or so literary biography considering both the character of their work and the awards and recognitions that work has received. The work includes acknowledgements of the sources of each work and an index of titles as well as an introductory essay by one of the editors, Micah Mattox.
This work demonstrated to me that, contrary to the voices decrying the banality of Christians in the arts, that there are accomplished writers doing good work. For those like myself who want to get more poetry in their lives, including poetry written through the eyes of faith, this book is a wonderful gateway that both stands on its own and introduces us to writers whose work we may want to explore more deeply.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
When I first saw the title of this work, I felt myself cringe. Would this be the schlocky Hallmark poetry with a Christian veneer or something more substantial? I took the chance because Paraclete Press has come to represent intellectual and aesthetic quality in the publications I’ve received from them. I was not disappointed and in the process discovered a wide range of poets, many of whom have won distinguished literary awards or even served as Poet Laureates. The anthology includes poets born between 1940 and 1989, which excludes two of the more well-known poets we may think of–Luci Shaw and Wendell Berry.
What I found instead of saccharine-sweet pretty works were the honest probing of people who have thought deeply about both faith and life. For example Andrew Hudgins (from Ohio State, notes a fellow Buckeye) writes about “Praying Drunk” and stumbling through a rubric that will be familiar to some of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication, if he is able to remain awake. Franz Wright opens his poem “Baptism” writing “That insane asshole is dead / I drowned him / and he’s not coming back. Look / he has a new name / a new life….” “Blessings” by Jay Parini writes not only of picking dandelion greens and small potatoes and cliff diving with friends, but also of lying naked with his love. A blessing indeed but adult stuff, where a Christ-informed vision meets the real stuff of human life. We have Christian Wiman’s “After The Diagnosis,” written after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis (although it appears that he is in remission as of this writing), reflects on how change comes into our lives.
The poetry comes in a variety of forms from sonnet to free verse to Shane McCrae’s “visceral, fractured lines.” Few are longer than a page. One of the shorter poems I liked was Marilyn Nelson’s “Incomplete Renunciation,” which asks for the American dream house, concluding “And let it pass / through the eye of a needle.” Dana Gioia’s “Seven Deadly Sins” speaks dismissively in the voice of Pride of the other six sins. Scott Cairns “Possible Answers to Prayer” considers how God may regard some of the things for which we pray and the places of the heart from which we pray.
Each poet is introduced with a one page or so literary biography considering both the character of their work and the awards and recognitions that work has received. The work includes acknowledgements of the sources of each work and an index of titles as well as an introductory essay by one of the editors, Micah Mattox.
This work demonstrated to me that, contrary to the voices decrying the banality of Christians in the arts, that there are accomplished writers doing good work. For those like myself who want to get more poetry in their lives, including poetry written through the eyes of faith, this book is a wonderful gateway that both stands on its own and introduces us to writers whose work we may want to explore more deeply.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
September 5, 2022
When I homeschooled my kids, our routine included a poem a day. I’m sure I enjoyed it far more my sons, but it’s a rhythm of life I recommend–in spite of the challenge of selling its merits to a band of boys.
This year, Paraclete Press has published an anthology of Christian Poetry in America Since 1940, providing a scholarly and immersive head-to-toe baptism into the modes and voices of contemporary Christian verse. The brief biographies preceding each featured poet were like program notes before a concert.
However, if you are more of the “poem a day” type of reader, this book still belongs on your nightstand as a daily (or nightly) companion, a vitamin for the soul.
A scholarly and immersive head-to-toe baptism into the modes and voices of contemporary Christian verse: Christian Poetry in America, a new anthology via @paracletepress!
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Editors Micah Mattix and Sally Thomas have selected representative works of diverse styles but common focus. Borrowing from C.S. Lewis, they make the helpful distinction that a Christian poet is not “bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely… trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom.”
Since each poem is distinctly Christian in subject matter, the reader is invited to join Marjorie Maddox’s picturesque lament on “the human beneath” all our fragile piety; to receive the gift of Timothy Murphy’s gently-rhymed psalms and prayers; to ponder Julia Spicher Kasdorf’s perspicacious commentary on her Mennonite heritage; and to receive joyfully Tania Runyan’s exhortation that the fruit of the Spirit “aren’t commandments, but signs.”
