Religion and American Literature Since 1950

by Mark Eaton

From Flannery O'Connor and James Baldwin to the post-9/11 writings of Don DeLillo, writers have often been the most insightful chroniclers of America’s changing religious life since World War II. Exploring a wide range of writers from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and secular faiths, this book is an in-depth study of contemporary fiction's engagement with religious belief, identity and practice. Through readings of major writers of our time like Saul Bellow, E. L. Doctorow, Philip Roth, Marilynne Robinson and John Updike, Mark Eaton discovers a more nuanced picture of the varieties of American religious experience: that they are more commonplace than cultural ideas of progressive secularization or faith-based polarization might suggest.

“Eaton's book challenges longstanding narratives about secularization by showing how uneven and often unpredictable spiritual experience is today. ...This is a bracing and encouraging work of cutting edge literary analysis of the continuing relevance and mystery of the spiritual and religious in our everyday lives-a must read for everyone doing work in these fields.” – Harold K. Bush, Professor of English, Saint Louis University