The Gospel in Dickens: Selections from His Works
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Wish you had time to re-read and enjoy that daunting stack of Charles Dickens novels? Take heart: Dickens enthusiast Gina Dalfonzo has done the heavy lifting for you. In short, readable excerpts she presents the essence of the great novelist's prodigious output, teasing out dozens of the most memorable scenes to reveal the Christian vision and values that suffuse all his work. Dickens can certainly entertain, but his legacy endures because of his power to stir consciences with the humanity of his characters and their predicaments. While he could be ruthless in his characterization of greed, injustice, and religious hypocrisy, again and again the hope of redemption shines through. In spite of - or perhaps because of - his own failings, Dickens never stopped exploring the themes of sin, guilt, repentance, redemption, and restoration found in the gospel. In some passages the Christian elements are explicit, in others implicit, but, as Dickens himself said, they all reflect his understanding of and reverence for the gospel. The Gospel in Dickens includes selections from Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Sketches by Boz - with a cast of unforgettable characters such as Ebenezer Scrooge, Sydney Carton, Jenny Wren, Fagin, Pip, Joe Gargery, Mr. Bumble, Miss Havisham, betsey Trotwood, and Madame Defarge.
Product Details
Price
$19.95
$18.55
Publisher
Plough Publishing House
Publish Date
September 22, 2020
Pages
264
Dimensions
5.4 X 7.9 X 0.6 inches | 0.65 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780874868418
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Charles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. At age eleven, Dickens was taken out of school and sent to work in London backing warehouse, where his job was to paste labels on bottles for six shillings a week. His father John Dickens, was a warmhearted but improvident man. When he was condemned the Marshela Prison for unpaid debts, he unwisely agreed that Charles should stay in lodgings and continue working while the rest of the family joined him in jail. This three-month separation caused Charles much pain; his experiences as a child alone in a huge city-cold, isolated with barely enough to eat-haunted him for the rest of his life.
Gina Dalfonzo is editor of the popular Dickensblog, a blog about all things Charles Dickens. The author of Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis and One by One: Welcoming the Singles in Your Church, she has been an editor at Breakpoint and Christianity Today and a columnist at Christ and Pop Culture. Her writing has appeared in the Atlantic, National Review, Gospel Coalition, First Things, and Guideposts.
Karen Swallow Prior (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) is the award-winning author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books and The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. She is a frequent speaker, a monthly columnist at Religion News Service, and has written for Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Vox. She is a research fellow with Comment, a founding member of the Pelican Project, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a senior fellow at the International Alliance for Christian Education.
Reviews
Martin Mosebach is a superb journalist. Virtually nothing escapes his gaze, and he glosses over nothing. --Hannes Stein, Die Welt
The twenty-one Libya martyrs have given the world an example of faithful, resilient Christian witness that has touched and brought together the full breadth of Christian expression around the world. Their prayers in the face of death have not only resonated with Christians, but have also encouraged people of all faiths to stand for one another. I am grateful for Martin Mosebach's faithful depiction of these courageous men, their families, communities, and church.--Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Church
Few contemporary writers have delved so deeply into the disturbing experiences of such an entirely different world and way of life. --HR 2
Mosebach has a novelist's insight and way with words. The 21 is also a fine piece of journalism. It helps us to understand, if not the ferocity of the killers, the quiet heroism--the ordinary heroism, perhaps--of the martyrs.--Christian Today
A consuming work on the history and contemporary life of Coptic Christians. . . . Through immersive scenes and finely drawn portraits of the people he meets, Mosebach exhibits a clear admiration for the Copts' devotion on every page.--Publishers Weekly
Although I would like very much to visit Egypt, I think I never would have seen all the things Mosebach was able to see. What he has written is a meditation on the profound sense of prayer he found in the Coptic Church, the depth of mystery in her liturgy, the valor of the witness of a minority that has been persecuted for 1,400 years, the reality of faith to be experienced in the poor and the powerless.--Msgr. Richard Antall, Angelus News
Mosebach provides striking images of a singular Christianity unfamiliar to many Christians outside of the Middle East.... Through immersive scenes and finely drawn portraits of the people he meets, he exhibits a clear admiration for the Coptic devotion on every page. This will appeal to Christians as well as readers wanting to understand the lives of minorities in Muslim countries.--Publishers Weekly
Martin Mosebach is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent, original, and powerfully eloquent poets of the present day. --Ulrich Greiner, Die Zeit
Mosebach has mastered a rare art: maintaining deep respect for the other. . . . Not a single detail loses its magic in this moving, impressive book: it reads like a ray of light, illuminating Western blind spots and foreign worlds. --Alexander Cammann, Die Zeit
The 21 is not for the faint of heart, particularly at the outset. But it is an important book, given that it describes the persecution of a group of Christians who are at the heart and root of the faith today. To turn away from this story would be to dishonor the 21 men.--National Catholic Register
Mosebach asks us to not look away but rather to look directly into the faces and lives of these martyrs. By doing so we of the lands of plenty and waning faith may find something that we have lost and may yet regain...but not without cost.--Cornerstone Forum
Take[s] us deep into the lives and churches of these Coptic believers, with Mosebach exhibiting an attention to detail befitting his novelistic gifts....We gain a rich impression of what shaped the lives and faith of these martyrs, and we witness how their martyrdom reverberates to this day through their families, churches, and communities.--Christianity Today
The twenty-one Libya martyrs have given the world an example of faithful, resilient Christian witness that has touched and brought together the full breadth of Christian expression around the world. Their prayers in the face of death have not only resonated with Christians, but have also encouraged people of all faiths to stand for one another. I am grateful for Martin Mosebach's faithful depiction of these courageous men, their families, communities, and church.--Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Church
Few contemporary writers have delved so deeply into the disturbing experiences of such an entirely different world and way of life. --HR 2
Mosebach has a novelist's insight and way with words. The 21 is also a fine piece of journalism. It helps us to understand, if not the ferocity of the killers, the quiet heroism--the ordinary heroism, perhaps--of the martyrs.--Christian Today
A consuming work on the history and contemporary life of Coptic Christians. . . . Through immersive scenes and finely drawn portraits of the people he meets, Mosebach exhibits a clear admiration for the Copts' devotion on every page.--Publishers Weekly
Although I would like very much to visit Egypt, I think I never would have seen all the things Mosebach was able to see. What he has written is a meditation on the profound sense of prayer he found in the Coptic Church, the depth of mystery in her liturgy, the valor of the witness of a minority that has been persecuted for 1,400 years, the reality of faith to be experienced in the poor and the powerless.--Msgr. Richard Antall, Angelus News
Mosebach provides striking images of a singular Christianity unfamiliar to many Christians outside of the Middle East.... Through immersive scenes and finely drawn portraits of the people he meets, he exhibits a clear admiration for the Coptic devotion on every page. This will appeal to Christians as well as readers wanting to understand the lives of minorities in Muslim countries.--Publishers Weekly
Martin Mosebach is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent, original, and powerfully eloquent poets of the present day. --Ulrich Greiner, Die Zeit
Mosebach has mastered a rare art: maintaining deep respect for the other. . . . Not a single detail loses its magic in this moving, impressive book: it reads like a ray of light, illuminating Western blind spots and foreign worlds. --Alexander Cammann, Die Zeit
The 21 is not for the faint of heart, particularly at the outset. But it is an important book, given that it describes the persecution of a group of Christians who are at the heart and root of the faith today. To turn away from this story would be to dishonor the 21 men.--National Catholic Register
Mosebach asks us to not look away but rather to look directly into the faces and lives of these martyrs. By doing so we of the lands of plenty and waning faith may find something that we have lost and may yet regain...but not without cost.--Cornerstone Forum
Take[s] us deep into the lives and churches of these Coptic believers, with Mosebach exhibiting an attention to detail befitting his novelistic gifts....We gain a rich impression of what shaped the lives and faith of these martyrs, and we witness how their martyrdom reverberates to this day through their families, churches, and communities.--Christianity Today
