The Reflection of Theology in Literature: A Case Study in Theology. Trinity University Monograph Series in Religion IV by William Mallard

Abstract

458 BOOK REVIEWS The Reflection of Theology in Literature: A Case Study in Theology. Trinity University Monograph Series in Religion IV. By WILLIAM MALLARD. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1977. Pp. xi + ~71. In a recent review essay surveying thirteen books dealing with theology and literature in Religious Studies Review (April, 1978) Profesor Robert Detweiler concluded that the diverse works under consideration (on topics as diverse as structural exegesis and the novels of Flannery O'Connor) had certain things in common: the distinction between theologians and literary critics seems to be blurring a bit; there is in all of the books a sustained interest in questions of method and theory; " a new emphasis on metaphor and parable is present, especially an emphasis that sees parable as an unique kind of metaphor particularly apt for religion and literature dis-course " (p. 116); and there is a sustained interest in the function of the imagination. These general characteristics, mutatis mutandis, would make a perfectly adequate, if somewhat superficial, description of the main con· tours of the arguments in this dense and closely argued work. More specifically, Professor Mallard has set himself the rather formidable task of showing how theology in the West has been reflected in Western literature. This reflection is not always an easy thing to spot, and Mallard recognizes that theology was much more clearly refracted in the literature of Dante or Milton's time. The test case comes, of course in an age such as ours when the culture professes to be in rebellion against or indifferent to, any theological or faith suppositions. Mallard is also confident that any apologetical approach, even such a sophisticated one as Tillich's justly celebrated method of correlation, is only of limited value. Apologetical approaches to literature (especially in hands less sophisticated than Tillich's) tend "to serve certain prescribed theological ends and its (i. e. literature's) variety is held captive to a single meaning" (p. 19) . Likewise, Mallard thinks that studies in metaphor and parable (cf. the work of Perrin, Via, Funk, TeSelle, Crossan, et al.) have not yet set the outer limits on the relationship of theology and literature. Mallard, then, while appreciative of the work of others in the field of theology and literature, sets out on a slightly different tack. The central thesis of his study is that the surest approach to theology in literature lies with certain formal, generalized traits of the literary work which recall the theological roots of Western culture generally" (p. 110). More specifically, and this is the burden of the central argument of the book, much of Western literature and art reflects or " images " certain basic ideas rooted in the accounts of the major events in the life of Jesus. These BOOK REVIEWS 459 ideas are " proper " in theology and " reflected " in literature. Thus, to cite one example, the recurring image of crisis and recovery in literature may reflect the theological idea of death/resurrection in the proper theology that springs from the Jesus story. It should be obvious that this approach is indebted to, and openly dependent upon, the pioneering literary work of Erich Auerbach. In order to sustain this thesis in a rigorous fashion, Mallard found it necessary to deal in depth with language, metaphor, and criticism in an introductory section. This opening part of the book covers a lot of ground, with a heavy emphasis on the Heideggerian notion of the revelatory nature of language itself. Those readers unfamiliar with current literary theory and criticism will receive, in this first part of the book, a short course on first and second level discourse, metaphor, symbol, narrative theory, and criticism. The second part of the work deals with the reflected theology in literature by emphasizing the positive role that knowledge of the world and the things of the world has played in Western theology together with the principles that can be deduced therefrom. In this section Mallard uses Kafka's The Trial and William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury as test cases for this reflected theology in literature. Since Western theology begins, not with propositions, but stories, it is only proper that part three of the work should pay...