Four Theses on Religion and Literature

Larry Bouchard's typology of approaches to the academic study of the intersection of religion and literature. "These four theses are intended mainly to describe, for the sake of comparison and discussion, some rationales for the intentional study of religion and literature. When we look at specific occasions of such study, more than one thesis may apply. They may be mutually inclusive, and I consider them all valid and valuable. But their negations ("au contraire"), as far as I am concerned, are not necessarily mutually consistent. They represent some very important, often "postmodernist" directions for criticizing religion and literature studies."