pat loughery

4 responses to “Prayer and Formation in the form of a novel?”

1. 

   Pat

   November 5, 2012

   A list from a friend on another site:
   Gilead -Marilynne Robinson
   A Prayer for Owen Meany -John Irving
   Franny and Zooey -J.D. Salinger
   Silence -Shusaku Endo
   Wise Blood -Flannery O’Connor
   Life After God -Douglas Coupland
   The Brothers Karamazov -Fyodor Dostoevsky
   The Brothers K -David James Duncan

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2. 

   Matt Morgan

   November 8, 2012

   The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Heartily seconded.

   Lying Awake, by Mark Salzman. First read this for a Fuller class, I think. Probably the only such book I’ve reread since.

   The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis. Feels like it’s grown with me through the years as few other books have.

   The Book of the Long Sun, by Gene Wolfe. Theology, fantasy, science fiction, entwined in layer upon layer. Maybe too long for a class, though (originally four volumes, nowadays printed in two thick omnibi). Wolfe develops the formation theme extraordinarily further in the sequel (The Book of the Short Sun, three volumes).

   War in Heaven, by Charles Williams. Practically any book of his would qualify, but this is my fave.

   Lilith, by George MacDonald. As with Williams.

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   1. 

      Pat

      November 9, 2012

      Good stuff – thanks, Matt!

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3. 

   Pat L

   November 26, 2012

   Two more responses from other friends:

   One notices that these books are all books are coming-of-age stories–or buildungsroman.
   – My Name is Asher Lev – Chaim Potok
   – A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
   – Jayber Crow – Wendell Berry

   And another writes this:
   – Oh, goodness, “The Book of Everything” by Guus Kuijer, about a young boy in a violent family who talks with Jesus. It’s such a quick read, and so moving and helpful. If you haven’t read it, just set aside an afternon.
   – “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coehlo, even though it’s super sexist, there’s value in the boy’s story–prayer in action, lived prayer.
   – “Green Grass, Running Water” by Thomas King is sooo well-written and entertaining, and still deals with complexity of answered prayer and unanswered prayer, among plenty of other issues.
   – Poems, but still: it’d be interesting to do a selection of openings to classical works, like “The Odyssey” – the invocations of the Muses. These seem more and more important to me as a student, creative person, and person in relation. (Along with that, in “War of Art”, Pressfield speaks of his invocation practices.)
   – Also: poems that could be prayers of modern lament: T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” and “The Hollow Men”. There are lines I recite from these more often than I should admit.
   – And again, not a novel, but creative nonfiction: “For the Time Being” by Annie Dillard, which would lend itself to an amazing conversation on hope and despair and the wide stream of what can be considered prayer.

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