From the tears of things to the play of grace : discerning textures of faith through a practice of reading contemporary literary texts

Abstract

The core of this thesis consists of a practice of close readings of a series of texts: poetry, fiction, literary essay. Conversations about 'sacred' and 'secular' as supposedly distinct ways of naming the meaning and purpose of life form the context. The purpose of these readings is to facilitate a re-framing of conversations about the textures of faith in an imaginative and interpretive space beyond these binaries. The methodology of the dissertation reflects the matter as it seeks to engage in nuanced close readings of chosen texts in order to discern the meaning of faith in imagined constructs of human experience.