Roger Lundin (1948-2015) was Arthur F. Holmes Professor of Faith and Learning, Wheaton College. He is the author of a number of books, including: There Before Us: Religion, Literature, and Culture From Emerson to Wendell Berry, Editor (2007), From Nature to Experience: The American Search for Cultural Authority (2005), and Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief, 2nd ed. (2004).

Building Jewish is clearly and authoritatively written and is richly illustrated, making it ideal for classroom use as well as a basic scholarly resource. --Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Introduction by Roger Lundin Part 1 Religion and American Fiction1. Finding a Prose for God: Religion and American FictionDenis Donoghue2. American Literature and/as Spiritual InquiryLawrence BuellPart 2 Religion and American Poetry3. Variety as Religious Experience: The Poetics of the Plain StyleElisa New4. Keeping the Metaphors Alive: American Poetry and TransformationBarbara PackerPart 3 Literature, Religion, and the African American Experience5. Genres of Redemption: African Americans, the Bible, and Slavery from Lemuel Haynes to Frederick DouglassMark A. Noll6. Balm in Gilead: Memory, Mourning, and Healing in African American AutobiographyAlbert J. Raboteau7. The Race for Faith: Justice, Mercy, and the Sign of the Cross in African American LiteratureKatherine Clay Bassard8. Forms of RedemptionJohn StaufferPart 4 Literature, Religion, and American Public Life9. Hamlet without the Prince: The Role of Religion in Postwar NonfictionAlan Wolfe10. ""The Only Permanent State"": Belief and the Culture of IncredulityAndrew DelbancoPart 5 Theology and American Literature11. How the Church Became Invisible: A Christian Reading of American Literary TraditionStanley Hauerwas and Ralph C. Wood12. ""The Play of the Lord"": On the Limits of CritiqueRoger LundinNotes Index