Textured Books
I find these books beautiful both from a writing perspective and a faith perspective. They are water to me in a literary landscape that so seldom combines faith and art in important and meaningful ways. There are, or course, obvious titles such as "The Chronicles of Narnia", or Dostoyevsky's, "The Brother's Karamazov". I will leave these off my list only in hopes of pointing you to books with which you may be less familiar.
Poetry
Selected Poems of Rainer Marie Rilke
A wonderful translation from German by Robert Bly
We don't dare to do paintings of you as we want to:
you are the early dawn, from whom the whole morning rose.
(pg. 17)
A Glass Face in the Rain, by William Stafford
You are only a wandering dot that fails—
that has already failed, but you can get
there. And you can come back—the boat
moves; talk turns ordinary; music
is hunting its moment again.
Around you people don't know how you
and themselves and the whole world
hover in belief. They've never been gone.
(pg. 29)
The Stream and the Sapphire, selected poems by Denise Levertov
Levertov selected these poems from her collections in order to chronicle her journey from doubt to belief.
To float, upheld,
as salt water
would hold you,
once you dared.
(pg. 31)
Fiction
The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin Jr.
The sequel to The Book of the Dun Cow, this book is a masterpiece, it is devastating, and you will weep. Profound, moving, necessary.
I have to put Ragman, also by Walter Wangerin Jr. on here. The most
moving collection of stories and poems I have ever read.
Mist, by Miguel de Unamuno
This book is a profound examination of the questions of what it means to exist and to have autonomy. Unamuno wrote from the perspective that true faith necessitates doubt and that no true faith exists unless it labors to prove and re-experience itself.
The Violent Bear it Away, by Flannery O'Connor
Profound, disturbing, and a masterpiece. Flannery O'Connor explores belief and its consequences in a masterful way.
Poetry
Selected Poems of Rainer Marie RilkeA wonderful translation from German by Robert Bly
We don't dare to do paintings of you as we want to:
you are the early dawn, from whom the whole morning rose.
(pg. 17)
A Glass Face in the Rain, by William StaffordYou are only a wandering dot that fails—
that has already failed, but you can get
there. And you can come back—the boat
moves; talk turns ordinary; music
is hunting its moment again.
Around you people don't know how you
and themselves and the whole world
hover in belief. They've never been gone.
(pg. 29)
The Stream and the Sapphire, selected poems by Denise Levertov
Levertov selected these poems from her collections in order to chronicle her journey from doubt to belief.
To float, upheld,
as salt water
would hold you,
once you dared.
(pg. 31)
The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin Jr.
The sequel to The Book of the Dun Cow, this book is a masterpiece, it is devastating, and you will weep. Profound, moving, necessary.
I have to put Ragman, also by Walter Wangerin Jr. on here. The most
moving collection of stories and poems I have ever read.
Mist, by Miguel de Unamuno
This book is a profound examination of the questions of what it means to exist and to have autonomy. Unamuno wrote from the perspective that true faith necessitates doubt and that no true faith exists unless it labors to prove and re-experience itself.
The Violent Bear it Away, by Flannery O'Connor
Profound, disturbing, and a masterpiece. Flannery O'Connor explores belief and its consequences in a masterful way.
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