The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints

Wilson (Giving the Devil His Due), a University of Dallas humanities professor, probes the intersection of literature and Christian living in her elegant and erudite devotional. Wilson analyzes a variety of novelists—including Willa Cather, C.S. Lewis, and Walter Wangerin Jr.—to show how meditating on their works can assist Christians in their religious lives. “The imagination has everything to do with our faith,” Wilson argues, as “stories convert our desire for well-versed explanations” into digestible narratives. The author studies Zora Neale Huston’s depiction of Hebrews in her novel Moses, Man of the Mountain to provide a template to fight injustice with faith, and examines George Bernanos’s model of self-contemplation set out in his The Diary of a Country Priest to illustrate how to reflect and pray. The unification against evil by the anthropomorphic animal heroes of Walter Wangerin Jr.’s The Book of the Dun Cow exemplifies the strength found in interconnectedness and collaboration, even of the meek. Though Wilson spends more time than necessary on plot summaries, she makes a cogent case for Christian readers to incorporate secular literature into their religious devotions. This would make the ideal accompaniment to literature classes and church book groups. (Mar.)