Salem Press

Masterplots II: Christian Literature
Publisher's Note

Salem Press's reference publications on literature fall into three broad categories: the Masterplots family, which contains 8 sets (47 volumes) organized around individual titles of great literary works; the Critical Survey of Literature family, which contains 4 sets (31 volumes) organized around individual authors; and 3 Cyclopedias: Cyclopedia of World Authors, Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, and Cyclopedia of Literary Places. Together, these publications cover literally thousands of works of literature.

The Masterplots series is divided into two groups. The original, core series is the 12-volume Masterplots, whose second revised edition was published in 1996. It covers more than 1,800 works of literature, from the classics to the great works of modern world fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry. In the mid-1980's, as the curriculum grew to include more diverse and world authors, Salem began the Masterplots II series to supplement and expand on the core titles covered in the original Masterplots. Sets in the Masterplots II series are organized around broad genres of literature--poetry, drama, long fiction, and short fiction--and on areas of interest--works by women, African Americans, juvenile and young-adult writers, British and Commonwealth writers, and American writers.

Scope and Content
The present set addresses one of the fastest-growing genres of literature as well as one of the oldest: Masterplots II: Christian Literature compiles summary-analyses of 502 titles. Of these, 45 have been updated from previous Salem publications. The remainder, 457 essays, are completely new, written for this publication.

Defining the genre of Christian literature is, as Barbara J. Walker indicates in the first chapter of her Librarian's Guide to Developing Christian Fiction Collections for Adults (2005), a confusing task:

"A work can be correctly categorized as inspirational while not fitting into the category of what would be considered Christian, leaving librarians confused as to what is really meant by the phrase "Christian fiction." It does not help when they encounter patrons with totally different concepts about this category. Some don't consider a work as Christian at all unless it has a clear-cut presentation of a salvation message, while others look for the message in the story's content, whether it is overtly apparent or not. This can leave a librarian at a distinct disadvantage when trying to satisfy patron requests. The librarian may be of a different faith and unfamiliar with what is meant by the term "Christian," although Christianity is the claimed faith of four out of five Americans."

John Mort, in his invaluable collection-development tool Christian Fiction: A Guide to the Genre (2002), identifies at least twenty subgenres and nearly two thousand titles of Christian fiction "beyond romance." While focusing on the new wave of Christian writing that blossomed in the 1990's, he acknowledges the genre's vast reach:

"The [work's] content can be indirect, didactic, subtle, political, and multifaceted, but its Christian content is what turns Christian fiction into a genre. That is--at least in evangelical fiction--readers know the outcome to begin with; it is the details of the struggle that interest them. . . . Still, there are many fiction writers who don't fit the evangelical mold and yet are clearly Christian writers. To offer one example, since the 1950s, Frederick Buechner has written lyrically of suffering, exploratory Christians. Should evangelicals give him a try? Of course, but in any case, Buechner does not lack for readers, either "secular" or Christian. . . . [F]or many readers, what matters is a spiritual search that's made in Christian terms. For them, many evangelical novels will prove too rigid and unimaginative."

Layer the deep history of Christian nonfiction onto these definitions of imaginative Christian literature, and you have a broad genre indeed: While Walker and Mort are concerned solely with fiction, the foundational texts of Christian literature--from the Bible to the works of the church fathers to the key papal encyclicals and the rich philosophical, theological, and experiential archive of modern giants such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Cornel West--also attest the rich and varied works addressing the Christian experience.

Masterplots II: Christian Literature captures the entire breadth of Christian literature--both fiction and nonfiction--by selecting more than 500 of the greatest and most representative works identified with the genre. At the core of this list are the fiction and nonfiction "classics" to which most students and general readers--Christian or secular--will be exposed at some time in their lives, from Saint Augustine's Confessions to John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, and C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters and Narnia chronicles. While several of the titles were not written exclusively for a Christian audience, all works covered in these volumes have been consulted, examined, taught, or analyzed from a Christian perspective. Many of the titles in our list, however, overtly emphasize the Christian experience, and in many cases, these works were written expressly for the purpose of addressing Christian concerns or simply providing a good "Christian read."

