Art and the Divine, Pt 4; Reading a Story, Pt 4

Our passage from the Word of God today is Psalm 139:16 which reads: "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

Our quote today is from Francine Rivers. He said: "I want to see Christian fiction speak to the hard and real issues that tear people’s lives apart.  We need writers who are willing to ask the hard questions and go through the soul-searching and agonizing to find answers – and present these stories with skill that surpasses the general market.  Some of the greatest works or art and literature were rendered by Christians.  I believe God is at work in these areas now."

In this podcast, we are using as our texts: "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt, and "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing" by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. If you enjoy this podcast, please feel free to purchase any one of these books from our website.

Our first topic for today is "Art and the Divine, Part 4" from the book, "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt.

Rudolf Steiner said, "Art is the daughter of the divine." From a certain perspective, he is right. To add another step, religion is also the daughter of the divine. When we creatively explore and experience things beyond the immediate physical world, a metaphorical child is born. Sometimes that child is religion, and sometimes it is a work of art. In either case, we are building and delighting in new connections. And, in either case, our inner selves are expanding.

This anthology of literary works gives a taste of some of the ways that writers have explored, shared, dismissed, or argued about the ultimate, spiritual questions of life. The first goal is to give a range of works that shows authors can take us beyond our immediate, daily experience. The mere exposure to these works is intellectually enriching, emotionally expanding, and suggestive of new ways that the reader can consider the connection between the spiritual and literature.

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Our second topic for today is "Reading a Story, Part 4" from the book, "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing" by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.

Types of Short Fiction

Modern literary fiction in English has been dominated by two forms: the novel and the short story. The two have many elements in common. Perhaps we will be able to define the short story more meaningfully - for it has traits more essential than just a particular length - if first, for comparison, we consider some related varieties of fiction: the fable, the parable, and the tale. Ancient forms whose origins date back to the time of word-of-mouth storytelling, the fable and the tale are relatively simple in structure; in them we can plainly see elements also found in the short story (and in the novel).

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