Religion and the Muse

Ernest Rubinstein is Theological Librarian at Drew University and is Instructor in Humanities at New York University's School of Continuing Professional Studies and also at the New School University. He is the author of the SUNY Press book, An Episode of Jewish Romanticism: Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments 1.Introduction Part 1 Mutual Critiques 2. A Religious Critique of Literature: The Platonic Line3. A Literary Critique of Religion: The Dantean Line Part 2 Theoretic Concerns 4. Creation and Creativity5. Beauty6. Religious and Aesthetic Experience7. Ethics Part 3 Short Religio-Literary Readings of Six Perennial Themes 8. Love9. Death10. Evil11. Suffering12. Forgiveness13.Saintliness   NotesIndex

"…a vivid historical portrait of the sometimes congenial, sometimes tense but always fertile relationship between religion and literature … Rubinstein offers textual readings that underscore how each side engages questions of truth, morality, imagination, and the purpose of storytelling." — Christianity and Literature"Rubinstein's intellectual honesty, wide learning, and careful comparisons offer many eye-opening revelations into the relationship between literature and faith. This thought-provoking book is a virtual seminar on the great ideas underpinning our religious institutions." — Robert Inchausti, author of Thomas Merton's American Prophecy