Beginning with the Word

“[Lundin] undertakes a bold and daunting project: winnowing out the metaphysical dimension inherent in good writing—specifically, in the works of the masters of modern literature. Invoking the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, he calls this undertaking the ‘hermeneutics of testimony,’ which places the book comfortably in the camp of theology more than literature, though literature students will be intrigued. . . . He draws heavily upon the idea that God’s own self-revelation through Christ was realized as the logos—the word. Like the Word that was/is Christ, finite words in literature are not simply a matter of sentence construction and wording. They come together mysteriously and invisibly to render revelation. The writers of great literature become beacons of one’s own time as revealers of the mysteries of God in a moment, a scene, a word.”—Publishers Weekly

“In Beginning with the Word Roger Lundin explores modern literature’s endless wrestling with Christian witness and biblical narrative with his customary thoughtfulness, passion, and personal commitment. He opens for us the ways that writers of the past two centuries reckon with an inheritance they cannot quite manage to receive or refuse.”—Alan Jacobs, Honors College, Baylor University

“I have loved all of Roger Lundin’s books and am grateful that there is now another. There are very few critics one thinks of as enlarging one’s life, much less making one more fit to live it. Roger Lundin, for this reader, is just such a writer.”—Christian Wiman, poet; author of Every Riven Thing and My Bright Abyss; senior lecturer of religion and literature, Yale University

“Lundin writes with extraordinary fluency, grace, and delight. He moves seamlessly between literature and theology, poetry and prose, philosophy and cultural commentary in ways that will renew your confidence in the power of God’s wisdom in God’s world. Like his other books, Beginning with the Word is a remarkable achievement from a remarkable thinker.”—Jeremy Begbie, Duke University

“Beginning with the Word is an absorbing and lively Christian engagement with the naturalism of modern intellectual culture. It is a work of wide scope, written con brio, animated equally by seasoned literary intelligence and by a trust that Christian teaching provides a truthful reading of the world.”—John Webster, St. Mary’s College, School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews

“Roger Lundin, a master interpreter of modern culture, works at the full stretch of his impressive capacities in Beginning with the Word. With no desire to damn or dismiss, he confronts the major thinkers and writers who have challenged the belief that the Word of God has become incarnate in Jesus Christ. Lundin replies not with grim rejoinders and loud laments but with surprising revelations that our modern literary masters, when rightly read, still enflesh words with the weight of hope and even glory.”—Ralph C. Wood, University Professor of Theology and Literature, Baylor University