Saturday, September 20, 1997

Exploring the common frontier of spirtiuality and literature

By LORETTA FULTON Senior Staff Writer

For two years, three Abilene Christian University professors read through some of the world's finest literature, and they called it work.

To most of us that endeavor would have fallen into the category of leisure time activity, but the professors had something nobler in mind.

The finished product is Shadow & Light: Literature and the Life of Faith published by ACU Press.

The 391-page collection was compiled by ACU English faculty members Darryl Tippens, Stephen Weathers and the late Jack Welch, who died before the work was completed.

"We wanted to produce an anthology that seeks to celebrate great works of literature, both classic and modern, that explore the common frontier of spirituality and literature," Tippens said.

The professors realized that although many anthologies exist for college students, none was a collection of stories or poems with a spiritual message.

So they set about collecting "what we liked to teach that we could not find in anthologies," Tippens said.

Publication of the anthology fills a gap in modern literary scholarship, according to another of the professors, Weathers.

"Many great selections of literature have been missing from most of the standard anthologies for several years," Weathers said.

The first step in producing <I>Shadow & Light<I> was to send a core reading list to 20 faculty members who either deleted or added to the listing. Then the revised list was sent out nationally and those professors added their own suggestions.

"I ended up having to read new stuff that I didn't know about," Tippens said, but those additions enriched the final product.

The scope of the readings is broad with essays, fiction and poems by 48 writers including such well knowns as Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot and John Updike.

It also includes writers like Denise Levertov, who is better known for her works of protest against the Vietnam War. Her message is that "faith and doubt aren't opposites," Tippens said.

Two Abilene writers also are included, Roberts Fink of Hardin-Simmons University and Al Haley of ACU.

The book is being marketed nationwide to English instructors and literary scholars.

"Even before we have really begun to market the book, through word of mouth, we've received numerous inquiries," said Thom Lemmons, managing director of ACU Press.

But the anthology would be a good addition to anyone's library and Lemmons believes it may end up on home bookshelves, too.

"Anybody who enjoys great literature and who comes at that from a Christian viewpoint would enjoy it," Lemmons said.

Reviewers already are praising the work.

"It is more varied, multicultural, provocative of questions, and just plain satisfying to read and discuss than the trendy competition. Not for Christians only," said Anthony Low, chair of the English department at New York University.