A PREVIEW OF HIS WIT LITERARY FESTIVAL CONVERSATION THIS SEPTEMBER
AS THE ANNUAL Author’ s Guild WIT( Words, Ideas, and Thinkers) Literary Festival approaches, anticipation builds for a thought-provoking dialogue featuring three distinguished voices: Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction; Bishop Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D. C., perhaps best known for her bold sermon at the National Cathedral in January 2025; and Paul Elie, the renowned writer whose new book, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s, explores the“ crypto-religious” art of that turbulent decade.( The term was coined by Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz and describes a way of engaging with religion that is both critical and creative.) WIT festival attendees can expect a serious and generous conversation about belief, imagination, and responsibility in our age. We spoke with Elie, who will lead the WIT festival conversation. Consider this a preview of the rich exchange to come.
B y S c o t t E d w a r d A n d e r s o n
Paul Elie on Literature, Faith, and the Culture of Encounter
In our divided society, what role can spirituality play in fostering connection? It can invite us to consider the very premise that we are a divided society. Yes, there’ s a political divide in the U. S., but our divisions are minor compared to those in Israel and Palestine, the Baltic region, or the Sudan. Sound religion, cognizant of history and recognizing the human community is one, can help us recognize that our present sense of social division is what Freud called“ the narcissism of minor difference,” and ours is still a relatively stable, prosperous, and peaceful society.
How do you maintain dialogue with those who hold different beliefs? Through what Pope Francis called the“ culture of encounter.” You recognize that all of us are equals— kings, princes, bishops, scholars, laborers. And you recognize that you aren’ t entirely clear about your own beliefs; they are continually open to adaptation or revision. The encounter with the other is an opportunity to understand one’ s own beliefs better, through what the Catholic Worker Movement calls“ further clarification of thought.”
A PREVIEW OF HIS WIT LITERARY FESTIVAL CONVERSATION THIS SEPTEMBER
AS THE ANNUAL Author’ s Guild WIT( Words, Ideas, and Thinkers) Literary Festival approaches, anticipation builds for a thought-provoking dialogue featuring three distinguished voices: Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction; Bishop Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D. C., perhaps best known for her bold sermon at the National Cathedral in January 2025; and Paul Elie, the renowned writer whose new book, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s, explores the“ crypto-religious” art of that turbulent decade.( The term was coined by Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz and describes a way of engaging with religion that is both critical and creative.) WIT festival attendees can expect a serious and generous conversation about belief, imagination, and responsibility in our age. We spoke with Elie, who will lead the WIT festival conversation. Consider this a preview of the rich exchange to come.
How does literature offer a space for spiritual exploration that traditional religion might not? Literature gives us access to the inner and imaginative lives of characters and authors alike. It’ s a deep form of the“ culture of encounter.” We can see“ as if” from the point of view of Mrs. Dalloway, Francis“ Ironweed” Phelan, or Rev. Ames— and, where there is religious dimension, we can encounter belief“ as if” from Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited, the poet Lucille Clifton,
104 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE August July 2025 2025