Faith: Stories: Short Fiction on the Varieties and Vagaries of Faith

By: Curtis, C. Michael

Book Overview

Expanding the conversation begun in God: Stories, this important gathering of writers explores the diverse world of faith in all its guises: Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Quaker, and Confucian beliefs, as well as Jewish and Christian ones. From James A. Michener to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, from Amy Tan to Hanif Kureishi, Faith: Stories investigates the boundaries of faith and ritual in everyday life. In one story, a one-eyed Chinese child learns that all heavens are not the same. In another, a wealthy moneylender finds a relic of the Prophet Muhammad and decides to keep it instead of returning it to its shrine. In a third, a father whose son begins to blindly preach the Koran becomes engaged in a fanaticism of his own.
With subtlety and surprise, wit and candor, these stories explore issues of faith such as sacrifice, superstition, myth, and disbelief. Together they form an illuminating prism of the religious experience in today's world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618378243
• ISBN13: 9780618378241
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

great adult sunday school book

This collection of mostly contemporary short fiction, similar to Curtis's earlier collection ("God: Stories"), is a ready made adult sunday school class on the subject of faith and doubt in literature. It is international in its scope and inter-denominational in its selections. Some of the selected writers are Christian; most are not. Each story illuminates some aspect of faith in a non-didactic way. These are NOT a series of inspirational "feel good" stories about God. They are instead a collection of thought provoking, very well written stories by major writers that probe one of the fundamental ironies of belief in God: that reasonable doubt is a necessary component. For other collections of short stories along these lines, also try "The Celestial Omnibus."