Christianity in Bakhtin

Christianity in Bakhtin
Author: Ruth Coates
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 1999-02-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1139425323

The work of the great Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin has been examined from a wide variety of literary and theoretical perspectives. None of the many studies of Bakhtin begins to do justice, however, to the Christian dimension of his work. Christianity in Bakhtin for the first time fills this important gap. Having established the strong presence of a Christian framework in his early philosophical essays, Ruth Coates explores the way in which Christian motifs, though suppressed, continue to find expression in the work of Bakhtin's period of exile, and re-emerge in texts written during the time of his rehabilitation. Particular attention is paid to the themes of Creation, Fall, Incarnation and Christian love operating within metaphors of silence and exile, concepts which inform Bakhtin's world view as profoundly as they influence his biography.

Bakhtin and Religion

Bakhtin and Religion
Author: Susan M. Felch
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780810118256

This work investigates the role of religious thought in shaping and framing Bakhtin's writings. The authors explore Bakhtin's idea of faith - an abstract codification of a belief system - and a feeling for faith which involves the active participation of persons, both human and divine.

Mikhail Bakhtin

Mikhail Bakhtin
Author: Graham Pechey
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2007-04-11
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1134096771

Mikhail Bakhtin is one of the most influential theorists of philosophy as well as literary studies. His work on dialogue and discourse has changed the way in which we read texts – both literary and cultural – and his practice of philosophy in literary refraction and philological exploration has made him a pioneering figure in the twentieth-century convergence of the two disciplines. In this book, Graham Pechey offers a commentary on Bakhtin’s texts in all their complex and allusive ‘textuality’, keeping a sense throughout of the historical setting in which they were written and of his own interpretation of and response to them. Examining Bakhtin’s relationship to Russian Formalism and Soviet Marxism, Pechey focuses on two major interests: the influence of Eastern Orthodox Christianity upon his thinking; and Bakhtin’s use of literary criticism and hermeneutics as ways of ‘doing philosophy by other means’.

Bakhtin and his Others

Bakhtin and his Others
Author: Liisa Steinby
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2013-03-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0857283103

‘Bakhtin and his Others’ aims to develop an understanding of Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas through a contextual approach, particularly with a focus on Bakhtin studies from the 1990s onward. The volume offers fresh theoretical insights into Bakhtin’s ideas on (inter)subjectivity and temporality – including his concepts of chronotope and literary polyphony – by reconsidering his ideas in relation to the sources he employs, and taking into account later research on similar topics. The case studies show how Bakhtin's ideas, when seen in light of this approach, can be constructively employed in contemporary literary research.

Corporeal Words

Corporeal Words
Author: Alexandar Mihailovic
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1997
Genre: Criticism
ISBN: 9780810114593

This text explores Mikhail Bakhtin's reliance on the terms and concepts of theology. It begins with an identification of the theological categories and terms recalling Christology in general and Trinitarianism in particular that emerge throughout Bakhtin's long and varied career. Alexander Mihailovic discusses the elaborately wrought subtextual imagery, wordplay, and palpable orality of Bakhtin's theology of discourse, and explores the role that theology plays in supporting Bakhtin's ideas about the anti-hierarchical drift of language and culture.

Beyond the Story

Beyond the Story
Author: Christina Bieber Lake
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2019-10-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0268106274

Beyond the Story: American Literary Fiction and the Limits of Materialism argues that theology is crucial to understanding the power of contemporary American stories. By drawing on the theories of M. M. Bakhtin, Christian personalism, and contemporary phenomenology, Lake argues that literary fiction activates an irreducibly personal intersubjectivity between author, reader, and characters. Stories depend on a dignity-granting valuation of the particular lives of ordinary people, which is best described as an act of love that mirrors the love of the divine. Through original readings of the fiction of Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, Toni Morrison, and others, Lake enters into a dialogue with postsecular theory and cognitive literary studies to reveal the limits of sociobiology’s approach to culture. The result is a book that will remind readers how storytelling continually reaffirms the transcendent value of human beings in an inherently personal cosmos. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of theology and literary studies, as well as a broad audience of readers seeking to engage on a deeper level with contemporary literature.

