Nine noted literary critics examine the spiritual and religious elements in the fiction of such diverse writers as James Baldwin, J. F. Powers, Graham Greene, Par Lagerkvist, and Flannery O'Connor. Contributors: Robert Boyle, S.J.; Robert McAfee Brown; A. A. Devitis; Herbert Howarth; Maralee Frampton; Nathan A. Scott, Jr.; Albert Sonnenfeld; Winston Weathers; and the editors

This book in does not put any religion in the negative, but only convincingly puts forward an argument that in Hinduism also, God is formless. Many of you are not aware that idol worshipping in Hinduism was no there in the beginning when the religion began and it was added later by several sages for reasons I have given below. Personally, I believe the whole system of current worship in Hinduism would have been different if people had the capability to understand and the subject of Advaita Vedanta. The knowledge of which is above all other Vedas. In Hinduism knowledge of Vedas is not the highest knowledge, but the highest knowledge is the knowledge of self, as knowledge about self is the only way we can know about the Supreme. Understanding that Hinduism got drifted away from the original worship of formless god to idol worship is very easy. Just look at Saint Sai Baba of Shirdi who lived a simple life just a century ago and is today worshipped by millions of Hindus with lot of temples dedicated to him. This is an example of how Hinduism got drifted away in thousands of years it existed from the original concept of formless one supreme God. We will also have a detailed explanation of energy, which in Hinduism was the other half of God, also created by him and known as goddesses or Shakti. The subject of energy has been explained in detail in the book, because the author states if anything cannot be classified as energy then it is only the one and only one supreme God. The two combined and give us all the illusion which is the world we see and believe. There is a chapter which compares science as just another religion and searching for something within the illusion. In Vishnu Purana, we find Lord Vishnu is praised immensely and Lord Shiva is treated as secondary. But if you look at Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva is immensely praised and the same goes with Devi Bhagavata. This was done to create in the aspirant an intense unquestionable faith in his favorite deity. Because in Hinduism we may worship the same God in any form that we believe. If I have mentioned God as him then that should not be taken as a masculine character but used only because in Hinduism energy is considered in feminine form. We all know that energy does not physically look like a female even though it is considered as feminine by religious principles.