Nathan A. Scott Jr. (24 April 1925 – December 2006) was an American scholar who helped establish the modern field of theology and literature and who helped found the well-known Ph.D. program in that field at the University of Chicago. Scott also published seventeen books, in addition to publishing articles and reviews and editing editions."Remembering Nathan Scott"
by Henry L. Carrigan, Jr. He has likewise been the subject of numerous articles and books. Scott's innovation in literary criticism was to reject the New Critics' idea that poems should be studied as autonomous objects and to remind scholars that authors' personal beliefs are crucial for understanding their texts; in this way, he also returned criticism to a study of the way literature represents the outside world. Scott earned his B.A. at the University of Michigan in 1944, his B.D. at Union Theological Seminary in 1946, and his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1949, having studied under

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Jacques Barzun. He served as dean of the chapel at Virginia Union University and was an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. He taught at Howard University in Washington, D.C.Fikes, Robert
Nathan A. Scott (1925-2006)
'' Callaloo'' 30.1 (2007): 10-12. He taught at Chicago from 1955 to 1977, when he moved to University of Virginia. He also served as a President of the

American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a profes ...

References

Partial bibliography

*''Rehearsals of Discomposure. Alienation and Reconciliation in Modern Literature''. New York: King's Crown Press of Columbia University Press. 1952. *''The Broken Center. