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SPECIAL ISSUE: CALL FOR PAPERS
“James Baldwin: then and now”
Guest Editors: Jennifer McFarlane-Harris (Seattle Pacific University), Peter Kerry Powers (Messiah University)
Description:
James Baldwin’s presence in American culture and political history follows a trajectory that is perhaps unique in American letters, being the signature literary voice for two very different cultural moments: the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s and then—after a period of relative quiet—being taken up again six decades later as a prophetic precursor and guiding spirit for the larger Black Lives Matter movement. Baldwin’s continuing relevance for our discourse and disputation about race, nationhood, masculinity and sexuality is now all but taken for granted. His voice helps us navigate the thicket of cultural politics as we seek a world that is more just and more free than the one in which we live.
Baldwin’s work was never far from the language, thought, and practices of Black Christianity. If, as some have said, Baldwin left the church, it is also true that the church never left Baldwin: its conceptions of love, truth-telling, confession, and mercy are never far from his epistemologies. Even Baldwin’s argument with Christianity is carried out through the identifiable rhythms, cadences, and rhetoric of what Josef Sorett calls “Afro-Protestantism.” Ultimately, Baldwin’s insistence on social justice and liberation is informed by a radical critique of structures of oppression and the workings of power, coupled with images of redemption such as “the welcome table.” As a religiously informed thinker and writer, Baldwin decries the violence of humanity while celebrating the sacredness of our human agency, bodies, and desires.
This special issue of Christianity & Literature calls for submissions that examine Baldwin’s life and work in light of his lifelong engagement (and argument) with the principles and practices of the Christianity he inherited. Essays that take up any of the following issues are encouraged:
- Baldwin and Christianity now—esp. changes in Baldwin’s reputation over the past few decades
- Baldwin as cultural icon: figure and symbol
- Baldwin as public intellectual, activist, social historian, and cultural theorist
- Genre criticism—Baldwin as essayist, novelist, playwright, etc.
- Baldwin and antecedents—inquiry and imagination re: Black literary and theological traditions
- Baldwin, sexuality (desires, acts, practices; histories, activism), constructions of gender, and religious experience or sacred traditions
- Baldwin, Christian faith, and political action or accommodation
- Baldwin, Christianity, and African American secularism or atheism
- Baldwin, Critical Race Theory and the social construction of race
- Baldwin and past and present political conflicts over teaching American history (e.g., The 1619 Project, chattel slavery, national identity)
- I Am Not Your Negro (2016 film, dir. Raoul Peck)
- Any other issue re: Baldwin and Christianity
Deadline: Abstract (300-500 words) due to Peter Powers (ppowers@messiah.edu) by April 1, 2023. Drafts of accepted essays (6000-9000 words) will be due August 1, 2023. All essays should be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.
Inquiries: Direct inquiries about the special issue to either Peter Powers (ppowers@messiah.edu) or Jennifer McFarlane-Harris (mcfarlanehaj@spu.edu).
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Christianity & Literature is published quarterly in March, June, September, and December of each year.
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SEARCHABLE DATABASE
A searchable database of the journal from Volume 59 (2009) to the current issue is available on Project MUSE here.
A searchable database of the journal from Volume 1 to Volume 68 (January 1950 - September 2019) is available at SAGE Journals here.
JOURNAL STAFF
Editor
Mark Eaton, Azusa Pacific University, USA
Associate Editors
Matthew J. Smith, Hildegard College, USA
Caleb D. Spencer, Azusa Pacific University, USA
Book Review Editor
Philip Mitchell, Dallas Baptist University, USA
Poetry Editor
Peter Cooley, Tulane University, USA
Managing Editor
Katy Wright-Bushman
Editorial Advisory Board
Ann W. Astell, University of Notre Dame, USA
Lori Branch, University of Iowa, USA
Paul Contino, Pepperdine University, USA
John D. Cox, Hope College, USA
Christopher Douglas, University of Victoria, Canada
Lori Ann Ferrell, Claremont Graduate University, USA
Kevin Hart, University of Virginia, USA
David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School, USA
Peter S. Hawkins, Yale University, USA
Colin Jager, Rutgers University, USA
David Lyle Jeffery, Baylor University, USA
Janet Larson, Rutgers University, Newark, USA
Julia Reinhart Lupton, University of California, Irvine, USA
Susannah Monta, University of Notre Dame, USA
Maire Mullins, Pepperdine University, USA
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Christianity & Literature is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December, each issue contains articles, book reviews, and poems. Each submission is carefully evaluated by the editors. If the submission is deemed worthy of peer review, it is then sent to external reviewers in an anonymous, double-blind peer-review process. External reviewers are selected on the basis of their expertise in the fields or subject areas of each submission. The editors consider a submission only with the understanding that it has not been concurrently submitted elsewhere. Christianity & Literature is committed to a reasonable timeline for peer review. We expect to reach a decision on each submission within three to four months. In the case of unavoidable delays, the editors will attempt to communicate with authors.
Articles/Essay Submissions
Articles must be submitted electronically to ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online peer-review system used by Christianity & Literature.
