Novel, Spirituality and Modern Culture

In this collection of essays, which considers the relationship between the novel and spirituality in the cultural setting of the present day, eight novelists draw upon their own experience of authorship. The main issues raised are examined in an introductory essay. There is discussion of the factors, both in the genre itself and in modern culture, which tend to make the novel an unsuitable medium for the exploration of religious experience and spiritual values. Views are offered by the contributors on the ways in which the novel might, nevertheless, take the reader on a journey of spiritual discovery. Several of the essayists consider writing itself to be a religious experience, and comparisons are drawn between God and the author as makers of stories, an analogy which has implications for creativity, freedom and human destiny. This collection raises the question of openness and closure in post-modern society, while at the same time providing primary material for any academic study of spirituality and the novel.