978 1 915412 28 7
Paperback |320 pp |234 x 156 mm
 
'Andrew Shanks is one of the most radically original theologians I know: his writing is invariably a summons to greater integrity and bolder imagination. This book examines what the idea of holiness does and doesn't mean, and is a model of depth, engagement and insight. A wonderful book.' ~ Rowan Williams
 
What might a notion of ‘sainthood’ look like, radically purged of any spirit of propagandist church ideology? In Sublime Virtue, theologian Andrew Shanks demonstrates a vibrant new approach to investigating this question by analysing representations of sainthood in the work of twelve novelists – a ‘secular canon’, divested of the unhelpful trappings of institutional religious culture and tradition. The book explores virtues of sainthood as presented in the works of George Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikos Kazantzakis, Yiyun Li, Colson Whitehead, André Schwarz-Bart, Georges Bernanos, Marilynne Robinson, Morris West, Graham Greene, Shusaku Endo and Ford Madox Ford.
 
Andrew Shanks is Canon Emeritus of Manchester Cathedral, retired, having been the residentiary Canon Theologian between 2004 and 2014. He was ordained priest in 1981 and has since served various roles in the Church of England and academic teaching roles including spells at the universities of Lancaster, Leeds and Manchester. He has written a number of specific theological works, most recently Theodicy Beyond the Death of ‘God’ (Routledge, 2018).