Citation

Zinsser, William. “Introduction.” Spiritual Quests: The Art and Craft of Religious Writing, edited by William Zinsser, Houghton Mifflin, 1988, pp. 9–23.

Quotes

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Collations

Writing and religion as part of the same spiritual quest

Writers whose work is nourished by religious concerns are on a pilgrimage to find the source of their faith as individuals and of their strength as artists.

He considers his poetry and his religion inseparable, part of the same spiritual quest.

“It’s interesting that the Jews gave Christianity the idea that the word becomes God: that the word itself is God, that it’s inextricably intertwined with the Creator.”

It had been “a quest to understand the mystery of his conversion and to communicate it in a way that others will, if not understand, at least respect or forgive.

For a spiritual quest means precisely that: not starting in a vacuum at square one, but starting where we are with what we have and with what we have found, to quest for it again.”

Religious writing is worship for both writer and reader

I think of the act of writing as a worship service—not only for the reader, but for the writer.

the act of writing is ultimately a sacrament for both writer and reader.

“The narrative of grace becomes itself a means of grace, and by following the steps through which Augustine moved, or through which God led him, we ourselves see where we are in the schema of divine grace and forgiveness.”

At the end of Boethius’s book, Pelikan says, “you suddenly realize where the consolation came from. It came from writing the book. It is in the work of writing the work that the consolation comes, as it is in the quest that the finding comes.

Corpus of work as spiritual autobiography

“Together my books form a spiritual autobiography,” he told us, “which reflect my obsession with religious experience. All my life I’ve been on a quest for the source of the mysteries that inspire me.”

Buddhist meditation and composition

the mind of Buddhist meditation relates to the composition, the structure and the intelligence of poetry.

Allen Ginsberg speaks of the “surprise glimpse or sudden insight” that can come from an unexpected source when “an intervening veil of preconceived ideas” is removed.

Three fathers of religious writing, per Pelikan

Augustine, Boethius and Newman

Self as subject of religious study and writing

“I’d like to explore how, as spiritual pilgrims, they made themselves the object of their own study and thereby made their writing a means of grace for themselves and for others.”

Religious writing requires a surrender to a power beyond oneself

Such surrenders to “a hidden source of power” might strike a non-religious writer as a loss of control—the loss that writers perhaps fear most of all. Yet the conviction at the center of these talks is that only by renunciation of some part of the mind—”the Dharmic practice of letting go of thoughts,” as Ginsberg puts it—can the religious writer become free to listen to voices that may have important things to tell him.

Stillness of style and voice in writing allows characters or the story to rise

In his novels, Frederick Buechner says, “I try not to let my voice be the dominant one. It’s hard to do that. The limitation of the great stylists—Henry James, say, or Hemingway—is that you remember their voices long after you’ve forgotten the voices of any of the people they wrote about. In one of the Psalms, God says, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ I’ve always taken that to be good literary advice, too. Be still the way Tolstoy is still, be still the way Anthony Trollope is still, so that your characters can become gods and speak for themselves and come alive in their own way.”

Pelikan's description of Augustine's Confessions

Every generation since Augustine’s death in 430, Pelikan points out, has been able to read his Confessions, which are “one single uninterrupted sentence, addressed to God.”

Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy

Finally, Boethius. The sixteenth-century Roman scholar used the experience of imprisonment “to explore within himself the resources of insight, faith and hope” that would prepare him for whatever his fate was to be. The book that grew out of that exploration, The Consolation of Philosophy

Literature notes

Writing and religion as part of the same spiritual quest

If I make the commitment to call what I want to do as spiritual and religious writing, I launch myself into a quest. This quest involves a deep exploration of myself, particularly the source of my faith and my strength as a writer and artist. My religion/spirituality and my writing are two sides of the same coin—the same quest. A nice Biblical scripture to capture this is John 1:1—"In the origin there was the Logos, and the Logos was present to God, and the Logos was god." My goal as a religious and spiritual writer is to understand my spirituality and communicate it to others.

Religious writing is sacrament for both writer and reader

As a religious writer, I ought to ensure that the act of writing becomes a form of worship or sacrament for myself. However, I also aim to transform the product of my writing and the experience of reading it as, likewise, a form of worship or sacrament for the reader. To achieve this for the reader, I have to show the journey I took (or where The Great Life took me). Doing so allows the reader to see themselves in the larger scheme of things. Meanwhile, I need to design a writing practice, informed by a strong poetics, that allows me to experience writing as a form of consolation—enjoyable, comfortable, and inspiring.

Religious writing requires a surrender to a power beyond oneself

What may separate religious writing from non-religious writing is the explicit surrender to a power beyond oneself. This surrender leads to a loss of control. The rationale behind such surrender is openness to voices that one is often unable to tap because of preconceived thoughts. The surrender to this power requires a renunciation of preconceived thoughts, which heightens the religiosity of the process.

Prompts

Hugh Nissenson saw his books as a spiritual autobiography.

Per Jaroslav Pelikan, the three fathers of religious writing were:
1.
2. Boethius
3. John Henry Newman
?
St. Augustine

Per Jaroslav Pelikan, the three fathers of religious writing were:

1. St. Augustine
3. John Henry Newman
   ?
   Boethius

Per Jaroslav Pelikan, the three fathers of religious writing were:

1. St. Augustine
2. Boethius

?
John Henry Newman

Per Pelikan, who or what was the subject of the writings of the three fathers of religious writing? :: themselves

The subject of study of the three fathers of religious writing per Pelikan. :: Themselves

Per Frederick Buechner, what is the limitation of great literary stylists like Hemingway or James? :: The voice of their characters are drowned by their style.

Per Frederick Buechner, what is the characteristic of the writing of Tolstoy and Trollope that allows their characters to stand out? :: Stillness

How did Jaroslav Pelikan describe St. Augustine's Confessions? :: “One single uninterrupted sentence, addressed to God.”

In The Consolations of Philosophy, what experience did Boethius use to explore faith and hope? :: Imprisonment

Boethius' book that grew out of his experience of imprisonment. :: The Consolations of Philosophy

John Henry Newman's autobiography. :: Apologia Pro Vita Sua