Augustine and Literature

Book excerpt: The influence of Christianity on literature has been great throughout history, as has been the influence of the great Christian, Augustine. Augustine and Literature considers the influence of Augustine on the theory and practice of an academic discipline of which he himself was not a practitioner-literature, especially poetry and fiction. The essays in this volume explore the many influences of Augustine on literature, most obviously in terms of themes and symbols, but also more pervasively perhaps in proving that literature strives for meaning through and beyond the fictional or metaphorical surface. The authors discussed in these essays, from Dante and Milton to O'Connor and Faulkner, all demonstrate a common concern that literature must be attentive to the highest things and the deepest journeys of the soul. Together these essays offer a compelling argument that literature and Augustine do belong together in the common task of guiding the soul toward the truth it desires.