A Seminar on Christian Scholarship and the Turn to Religion in Literary Studies

Abstract

Early in 2005, Stanley Fish roused his slumbering colleagues with a column in Chronicle of Higher Education titled One University, Under God? title was provocative; the question mark rhetorical. For Fish suggested that the old boundaries separating the educational and religious enterprises had already crumbled and that universities needed religion seriously ... not as a phenomenon to be analyzed at arm's length, but as a candidate for the truth (1). He concluded with these words: When Jacques Derrida died I was called by a reporter who wanted to know what would succeed high theory and the triumvirate of race, gender, and class as the center of intellectual energy in the academy. I answered like a shot: religion. Not all of Fish's colleagues agreed with him, of course, and the Chronicle printed a number of rebuttals throughout the year, but subsequent events supported Fish's claim. At the 2005 MLA convention, just a few months after Fish's provocative comments were published, there were more than two dozen sessions devoted to topics on religion and literature, and many other papers invoked religious issues. In a plenary session, Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o reflected on the two concerns that had dominated the Presidential Forum on The Role of the Intellectual in the Twenty-First Century: the crossing of language and cultural boundaries and a keen interest in religion and the divine. Twenty years ago, participants at the MLA would have been hard pressed to find serious discussions of religion outside of panels organized by the Division on Literature and Religion or by the Conference on Christianity and Literature. And scholars who themselves professed Christianity often felt battered on the one side by poststructuralist claims that language could reveal neither God nor the world and on the other side by cultural studies that saw religion, and particularly Christianity, as an alien and oppressive force. Of course, the renewed interest in religion, spirituality, and the divine does not automatically translate into an openness for Christian scholarship in the fields of language and literature, particularly because Christianity occupies the unusual position of being both familiar and exotic. As a paterfamilias, Christianity looms over Western literature, casting the shadow of its grand narrative and multiple allusions across poems, stories, essays, and criticism. At the same time, biblical and theological illiteracy has never been higher, even among self-professed Christians, and while traditional Christian practices are enjoying a renaissance, disciplined religious lives are often seen as alien to the Academy. In 2007, a dozen young scholars responded to the challenge to develop their ideas on the purported turn to religion in literary studies by accepting an invitation to join a seminar sponsored by the Conference on Christianity and Literature. (1) call for papers asked participants to explore ways in which Christian scholars could participate in the turn to religion by strengthening a critical sensibility that weighs the delicate registers of belief and unbelief; by developing more vigorous theoretical paradigms that take religion seriously ... not as a phenomenon to be analyzed at arm's length, but as a candidate for the truth; and by demonstrating how Christian commitments can lead to greater interpretive clarity. scholars, selected from some 40 applicants, wrote position papers during the summer, read and discussed one another's work via email, prepared full-length papers in the fall, and then met for a face-to-face discussion in December at the MLA convention. Despite the fact that the seminar was scheduled during the last session on the last day of the convention, it was attended by nearly 50 people and was characterized by lively discussion and debate. It was not, however, characterized by unanimity. If anyone had hoped to find a Christian response to the religious turn in literary studies, let alone the Christian response to such a turn, she was doomed to disappointment. …