Durham, NC
November 13-15, 2015
The Hemingway Society: Hemingway and Religion
In an unsent letter to Father Vincent C. Donovan in 1927, Ernest Hemingway wrote how he always had “more faith than intelligence or knowledge” and that he “never wanted to be known as a Catholic writer.” He said that he had known the “importance of setting an example” but that he was a “very dumb Catholic” with “so much faith” that he hated to “examine into it.” Religion throughout Hemingway’s work is one of the more complex and fundamental aspects of his fiction. This panel will consider religion in Hemingway’s writing and life. Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following: Hemingway’s Protestant upbringing; his conversion to Catholicism; his marriage to Pauline; his interest in pilgrimages and religious places; faith as a subject in his fiction; religious rituals and traditions; medieval sources; mysticism; saints; religion and place; religion and politics; the soul; despair; love; intersections of the sacred and the profane; Hemingway and other religious writers; etc. By 14 June 2015, please send a title and 250-word abstract to Matthew Nickel, Misericordia University, at mnickel@misericordia.edu.