Please submit your manuscript here or paste the following url address into your browser: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/christlit.
All submissions must be formatted for blind peer review and should include:
• a title page with the author’s name, email, and mailing address.
• a 100-word abstract and a list of suggested keywords to accompany the essay: 3-5 is appropriate.
• a short biographical note with information about your position, research, and publications.
• the essay, with title on first page, and page numbers on all following pages. There should be no author identification in the body of the essay.
All articles submitted for publication should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, Notes only. By Notes only, we mean that you should include endnotes with full bibliographic information, but you do not also need to include a bibliography in addition to endnotes.
Articles of fewer than 4,000 or more than 9,000 words, including notes, are not ordinarily considered, unless they are commissioned for a special issue or of exceptional merit. Submissions should comply with accepted guidelines for nonsexist usage.
Information about the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, Notes only, is available here.
A Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide is also available here.
Inquiries can be made to cal@apu.edu.
Mark Eaton, Editor
Christianity & Literature
Department of English
Azusa Pacific University
901 E. Alosta Ave.
Azusa, CA 91702-7000
Poetry
The poetry editor looks for poems that are clear and surprising. They should have a compelling sense of voice, formal sophistication (though not necessarily rhyme and meter), and the ability to reveal the spiritual through concrete images.
Only hard copies of poetry submissions are accepted. Submissions should be sent to:
Peter Cooley, Poetry Editor
Christianity & Literature
Tulane University
Department of English, Norman Mayer 122
New Orleans, LA 70118
Please be sure to include all relevant contact information along with the poem or poems: name, address, and especially your email. Because of the volume of poetry received, submissions will not be acknowledged or returned unless they are accompanied by an SASE with sufficient return postage.
Book Reviews
The editors assign book reviews by invitation only. If you would like to suggest a book for review or offer to write a book review, please write to Philip Mitchell at philipm@dbu.edu. If you are an author or publisher, please send books for review to:
Philip Mitchell, Book Review Editor
Christianity & Literature
Collins Learning Center 222
Dallas Baptist University
3000 Mountain Creek Parkway
Dallas, TX 25211
IMAGO DEI
Read excerpts from the book, Imago Dei, featuring poetry from 60 years of Christianity & Literature.
CURRENT ISSUE
Christianity & Literature Volume 71, Issue 3 (September 2022)
Articles
- Paul Olson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
“William Shakespeare’s All Is True, Lord Chamberlain’s ‘Truth,’ and Civil Religion”
- Erica Ridderman, Duke University
“‘Goddes Visitacion’: Human Suffering and Divine Agency in Calvin and Herbert”
- Benjamin Crace, American University of Kuwait
“The Critical Significance of T.S. Eliot’s Mystical-Erotic Integration”
- Adam Barton, independent scholar
“The Poetics of Conversion: Theological Themes in the Poetry of W.H. Auden”
- Jin Li and Li Ma, Calvin University
"Reversed Conversion, Theodicy, and Cross-cultural Mission in Shūsaku Endō's Silence and Zhenyun Liu's Someone to Talk To"
- Shinji Takagi, Osaka University
“The Absurdity of the Ordinary: Exploring the Joban Theme in Ayako Sono’s Mumeihi”
- Derek Witten, Duke University
“Two Stigmatas in Ron Hansen’s Mariette in Ecstasy”
Poetry
Stephen Kampa, “The Cycle”
Ken Fontenot, "Glory Be" and "What Spirit”
Sarah Gordon, “Sur l’existence éphèmère”
Review Essay
Philip Irving Mitchell, Dallas Baptist University
"A Quest for Coherence: T. S. Eliot as Public Intellectual"
The Complete Prose of T.S. Eliot: The Critical Edition. 8 volumes. Eds. Jewell Spears Brooker, Ronald Schuchard, et al. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014-2019.
Book Reviews
- Zachary Meckley, University of Dallas
The Philosophical Mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkins. By Aakanksha Virkar Yates. New York and London: Routledge, 2018. ISBN 978-1-138-09390-4. Pp. 190. $49.95.
- Jody Grimes, Dallas Baptist University
Reading Old English Biblical Poetry: The Book and the Poem in Junius 11. By Janet Schrunk Ericksen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021.ISBN 978-1-4875-0746-6. Pp. x + 222. $65.00.
- Luke William, independent scholar
Toward a Sacramental Poetics. Eds. Regina M. Schwartz and Patrick J. McGrath. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-268-20149-4. Pp. vi + 297. $60.00.
- Rachel Griffis, Texas A&M International University
A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy. By Petra Mundik. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-8263-6334-3. Pp. 426. $34.95.
- Maire Mullins, Pepperdine University
Thoreau’s Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism. By Alda Balthrop-Lewis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ISBN 978-1-108-83510-7. Pp. xxiii + 308. $76.12.
6. Philip Irving Mitchell, Dallas Baptist University
T.S. Eliot and Organicism. By Jeremy Diaper. Clemson, SC: Clemson University Press, 2021. ISBN 978-1-80085-961-8. Pp. xiii + 218. $44.95.
