New Stories for Old

This text explores the biblical influence on the style and structure of works by Fielding, Defoe, Eliot, Kafka, Dostoevsky and others. Kafka's "The Trial" has been termed a "midrash" on the book of Job (Northrop Frye). But this book concludes that it is also a debate with Job. Whilst other novelists could not manage without the Bible, at the same time "it would not do". The book concludes with two chapters on the Israeli novelists, S.Y. Agnon and A.B. Yehoshua. The study of theology and religion calls upon a wide range of interdisciplinary skills and cultural perspectives to illuminate the concerns at the heart of religious faith. Books in this series variously explore the contributions made by literature, philosophy and science in forming our historical and contemporary understanding of religious issues and theological perspectives.