Symposium on American Literature and Religion
Norton's Woods, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 20-21, 2005

Organized by Roger Lundin, Wheaton College,
and the Erasmus Institute Working Group on Religion and Literature

The theme for the symposium is the intersection of religion (particularly Judaism and Christianity) with American literature from the time of Emerson to the present. Five major sessions were presented over the course of the two days. Four of the sessions had a single major presentation along with a response; the fifth session included three shorter papers plus a response. All five sessions were followed by discussion.  A book will be published as a result of this symposium.

Session One:  Theology and American Literature
“American Constantinianism and Its Critics:  Dickinson, Faulkner, O’Connor”
Stanley Hauerwas (Duke University) and
Ralph Wood (Baylor University)

Respondent: Roger Lundin (Wheaton College)
Chair: James Dougherty (University of Notre Dame)

Session Two:  Religion and American Poetry
“Where the Meanings Are:  Classic New England Literature Reappraised”
Elisa New (Harvard University)

Respondent: Barbara Packer (UCLA)
Chair: Gail McDonald (Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro)

Session Three:  Religion and American Public Life
“The Uses and Abuses of Religion in Postwar American Non-Fiction”
Alan Wolfe (Boston College)

Respondent: Andrew Delbanco (Columbia University)
Chair: Harold Bush (St. Louis University)

Session Four:  Religion, Literature, and the African-American Experience

“Genres of Redemption: African Americas, the Bible, and
Slavery from Lemuel Haynes to Frederick Douglass”
Mark Noll (Wheaton College)

“Balm in Gilead: Memory, Mourning, and Healing
in African-American Autobiography”
Albert J. Raboteau (Princeton University)

“The Race for Faith: Justice, Mercy and the Sign of the
Cross in African American Literature”
Katherine Clay Bassard (Virginia Commonwealth University)

Respondent: John Stauffer (Harvard University)
Chair: Brian Ingraffia (Calvin College)

Session Five:  Religion and American Fiction
“Religion and American Fiction”
Denis Donoghue (New York University)

Respondent: Lawrence Buell (Harvard University)
Chair: John Gatta (University of the South)