The dimension of religion in the life and work of Bakhtin has been fiercely contested--and willfully ignored--by critics. Unique in its in-depth focus on this subject, Bakhtin and Religion brings together leading British, American, and Russian scholars to investigate the role of religious thought in shaping and framing Bakhtin's writings.

These essays provide an overview of Bakhtin's attitude toward religion in general and Russian Orthodoxy in particular, addressing topics ranging from how Bakhtin's religious ideas informed his linguistic and aesthetic theories to the idea of love in his secular and religious thought and to the religious component of Bakhtin's theory of laughter.

Susan M. Felch is an associate professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Paul J. Contino is an associate professor of humanities at Christ College, Valparaiso University. His work has appeared in the journals Studies in the Novel, Renascence, and Religion and Literature.

"The essays in the present volume . . . are indispensable for any student of the modern scene." --Joseph Frank, Stanford University

"Mikhail Bakhtin's engagement with Christian ideas is given a thorough sounding in this exceptional collection of penetrating essays on a controversial topic that has dominated recent discussion in Bakhtin studies." --Amy Mandelker, editor of Bakhtin in Contexts: Across the Disciplines

"This insightful collection sheds floods of light on one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. It shows the deep sources of Bakhtin's dialogical philosophy in the spiritual and theological traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy. Against this background, we can begin to appreciate how radical was Bakhtin's break with the reductive, scientistic, and monological thrust of much Western philosophy." --Charles Taylor, McGill University