Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (Library of Religious Biography) [Paperback]

Roger Lundin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998 | Series: Library of Religious Biography

Garnishing awards from Choice, Christianity Today, Books & Culture, and the Conference on Christianity and Literature when first published in 1998, Roger Lundins Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief has been widely recognized as one of the finest biographies of the great American poet Emily Dickinson. Paying special attention to her experience of faith, Lundin skillfully relates Dickinsons life as it can be charted through her poems and letters to nineteenth-century American political, social, religious, and intellectual history. This second edition of Lundins superb work includes a standard bibliography, expanded notes, and a more extensive discussion of Dickinsons poetry than the first edition contained. Besides examining Dickinsons singular life and work in greater depth, Lundin has also keyed all poem citations to the recently updated standard edition of Dickinsons poetry. Already outstanding, Lundins biography of Emily Dickinson is now even better than before.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this readable new biography of the reclusive poet, Wheaton English professor Lundin concentrates on Dickinson's ambivalence toward Christianity and its effects on the self. He traces her inner debate through a careful analysis of Dickinson's poems and letters, and he concludes that she was "one of the major religious thinkers of her age." According to Lundin, Dickinson's struggle with suffering and the character of God mirrored the major forcesADarwinism, the Civil War, the spread of industrialismAthat tested and altered American Protestantism. Lundin also contends that Dickinson's notion of God as silent and severe was drawn from her relationship with her father, Edward Dickinson, a remote patriarch who disdained the enthusiasm and emotion of religious revivals. The "Pugilist and Poet," as Dickinson described herself, longed to believe in God's loving care, but her sense of human frailty would not allow her wholly to accept His existence. In addition, she could not profess firsthand knowledge of the fruits of grace; nor could she detect any signs in her own soul of the holy joy that others claimed as they accepted Christ. Her choice of "poetry as a surrogate for traditional religious belief," writes Lundin, set her on a path to solitude, a path that led away from marriage, church and the world outside Amherst, Mass. Lundin's close readings of Dickinson's poetry and his careful analysis of Dickinson's historical and social context make a persuasive case for the implicit religious dimension of Dickinson's life and work.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; First Edition edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802801579
• ISBN-13: 978-0802801579
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,531,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unwrapping a Bit of the Enigma, October 17, 2005

By 

M. C. Passarella "lpassarella" (Lawrenceville, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (Library of Religious Biography) (Paperback)

This book is a rarity: a work of biography and literary criticism that isn't a chore to plow through. Roger Lundin's style, unlike that of most academics who pursue the great classics of literature, is lucid and uncomplicated. There isn't, as I recall, a tortured sentence in the entire book.

Besides this not-to-be-discounted virtue, there are other important ones as well. Since the book is guided by Lundin's thesis, which has to do with issues of faith as they are expressed in Dickinson's work, the focus is tight, producing a similarly focused narrative. No time is wasted on speculations about Dickinson's sex life, for example, though the readily verifiable is certainly reviewed in the pages of the book. About Dickinson's relationship with the man she came close to marrying, Otis P. Lord, we'd probably like to hear more. But again, the record is incomplete because much of the correspondence between the principals was destroyed, and Lundin doesn't overstep, sticking to what can be proved.

This is not strictly a critical biography, so those poems tjat Lundin examines are considered only briefly--just closely enough to explain their relationship to his thesis. Lundin chooses judiciously, as he does among the letters and personal accounts centering on Dickinson. Besides, he relates Dickinson's thinking on matters of faith to spiritual and intellectual trends in 19th-century America, and this is among the most important features of the work, especially since he cites a number of noted authorities on the place of religion in American history. If you have any interest in such issues, Lundin's citations will probably send you on a further quest.

Only rarely did I say to myself, "I'd like to hear more about that topic." Lundin develops his thesis with skill and with great sympathy for his subject. He certainly doesn't explain the enigma that is Emily Dickinson, but he moves us closer to an understanding of this frustratingly, fascinatingly complex artist.

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A penetrating look at Emily Dickinson's spiritual formation, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (Library of Religious Biography) (Paperback)

As a lay person, knowing more of Roger Lundin's academic reputation than of Emily Dickinson's life and work, I was intimidated by the prospect of reading his biography of the poet, "Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief." However, as the foreword assures us, this book is not meant for the "cognoscenti" alone, but for us "uninitiated outsiders" as well. And as the departing shore of the book's introduction became faint, I found only the calm seas and smooth sailing of a real page turner. I was soon fascinated by Dickinson's enigmatic life as Lundin carefully unfolded the practical details of her life in nineteenth century Amherst, as well as her development as a poet, an intellectual, and a religious thinker in an era on the edge of modernity. One of the most poignant themes in the book was Dickinson's progressive reclusiveness--and for all the reasons Lundin gives for it, I wasn't completely satisfied until the very last chapter. A surprising dimension of the book is the discussion of Emily's political, cultural, and religious milieu--which we eventually come to learn is key to understanding Dickinson's discomfiting questions and world view. The only fault I find in the book is not at Lundin's hand, but Emily herself. Though she leaves us in awe of her literary genius and spiritual sensitivity, her seemingly selfish reclusiveness and her failure to ever clearly declare the state of her soul left me feeling sorry for her. Although I have been taught never to judge in these matters, as a Christian I can't help but wonder, "was she or wasn't she?" Did she ever make the leap of faith? Lundin never gives us a definitive "yes" or "no," but yet gives enough data that we can make our own educated determination. I only hope that when I have "forded the mystery" and turn the corner of Heaven, I will find Emily at the feet of Jesus, having set aside her pondering pen, happy and content to finally be a bride. "Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief" gives me that much hope

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Expands the Emily enigma more than it explains..., July 21, 2006

By 

William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief (Library of Religious Biography) (Paperback)

I have been obsessed with the life of Dickinson for more than 20 years, and I had high hopes that this author would fill in some gaps that the other 15 or 20 E.D. books had not. In that wish, I was unfulfilled, although the author gives it a great try. I did learn more than I knew before about the "general" protestant currents in Emily's New England between 1830-1880, but the Queen Recluse emerges from Lundlin's examination of her apparent beefs with, and beliefs about, Christianity as still "a puzzlement." For other E.D. compulsives, I think this is a must-own, but for casual poetry fans, it probably is not an essential addition to their shelf. For any serious Emily explorer, Richard Sewell's massive 1974 "Life of Emily Dickinson" remains the Mount Everest that must be scaled, and the most satisfying look at her life, poetry and prose.