Throughout the history of English literature, church ministers have figured prominently in novels, plays, morality tales, and even poetry.
Pastors in the Classics is a unique, unprecedented collection of relevant literary masterpieces in which the pastor's experience is a major part of the story.
Part 1 is a reader's guide to twelve important classics written over four centuries and covering seven different nationalities. Each chapter not only describes and interprets the work in question, it also highlights a specific feature of pastoral ministry explored in the work. Part 2 is a handbook that defines the canon of literary masterpieces that deal with the pastor's experience, offering reading suggestions for both ministers and lovers of literature.
From the familiar (
The Canterbury Tales;
Cry, the Beloved Country; and
The Scarlet Letter) to the lesser-known (
Silence,
Witch Wood) to the surprising (
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), this collection uncovers the good, the bad, and the ugly ways in which pastors have been presented to the reading public for the past half millennium.
