What Would Jesus Read?
Popular Religious Books and Everyday Life in Twentieth-Century America
Erin A. Smith
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 04/2015
Pages: 410
Subject: Religion, Literary Criticism
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9781469621340
DESCRIPTION
Drawing on publishers' records, letters by readers to authors, promotional materials, and interviews with contemporary religious-reading groups, Smith offers a comprehensive study that finds surprising overlap across the religious spectrum--Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, liberal and conservative. Smith tells the story of how authors, publishers, and readers reconciled these books' dual function as best-selling consumer goods and spiritually edifying literature. What Would Jesus Read? will be of interest to literary and cultural historians, students in the field of print culture, and scholars of religious studies.