Postcards from Heaven by Claire Coninger
Be always converting, and be always converted; turn us again, O Lord, Thomas Shepard urged his Cambridge congregation in the 1640s. This mandate coming down from American Puritan times to New Age seekers, to be always converting, and always converted, places a radical burden on the self as site of renewal and world-change, even as conversion becomes surrounded by deconversion (rejection of prior beliefs) and counterconversion (turns to alternative beliefs) across global modernity.
Rob Wilson's reconceptualization of the American project of conversion begins with the story of Henry 'Ōpūkaha'ia, the first Hawaiian convert to Christianity, torn from the stomach of his Native Pacific homeland and transplanted to New England. Wilson argues that 'Ōpūkaha'ia's conversion is both remarkable and prototypically American, because he dared to redefine himself via this drive to rebirth. By mapping the poetics and politics of conversion and counterconversion, Wilson returns conversion to its central place in the American literature, history, and psyche. Through 'Ōpūkaha'ia's story, and through the works of the Tongan social scientist and fiction writer Epeli Hau'ofa, Wild West poet Ai, and the mercurial Bob Dylan, Wilson demonstrates that conversion--seemingly an anachronistic concern in this secular age--is instead a global, yet deeply American subject, less about salvation or finality than about experimentation and the quest for modern beatitude.| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780849909757 |
| ISBN 10 | 0849909759 |
| Title | Postcards from Heaven |
| Author | Claire Coninger |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | W Publishing Group |
| Year published | 1992-08-01 |
| Number of pages | 126 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |