The Bible is by far the leading source of inspiration for Western literature, and in particular, the life of Jesus has drawn the attention of artists and writers throughout the ages. Now, in a volume of astonishing range and originality, Robert Atwan, George Dardess, and Peggy Rosenthal present 280 remarkable poems from world literature focusing on Jesus's life and teaching.

Readers accustomed to the predictable inclusions of many anthologies will be surprised and delighted by the diversity of poets represented here, from Aquinas, Dante, de Guevara, Donne, and Sor Juana, to D.H. Lawrence, Gabriela Mistral, Wole Soyinka, Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou, Czeslaw Milosz, and Leopold Senghor. Perhaps no other thematically organized anthology could have brought together writers as different as Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Merton, Alice Walker, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Jack Kerouac. Indeed, simply to turn the page in Divine Inspiration is an adventure in itself. And in terms of form, style, modulations of tone and perspective, the variety here is as unparalleled as it is unpredictable.

The editors of Divine Inspiration have done a masterful job of unifying this vast assortment of poems. Organized chronologically around the life of Jesus, the book is divided into nine sections--Birth and Infancy, Preparation for Public Ministry, Healings and Miracles, and so on--and presents passages from the Gospels followed by the poems they inspired. This structure gives readers the dual pleasures of a strong narrative pull punctuated by moments of extraordinary lyric intensity. Our familiarity with the life of Jesus is thus enlivened, deepened, and in some cases wholly transformed by the imaginative power of the poems. In the largest section of the book, on the Passion of Jesus, we find a breathtaking array of poems by Anna Akhmatova, Antonio Machado, Thomas Hardy, Miguel de Unamuno, Charles Baudelaire, R.S. Thomas, Andrew Marvell, Frederico Garcia Lorca, and Denise Levertov, among others. To see the Passion of Jesus refracted through the lenses of such poets is to see it anew, or more vividly than before. And to encounter Chinese, Korean, Nigerian, Arab, Latin American, Scandinavian, Hungarian, and Greek poets alongside English, French, and German is a testimony both to the editors' devoted scholarship and to the power of Jesus's life to inspire great poetry across a spectrum of cultures and eras.

An invaluable sourcebook for students, scholars, and general readers alike, Divine Inspiration should prove equally satisfying to readers with a strong interest in religion and to all lovers of poetry.

George Dardess, author of this wise and inviting guide, believes that Jesus's injunction to "Love your neighbor as yourself" means that serious Christians should engage with Islam and come to know their Muslim neighbors. Dardess invites readers to explore some of Islam's key facts, chief concepts, and practices, using his own failings and successes as a guide. He shares his own experiences as a deacon in the Catholic Church in Rochester, New York, seeking to build bridges with the local Muslim community, and how his own faith has been expanded and enhanced by the relationships and understandings that have resulted. At times humorous, questioning, and warm, Meeting Islam is an engaging guide to the rewards (and the dangers) of venturing outside the boundaries of one's own faith. Dardess is sympathetic to Muslim claims to truth, and analyzes them in the light of similar, Christian claims. Each chapter ends with a theological reflection on how a particular facet of Islam may enhance (rather than detract from) our own Christian self-understanding.