Religion Around Virginia Woolf

“[Paulsell’s] is a meditative, ‘slow-reading’ approach that enables readers to investigate Woolf’s works with restored appreciation for religious language and resonances. It builds into a dazzling survey of religion around Woolf which makes the history of ideas exciting—and revelatory.”

—Matthew Macer-Wright Virginia Woolf Bulletin

“Stephanie Paulsell takes our appreciation of Virginia Woolf’s religious sensibilities to a new level. An important read for Woolf scholars, this book also demonstrates her significance for anyone interested in the spiritual value of literature.”

—Jane de Gay, author of Virginia Woolf and Christian Culture

“Religion Around Virginia Woolf will inspire poets, novelists, theologians, scholars—anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of Virginia Woolf’s genius. Stephanie Paulsell’s brilliant and impassioned study uncovers the ways in which Woolf’s life—and especially her life as a reader—shaped her writing about the hidden connections among humans, the making of art, and her notions of the divine. In brilliant, lucid prose, Paulsell’s insights and close readings describe the ‘fresh chapels’ where we might find new forms of devotion. This is a book I’m recommending to all the serious readers and writers I know.”

—René Steinke, author of Friendswood

“Stephanie Paulsell has written a landmark book on Virginia Woolf. It is revelatory. She has dared to name what we all have intuited: Woolf is not just a literary writer with a politics of her own, but she is also a spiritual writer who touches the ineffable, so we can touch it too. With uncommon insight and brilliant scholarship, Paulsell illuminates and elucidates Woolf’s prose for what it is: sacred text. I now want to reread everything Virginia Woolf has written as if I were on a pilgrimage with fresh eyes.”

—Terry Tempest Williams, author of When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice

“Paulsell offers valuable context and thoughts for further exploration.”

—W. T. Martin Choice

“From this well-researched book, readers will take away a new understanding of how religion works in and ‘around’ literature and a deeper appreciation of Virginia Woolf’s religious contribution, despite her professed atheism, to secular modernity and literary modernism.”

—Emily Griesinger Woolf Studies Annual

“Religion Around Virginia Woolf is a thoughtful and thorough addition to the growing Religion Around series. Impeccably researched and fresh, it is a provocative and fascinating read. Drawing on a diverse range of sources and including many lyrical passages from Woolf’s own writing, Paulsell accomplishes a difficult task for the scholar: she increases both one’s understanding and one’s love and appreciation for Woolf’s work.”

—Grace Perry McCright Christianity and Literature

Stephanie Paulsell is Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School.