Reconciling Religious Orientation with the Demands of Fiction in Andrew M. Greeley’s Selected Novels

Abstract

This article attempts to reconcile the religious orientation of Rev. Andrew M. Greeley with the demands of fiction, i.e. the literariness required in a masterpiece. As a sociologist-priest, he has written fictions that are considered or labeled as popular or those that belong to genre fiction. Using Russian formalist literary theories in reading Greeley’s selected novels, the researcher was able to elucidate that Greeley’s craftmanship is present, though it heavily relies on his background as a priest and sociologist.

Keywords

• greeley
• sociology of literature
• sociology of religion
• fiction
• craftmanship