If, as contributor Donna Tartt writes, ‘the novel in its history and genesis is an emphatically secular art form: the product of a secular society, addressing primarily secular concerns’, how can there be any relationship between spirituality and narrative fiction? Are there any specific factors in the form of the novel and in modern culture generally which might make the novel an unsuitable medium for the exploration of religious experience and spiritual values, or can the novel take the reader on a journey of spiritual discovery?

In this book, practitioners of the art of novel-writing – Donna Tartt, Jill Paton Walsh, David McLaurin, Sara Maitland, Catherine Fox, Susan Howatch, T. Davis Bunn and William Horwood – consider the relationship between the novel and spirituality in our society, while an introductory essay by the editor, Paul S. Fiddes, discusses the main issues to emerge from the collection.

Originally given as public lectures between 1997 and 1999, the essays collected in The Novel, Spirituality and Modern Culture provide exciting and thought-provoking reflections upon creativity, freedom and human destiny within the context of (post) modern culture, as well as being first hand testimony to the experience of creative writing.