CCU English Professors Present Research on Christianity and Literature
Colorado Christian University professors Janet Black and Windy Petrie presented scholarly papers at the January 2005 Western Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature. Conference participants met on the Santa Barbara campus of Westmont College to explore reading and faith in a global community and to address the question, "Who is my neighbor?"
Dr. Petrie presented, "Resisting Readers and Resistant Subjects: The Roles of Scripture and Art in Addressing Class Conflicts in 19th-Century American Women's Fiction," a paper examining the conundrum that writers faced in portraying working class characters and issues to a middle class audience and the ways in which scripture and art can bridge those social divides. Dr. Black read a paper entitled, "Individuality and Influence: Charlotte Bronte's St. John Rivers and the British Missionary Endeavor," which challenged long-standing conclusions in literary criticism to characterize St. John Rivers as a "rebel in his time" rather than a patriarchal snob.
Petrie and Black teach English and literature courses in CCU's School of Biblical Studies, Humanities, and Sciences. Faculty participation in professional organizations and scholarly conferences continues to enrich the courses taught at CCU and, through scholarly exchange, the larger academic community -- service that CCU Provost Larry Linamen praised as an "essential component of faculty work in scholarship, research, and teaching."
The Conference on Christianity and Literature fosters scholarship and dialogue and is an affiliate of the Modern Language Association.