Literature and the Renewal of the Public Sphere

With the diminished influence of intellectuals outside the academy and a marked decline in the quality of public discourse, many observers have called for the return of the "public intellectual." At the same time, religion is playing an increasingly public role in the modern world. This collection of essays examines the possibility that both religion and literature, in their complex interactions, are capable of reentering and renewing what the eminent German philosopher Jürgen Habermas refers to as "the public sphere."