Spiritual Bouquets

Two new anthologies of what might be called “spiritual verse,” one released this fall and the other due to be published early next year, are noteworthy for their variety and quality. Christian Poetry in America Since 1940 (Paraclete Press, 2022), edited by Micah Mattix and Sally Thomas, begins with an explanation of how and why the poems were chosen.  In his insightful introduction, Mattix offers a provisional answer to the question, “what exactly is Christian poetry?” He agrees with C.S. Lewis that, while there is no such thing as “Christian literature,” there may be an identifiably “Christian approach to literature.”