RELIGION & LITERATURE

Scope & Guideline

Illuminating the Intersection of Belief and Expression.

Introduction

Immerse yourself in the scholarly insights of RELIGION & LITERATURE with our comprehensive guidelines detailing its aims and scope. This page is your resource for understanding the journal's thematic priorities. Stay abreast of trending topics currently drawing significant attention and explore declining topics for a full picture of evolving interests. Our selection of highly cited topics and recent high-impact papers is curated within these guidelines to enhance your research impact.
LanguageEnglish
ISSN0888-3769
PublisherUNIV NOTRE DAME
Support Open AccessNo
CountryUnited States
TypeJournal
Convergefrom 2002 to 2020, from 2022 to 2023
AbbreviationRELIG LIT / Relig. Lit.
Frequency3 issues/year
Time To First Decision-
Time To Acceptance-
Acceptance Rate-
Home Page-
AddressUNIV NOTRE DAME, 1146 FLANNER HALL, NOTRE DAME, IN 46556

Aims and Scopes

The journal 'Religion & Literature' focuses on the intersection of religious themes and literary analysis, providing a platform for interdisciplinary scholarship that explores how literature reflects, critiques, and engages with religious ideas and practices.
  1. Interdisciplinary Exploration of Religion and Literature:
    The journal emphasizes the integration of literary studies and religious studies, inviting contributions that analyze literary texts through theological, philosophical, and cultural lenses.
  2. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives:
    It covers a broad temporal spectrum, from classical texts to contemporary works, examining how religious narratives and themes evolve over time.
  3. Thematic Focus on Major Religious Figures and Concepts:
    Many papers delve into the works of significant religious figures, particularly John Henry Newman, and explore major religious concepts such as forgiveness, suffering, and aesthetics.
  4. Cultural Contextualization:
    The journal encourages analyses that situate literary works within their cultural and historical contexts, exploring how religion influences literature and vice versa.
  5. Critical Engagement with Modernity:
    There is a consistent focus on how literature critiques or responds to modernity and secularization, examining tensions between faith and contemporary cultural narratives.
Recent publications reflect a dynamic shift in focus, highlighting emerging themes that resonate with contemporary scholarly discourse in religion and literature.
  1. Aesthetics and Religious Experience:
    There is a growing interest in how aesthetic experiences in literature relate to religious practices and beliefs, particularly through the lens of figures like John Henry Newman.
  2. The Role of Literature in Spiritual Formation:
    Recent works increasingly explore how literature serves as a medium for spiritual growth and moral imagination, emphasizing the transformative potential of literary engagement with religious themes.
  3. Interfaith Dialogues and Comparative Religion:
    Emerging themes reflect a rising interest in comparative studies of religious texts and their literary representations, fostering interfaith dialogues through literature.
  4. Contemporary Issues in Religion and Ethics:
    The journal has begun to engage more with contemporary ethical dilemmas through a literary lens, addressing issues such as race, gender, and environmentalism in relation to religious thought.
  5. Literary Representations of Suffering and Redemption:
    Recent publications increasingly focus on narratives of suffering and redemption, reflecting a deep engagement with existential themes that resonate across various religious traditions.

Declining or Waning

As the journal has evolved, certain themes have become less prominent, indicating a possible shift in focus or a response to changing scholarly interests.
  1. Secularism and Its Discontents:
    While earlier publications included extensive discussions on secularism's impact on literature, recent issues show a decline in this theme, suggesting a possible shift towards more overtly religious discourses.
  2. Gender and Religion:
    Although topics addressing gender dynamics within religious contexts were once prevalent, there appears to be a waning interest in this area, with fewer papers exploring the intersection of feminism and religious literature.
  3. Medieval Studies:
    There has been a noticeable decrease in articles focusing on medieval literature and its religious contexts, possibly reflecting a broader trend in literary studies moving towards modern and contemporary analyses.
  4. Post-Colonial Perspectives:
    Themes related to post-colonial interpretations of religious texts and their implications in literature have diminished, indicating a potential shift towards more localized or specific cultural studies.

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