PREVIOUS ISSUES
Christianity & Literature Volume 71, Issue 2 (June 2022)
Special Issue: Marilynne Robinson after Jack
Guest Editors: Abram Van Engen, Washington University, and Caleb D. Spencer, Azusa Pacific University
Caleb D. Spencer, Azusa Pacific University
“Introduction: Marilynne Robinson after Jack”
Articles
- Christopher Leise, Whitman College
“Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Long Puritanism’ and Forms of Structural Racism”
- Abram Van Engen, Washington University
“Della’s Rage: Race and Religion in Marilynne Robinson’s Jack”
- Christopher Douglas, University of Victoria
“Christian White Supremacy in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels”
- Patricia Brown, Azusa Pacific University
“What’s Love Got To Do With It?: Christianity, Africanism, and Privilege in Marilynne Robinson’s Jack”
- Ray Horton, Murray State University
“Seeing in ‘the darkness, visible’: White Supremacy and Original Sin in Marilynne Robinson’s Jack”
- James K.A. Smith, Calvin University
“Making the Truth: Fiction as Theology in Marilynne Robinson’s Jack”
- Marilynne Robinson, Caleb D. Spencer, and Abram Van Engen
“Interview: Robinson on Robinson After Jack”
Poetry
Leslie Shiel, "Sisters of the Visitation"
Book Reviews
- Joey Jekel, Founders Classical Academy of Frisco
Cormac McCarthy in Context. Edited by Stephen Frye. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-108-48883-9. Pp. xxiv + 386. $125.00.
- Casie Dodd, University of St. Thomas, Houston
The Selected Letters of John Berryman, Edited by Philip Coleman and Calista McRae. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0-674-97625-2. Pp. 726. $39.95.
- Rachel B. Griffis, Texas A&M International University
Marilynne Robinson, Theologian of the Ordinary. By Andrew Cunning. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. ISBN 978-1-5013-5899-9. Pp. viii + 197. $77.00.
- Drew Santa, Carnegie Mellon University
Beyond the Story: American Literary Fiction and the Limits of Materialism. By Christina Bieber Lake. Notre Dame: The University of Notre Dame Press, 2019. ISBN978-0-268-10625-6 (Hardback). Pp. 212. $45.00.
- Hannah Rogers, University of Dallas
The Decline of the Novel. By Joseph Bottum. South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1-58731-198-7. Pp. 153. $25.00.
- Makayla B. Jenkins, Louisiana State University
Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature. By Winter Jade Werner. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0-8142-1426-8. Pp. vii + 210.
- Christopher Flavin, Northeastern State University
God’s Patients: Chaucer, Agency, and the Nature of Laws. By John Bugbee. South Bend: Notre Dame University Press, 2019. ISBN 978-0-268-10445-0. Pp. xxii+478. $55.00.
Christianity & Literature Volume 71, Issue 1 (March 2022)
Articles
- Molly Porter, University of Washington
“’A Curious Pattern Like a Tree’: Edenic Death and Life in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway”
- Annesley Anderson, independent scholar
“Modernism’s Missing Myth: A Reception History of Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory”
- Sean Benson, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
“Salvation, Doom, and Romans 8 in Alan Paton’s Too Late the Phalarope”
- Timothy R. Vande Brake, Roberts Wesleyan College
“Wole Soyinka's Christian Moment: 1958-1965”
- Martin Brick, Ohio Dominican University
“It Skips a Generation: Spirituality in David Foster Wallace and James Joyce”
- Robert Don Adams, Florida Atlantic University
“Patricia Highsmith’s Surprising Knight of Faith”
Poetry
Bonnie Thurston, “Something Might Be”
Book Reviews
- M. Moore, The Fellowship of Ailbe, Williston, VT
Abundance: New & Selected Poems. By Andrew Lansdown. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2020. ISBN 978-1-7252-8457-9. Pp. xvi+225. $25.00.
- Leslie Clinton, independent scholar
Litany of Flights. By Laura Reece Hogan. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-64060-610-4. Pp. 83. $20.00.
- Kimberly D. Arnold, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Hymnal: A Reading History. By Christopher N. Phillips. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. ISBN 1-4214-2592-0. Pp. xv + 252. $35.
- Monica Weis, SSJ, Nazareth College
Saint Mary of Egypt: A Modern Verse Life and Interpretation. By Bonnie B. Thurston. Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2021. ISBN 798-0-87907-116-5. Pp. vii + 120. $15.95.
- Anna Genneken, Collin College
The Prodigal Son in English and American Literature: Five Hundred Years of Literary Homecomings. By Alison M. Jack. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN 978-0-19-881729-1. Pp. 177. $82.00.
- Angelica Duran, Purdue University
Literature and Religion: A Dialogue between China and the West. By David Jaspar and Ou Gaung-an. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020. ISBN 978-1532652189 . Pp. xi + 186. $24.00.
- Peter Spaulding, Marquette University
Ascent: Philosophy and Paradise Lost. By Tzachi Zamir. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0190695088. Pp. x + 216. $86.55.