The Sacred Desert Religion, Literature, Art, and Culture

by Jasper, David

• ISBN13: 9781405119757
• ISBN10: 1405119756
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-18
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Sacred Desert is a reflection on the role of the desert in theology, history, literature, art and film. An original reflection on the role of the desert in theology, history, literature, art and film. Discusses figures as diverse as Jesus, the early Christian Desert Fathers, T.E. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Georgia O'Keeffe, Wim Wenders and Jim Crace. Makes connections across millennia of desert literature. Deepens the reader's understanding of the desert as a real place, as an interior space, and as a textual site, Concludes with comments on the recent conflicts in Iraq. Written in a readable and engaging style.

Author Biography

David Jasper is Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Glasgow, and was the founding editor of the journal, Literature and Theology. He is the author of The Sacred and Secular Canon in Romanticism (1999) and co-editor of The Bible and Literature: A Reader (edited with Stephen Prickett, Blackwell Publishing, 1999) and Religion and Literature: A Reader (edited with Robert Detweiler, 2000).

Table of Contents

Plates	ix
Foreword by David E. Klemm	xi
Preface	xv
1 Introduction: Meeting Points	1	(13)
2 The Bible, Schoenberg, and Heidegger	14	(11)
3 The Desert Fathers: Wanderings and Miracles	25	(17)
4 Time and Memory, Wind and Space: The Desert and Mysticism	42	(14)
5 Mysticism and Modernity: Thomas Merton Meets Don Cupitt	56	(14)
6 The Literature of the Desert, I: Travelers and Poets	70	(22)
7 The Literature of the Desert, II: Novelists	92	(17)
8 Artists: Georgia O'Keeffe, Bill Viola, and American Abstract Expressionism	109	(21)
9 Films of the Desert: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Wim Wenders, and Claire Denis	130	(12)
10 Desert Theology and Total Presence: The Poets William Blake and Yves Bonnefoy Meet Hegel and Tom Altizer	142	(18)
11 Conclusion: Meeting Point	160	(12)
Postscript: The Desert and the Recent Wars in Iraq	172	(17)
Bibliography	189	(11)
Index	200