The scope is broad not only generically but also temporally and geographically, with works by authors as diverse as John Samuel Mbiti, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Immaculée Ilibagiza, J. N. K. Mugambi, and Fumitaka Matsuoka and dates of publication ranging from Christian times to the twenty-first century. Titles in all the major genres are included: drama, from Everyman to Jesus Christ Superstar; poetry, from "The Dream of the Rood" to Mark Jarman's Questions for Ecclesiastes and Scott Cairns's Philokalia; and representative titles from the best writers of Christian genre fiction, including romance, mystery, end-times, and science fiction. We have not avoided contemporary and often controversial blockbusters such as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins's Left Behind series; their best-seller status testifies to the continuing and growing interest in Christian spirituality and the Christian literature that supports it.

Clearly, any such list is highly selective--and subjective--defined as the "best" and most representative of the vast number of works now appropriated as Christian literature. It is our hope that these titles will meet librarians' and readers' needs as among those most likely to be known, asked for, and studied by both general readers and secondary and college-level students in a variety of courses, from literature and to the history of religion.

Arrangement and Essay Format
The set is arranged alphabetically by title, and each essay (averaging approximately 1,650 words each, or 3-5 pages) is divided into sections in a predictable format that allows easy access to text discussions:

Title: Title of the work (when originally not in English, the title best known in English publication)

Author: Name by which the author is best known, followed in parentheses by years of birth and death.

First published: Year in which the original work first appeared, usually a date of publication but also date of writing or transcription when publication does not represent first appearance. For late-twentieth and early twenty-first century works, publisher information is also included and "Edition used" (below) is omitted.

Edition used: Edition and translation information for older or ancient works, as well as later editions of more modern works, where different from the original publication; provides access to accessible and well-known editions for English-language audiences.

Genre: Drama, Nonfiction, Novel, Novella, Poetry, or Short Fiction.

Subgenres: The subgenre or subgenres are listed, from Adventure and Apocalyptic Fiction to Theology and Thriller.

Core issues: Subjects and themes of particular importance in the Christian experience, from Awakening to Faith to Union with God.

Abstract: This key paragraph highlights the work's context and content, including its Christian significance.

Principal characters: For works of drama, fiction, and narrative poetry, a list of major characters along with brief descriptions.

Overview: A detailed summary of and commentary on the work's content (the meat of the essay).

Christian Themes: A summary of the critical Christian issues addressed. For nonfiction works, this section summarizes the work's Christian focus and often evaluates it in the context of Christian history; for fictive works, this is a summary of the main Christian messages and motifs as illuminated by the plot and characters.

Sources for Further Study: Offers a listing of readily available secondary reference material on the work and its author. Bibliographical annotations appear with each source.

Contributor byline: Each essay is signed by the scholar or expert who wrote it.

Special Features and Finding Aids
Several appendixes and indexes are located at the back of volume 4:

Bibliography: Lists secondary works important to the study of Christian and inspirational literature.
Electronic Resources: Internet sources for reviews, readers' advisories, scholarship, and access to Christian literature.
Chronological List of Titles: Titles covered in these volumes, arranged by first date of appearance, to form a time line for those interested in historical access.
Core Issues Index: Titles by core issues with which the works are concerned, providing access by Christian themes.
Genre Index: Titles arranged by subgenres.
Geographical Index: Titles by author's country or region.
Title Index: Titles arranged alphabetically for access to the full contents list.
Author Index: Titles by author.

Acknowledgments
Such an undertaking would not have been possible without the invaluable editorial counsel and content decisions of Professor John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy and Director, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College. We are also deeply indebted to the many academicians and experts who contributed the essays. Their names and affiliations are identified in the Contributing Reviewers list that follows this note.