In Versions of Deconversion John Barbour examines the work of a broad selection of authors in order to discover the reasons for their loss of faith and to analyze the ways in which they have interpreted loss. For some the experience of deconversion led to atheism or agnosticism, and others used deconversion as a metaphor or analogy to interpret an experience of personal transformation.
Versions of Deconversion should appeal at once to scholars in the fields of religious studies and theology who are concerned with narrative texts, to literary critics and specialists on autobiography,...
In Versions of Deconversion John Barbour examines the work of a broad selection of authors in order to discover the reasons for their loss of faith...
Most people feel ambivalent about solitude, both loving and fearing it depending on how they experience being alone at certain points in their lives. In The Value of Solitude, John Barbour explores some of the ways in which experiences of solitude, both positive and negative, have been interpreted as religiously significant. He also shows how solitude can raise ethical questions as writers evaluate the virtues and dangers of aloneness and consider how social interaction and withdrawal can most meaningfully be combined in a life.
Barbour's work differs from previous books about...
Most people feel ambivalent about solitude, both loving and fearing it depending on how they experience being alone at certain points in their live...
About the Contributor(s): John D. Barbour is Professor of Religion and Boldt Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at St. Olaf College. He is the author of scholarly essays and four books, including Versions of Deconversion: Autobiography and the Loss of Faith (1994) and The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography (2004).
About the Contributor(s): John D. Barbour is Professor of Religion and Boldt Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at St. Olaf College. H...
This book argues that the writing of autobiography raises crucial issues of conscience as an author tries to know, assess, and represent character. Individual chapters explore such issues as the nature of truthfulness, characterization, the virtues, shame, and the religious dimensions of conscience.
This book argues that the writing of autobiography raises crucial issues of conscience as an author tries to know, assess, and represent character. In...
