What are some religious books that would appeal to readers in general? For example, lots of people read stories and proverbs of the Bible, Pilgram’s Progress, etc. in school to look at the historical or analytical context. What are religious writings that would appeal to someone not wanting to become part of the faith, but just read for context.
This is a fine topic, but it'd require a lot of broad reading, perhaps more than the average writer would want. For example, I'd say that it'd be just as vital to read religious analytical works that are written by prominent theologians (e.g. C.S. Lewis for Christianity and Rabbi Harold Kushner for Judaism) as well as fictional works that deal with religion as a facet of the story's characters (e.g. Milton Steinberg's As a Driven Leaf or Chaim Potok's The Chosen). Then there'd be the option of expanding the religions that are being addressed. Were I to write this article, I'd probably concentrate on Judeo-Christian novels since that is what I'm most versed in, but supposing someone wants to talk about Buddhism, or Hinduism, or Islam? No matter what, it'd be necessary to find works that praise religions excellence, not its superiority, to other world views, or in other words, books that aren't preachy (and I hope I did a good job of supplying works that aren't). This is certainly a worthy topic to write about, but the person who accepts the responsibility should know full well that they're going to have a lot of research ahead of them. – August Merz9 years ago
Jan Karon's Mitford series is considered Christian but achieved crossover status with mainstream lit, as did Neta Jackson's Yada Yada Prayer Group series. I enjoyed both and would recommend exploring them (or reading them if you want to research). – Stephanie M.7 years ago
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