Circuitous journeys [[electronic resource] ] : modern spiritual autobiography / / David J. Leigh

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910780026603321
• Autore: Leigh David J
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York, : Fordham University Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0-8232-4672-8; 1-282-69857-5; 978058541680X; 9786612698576; 0-8232-3745-1; 0-8232-1995-X; 0-585-41680-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (276 p.)
• Collana: Studies in religion and literature, , 1096-6692 ; ; no. 2
• Disciplina: 291.4/092/2; B
• Soggetti: Autobiography - Religious aspects; Spiritual biography - History and criticism
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain -- 2. Dorothy Day's The Long Loneliness -- 3. The Psychology of Conversion in G. K. Chesteron and C. S. Lewis -- 4. The Dual Plot of Gandhi's An Autobiography -- 5. Malcolm X and the Black Muslim Search for the Ultimate -- 6. Black Elk Speaks: A Century Later -- 7. The Remaking of an American Jew: Paul Cowan's An Orphan in History -- 8. I, Rigoberta Menchu: The Plotting of Liberation -- 9. Dan Wakefield's Returning -- 10. Retraveling the Century: Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom -- Conclusion -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Circuitous Journeys: Modern Spiritual Autobiography provides a close reading and analysis of ten major life stories by twentieth-century leaders and thinkers from a variety of religious and cultural traditions: Mohandas Gandhi, Black Elk, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, C. S. Lewis, Malcolm X, Paul Cowan, Rigoberta Menchu, Dan Wakefield, and Nelson ; Mandela. The book uses approaches from literary criticism, developmental psychology (influenced by Erik Erikson, James Fowler, and Carol Gilligan), and spirituality (influenced by John S. Donne, Emile Griffin, Walter Conn, and Bernard Lonergan). Each text is read in the light of the autobiographical tradition begun by St. Augustine’s Confessions, but with a focus on distinctively modern and post-modern transformations of the self-writing genre. The twentieth-century context of religious alienation, social autonomy, identity crises and politics, and the search for social justice is examined in each text.