Desire and the Divine

Desire and the Divine
Author :
Publisher : LSU Press
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780807150382
ISBN-13 : 080715038X
Rating : 4/5 (82 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Desire and the Divine by : Kathaleen E. Amende

Download or read book Desire and the Divine written by Kathaleen E. Amende and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2013-06-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking study, Kathaleen E. Amende considers the works and lives of late-twentieth-century southern women writers to explore how conservative Christian ideals of femininity shaped notions of religion, sexuality, and power in the South. Drawing from the work of authors like Rosemary Daniell and Connie May Fowler, whose characters—like the authors themselves—grow up believing that Jesus should be a girl's first "boyfriend," Amende demonstrates many ways in which these writers commingled the sexual and the sacred. Amende also looks at the writings of Lee Smith, Sheri Reynolds, Dorothy Allison, and Valerie Martin and discusses how southern women authors and their characters grappled with opposing cultural expectations. Often in their work, characters mingle spiritual devotion and carnal love, allowing for salvation despite rejecting traditional roles or behaviors. In Martin's A Recent Martyr, novitiate Claire disavows southern norms of femininity—courtship, marriage, and motherhood—but submits to Jesus as she would to a husband. In Reynolds's Rapture of Canaan, teenage protagonist Ninah Huff imagines that her out-of-wedlock child is the offspring of Christ because of her conviction that Jesus was present during the sexual act that produced him. This tie between sexuality and religion afforded women movement between the two, but any attempt to separate them into compartmentalized spaces, as Amende shows, produces negative consequences—from pain and mental illness to an inability to connect with others. Ultimately, women have to find a way to unite the realms of the body and of faith in order to achieve spiritual and romantic fulfillment. As in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, where, for the protagonist, gospel music includes both the intensity of violent fantasies along with a spiritual yearning, it is only when the erotic and the spiritual coexist that women achieve full self-realization. Grounded in southern cultural and gender studies and informed by historical, religious, and devotional literature, Amende's timely and accessible book offers one the first studies to view the intersection of sexuality and Christianity in southern contexts.


Desire and the Divine Related Books

Desire and the Divine
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Kathaleen E. Amende
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-06-10 - Publisher: LSU Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this groundbreaking study, Kathaleen E. Amende considers the works and lives of late-twentieth-century southern women writers to explore how conservative Chr
The Fulfillment of All Desire
Language: en
Pages: 473
Authors: Ralph Martin
Categories: Spiritual life
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006 - Publisher: Emmaus Road Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Winner: Honorable Mention from the Catholic Press Association Ralph Martin, drawing upon the teaching of seven acknowledged "Spiritual Doctors" of the Church, p
Eros Crucified
Language: en
Pages: 225
Authors: Matthew Clemente
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-11-08 - Publisher: Routledge

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bringing contemporary philosophers, theologians, and psychoanalysts into dialogue with works of art and literature, this work provides a fresh perspective on ho
When I Don't Desire God
Language: en
Pages: 272
Authors: John Piper
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004 - Publisher: Crossway

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explaining how to become a Christian hedonist, a bestselling author offers guidance on how to find spiritual joy to readers who are unsure of where to seek it.
The Power of Divine Eros
Language: en
Pages: 257
Authors: A. H. Almaas
Categories: Body, Mind & Spirit
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-09-17 - Publisher: Shambhala Publications

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Two innovative spiritual teachers show how to use desire and passion—eros—as a gateway to realizing our fullest potential What do desire and passion have to