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Brave Souls: Writers and Artists Wrestle With God, Love, Death, and Things That Matter

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232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

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Douglas Todd

7 books

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Steven R. McEvoy.
3,826 reviews175 followers
January 6, 2023
I first encountered this book about a decade ago in a course called Faith Quests RS 100C. During the course of the term we had about a dozen books to read. From this volume each student had to select two of the people profiled and present a seminar using this book as the beginning point and doing further research. I personally loved the book, and read not only the profiles we needed to have prepared for seminars but the whole volume. I even gave away a few copies. The sad part is that the book is now out of print because Stoddart went under a few years ago.

Todd, a long time writer and columnist for the Vancouver Sun, created the book by doing a series of interviews and then crafting those pieces into this volume. He breaks the Participants into four categories: The Atheists, The Doubters, The New Ancients and Emerging Mystics. The people profiled in each group are:

The Atheists
Mordeccai Richler
W.P. Kinsella
Bill Reid
Jane Rule
Robert Munsch
The Doubters
John Irving
Paul Verhoeven
Laurence Gough
Evelyn Lau
Wade Davis
Douglas Coupland
The New Ancients
Lynn Johnston
Susan Aglukark
Ann Copeland
Tony Hillerman
Robertson Davies
Emerging Mystics
Timothy Findley
Peter C. Newman
Robert Bly
Robert Fulghum
Sylvia Fraser
Loreena McKennitt
Farley Mowat
Barry Lopez
Nick Bantock
Alex Coville
Carol Shields
This book was great for a number of different reasons. They include the fact that many of these people are famous - or infamous in the way these profiles present them in a new and different light. Also some of them have since passed away and the interviews done for this book will have been among some of their last, and maybe most in-depth in regards to their religious and spiritual views. It is truly a pity it is out-of-print, which makes it all the more worth tracking down.

As an aside, the hand out from my seminar on Robert Fulghum and Evelyn Lau can be seen here. I also received bonus points because in my seminar I covered a great controversy between two of the authors profiled in the book. The controversy was between Evelyn Lau and W.P. Kinsella.

947 reviews3 followers
October 26, 2011
religion writer interviews artists, mostly Canadian, about their spirituality
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

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