Poetry meets faith at the intersection of comprehension and application. I’m jolted awake whenever timeless truth comes to me through the lens of fresh expression.
Many thanks to Paraclete Press for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
This year, Paraclete Press has published an anthology of Christian Poetry in America Since 1940, providing a scholarly and immersive head-to-toe baptism into the modes and voices of contemporary Christian verse. The brief biographies preceding each featured poet were like program notes before a concert.
However, if you are more of the “poem a day” type of reader, this book still belongs on your nightstand as a daily (or nightly) companion, a vitamin for the soul.
A scholarly and immersive head-to-toe baptism into the modes and voices of contemporary Christian verse: Christian Poetry in America, a new anthology via @paracletepress!
Tweet
Editors Micah Mattix and Sally Thomas have selected representative works of diverse styles but common focus. Borrowing from C.S. Lewis, they make the helpful distinction that a Christian poet is not “bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely… trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom.”
Since each poem is distinctly Christian in subject matter, the reader is invited to join Marjorie Maddox’s picturesque lament on “the human beneath” all our fragile piety; to receive the gift of Timothy Murphy’s gently-rhymed psalms and prayers; to ponder Julia Spicher Kasdorf’s perspicacious commentary on her Mennonite heritage; and to receive joyfully Tania Runyan’s exhortation that the fruit of the Spirit “aren’t commandments, but signs.”
Poetry meets faith at the intersection of comprehension and application. I’m jolted awake whenever timeless truth comes to me through the lens of fresh expression.
Many thanks to Paraclete Press for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
December 15, 2023
The book Christian Poetry in America Since 1940 is a guided tour through the poetic evolution of Christianity in the United States arranges poems in a timeline, showcasing the evolution of poetry over the years. What stood out to me was its inclusion of not just famous poets but also lesser-known voices, providing a diverse perspective on the Christian journey. The brief intros to each poet are helpful, especially for those not well-versed in poetry. I particularly enjoyed poems like "After Absence" by Franz Wright, "The Fruit of the Spirit" by Tania Runyan, and "Consolation" by Bruce Beasley, which prompt contemplation on self-reflection, forgiveness, and the comforting peace found in faith.
December 12, 2023
Out of the thirty-five poets, Andrew Hudgins is one of my favorites. I find his poems to be very relatable. I particularly like "Praying Drunk" where a young man struggles to pray and yet confesses his sins to God and gives thanks as well. This poem is very relatable . . . Overall, Hudgins uses humor in unexpected ways in his poems to illuminate the hopefulness of our redemption in Christ.
January 6, 2025
Yeah, I made it half way through this book in the last six weeks then tapped out. I just don't like modern poetry. Everything that happened after Robert Frost is suspect, in my opinion. I'm with Stephen Fry: if there is no meter, it's not a poem--it's just self-indulgent word salad (most of the time).
April 9, 2024
A wonderful anthology that introduces a range of modern Christian poets. I didn't mesh with every author included, but that's not really the point of anthology anyway and the ones I did mesh with were absolutely captivating.
January 9, 2025
This is an important start, and a fine collection. I very much liked most of the poets represented here and love many of them. Overall, this is surprising and a much needed collection.
But why no Mary Karr?
But why no Mary Karr?
March 5, 2023
Really good. Happy to learn of some great poets on American soil, most notably Tania Runyan.
April 24, 2023
This is a nice anthology of classical poetry. While I like it, I found a better, more current Christian poetry book,
October 7, 2023
This is a great introduction and survey of christian poets in the 20th century. A number of them I have already purchased their chapbooks.
December 28, 2023
I usually orient to older poets, so this was fun.
May 14, 2024
Like any anthology, there were some selections that I really liked, and a few that I really didn't. Good worthwhile reading.
February 24, 2025
An excellent survey of American Christian poetry.
October 11, 2023
These poems are not as accessible as poems in other collections I have read and there were many I didn't understand. Still, I'm glad I stretched my abilities by reading them. The introductions were interesting.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews