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.