Christianity and the Law of Migration

Christianity and the Law of Migration
Author: Silas W. Allard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2021-09-05
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1000436373

This collection brings together legal scholars and Christian theologians for an interdisciplinary conversation responding to the challenges of global migration. Gathering 14 leading scholars from both law and Christian theology, the book covers legal perspectives, theological perspectives, and key concepts in migration studies. In Part 1, scholars of migration law and policy discuss the legal landscape of migration at both the domestic and international level. In Part 2, Christian theologians, ethicists, and biblical scholars draw on the resources of the Christian tradition to think about migration. In Part 3, each chapter is co-authored by a scholar of law and a scholar of Christian theology, who bring their respective resources and perspectives into conversation on key themes within migration studies. The work provides a truly interdisciplinary introduction to the topic of migration for those who are new to the subject; an opportunity for immigration lawyers and legal scholars to engage Christian theology; an opportunity for pastors and Christian theologians to engage law; and new insights on key frameworks for scholars who are already committed to the study of migration.

Judges 19-21 and Ruth

Judges 19-21 and Ruth
Author: Jennifer M. Matheny
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2022-08-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004521712

Judges 19–21 is filled with sexual violence, silent victims, and the lack of an ethical response. Utilizing a Bakhtinian-canonical perspective, this book seeks alternative canonical voices of answerability and non-violence through dialogue with the book of Ruth.

Religion in the Thought of Mikhail Bakhtin

Religion in the Thought of Mikhail Bakhtin
Author: Hilary B.P. Bagshaw
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317067444

This book examines the significance of religion in the work of the twentieth century philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. Exploring Bakhtin’s contribution to debates on methodology in the study of religion, this book argues that his use of religious terminology is derived from his source material in philosophy of religion and not from his confessional commitment to Russian Orthodox Christianity. Critiquing Gavin Flood’s important work Beyond Phenomenology, Hilary Bagshaw explains how Bakhtin’s work on ’outsideness’ presents invaluable insights for scholars of religion, particularly pertinent to the contemporary insider/outsider debate.

The Strategic Smorgasbord of Postmodernity

The Strategic Smorgasbord of Postmodernity
Author: Deborah Bowen
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2011-05-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1443830151

Contemporary Christian critique often talks about postmodernism apocalyptically, in terms of cultural crisis and decline; instead, the contributors to this volume believe that there is a new place for Christian entrées on the academic Smorgasbord of postmodernity, and they see the postmodern turn as an opportunity for fresh perspectives on the spiritual dimensions of reading literature. These twenty scholars are an eclectic group, differing in theological and theoretical commitments, but all identifying as Christian. In this collection they enter into dialogue with a wide range of contemporary literary theorists and theoretical perspectives, and offer new readings of primary texts informed by both these theoretical constructs and their Christian faith. "The manuscript strikes out in important new directions in its sympathetic reading of postmodern theory from a Christian perspective, and, even more significantly, in its careful and measured dialogic approach to the relationship of Christian thought and contemporary literary theory." Daniel Coleman, Canada Research Chair in Critical Ethnicity and Race Studies, Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University "Too often Christian literary critics and theologians have preemptively dismissed postmodern theory, even as secular critics have been equally dismissive about the contributions that the Christian faith tradition makes to the study of literature. This volume successfully brings these two worlds together in innovative, at times challenging, and always rich ways. I do not know of a similar volume in existence, a work that gathers in one convenient publication a wide-ranging set of discussions of contemporary literary theory by Christian scholars. The editor has gathered an impressive and important set of papers here, and I believe the volume will raise much interest and provoke a good deal of constructive debate." Susan VanZanten Gallagher, Professor of English, Director, Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development, Seattle Pacific University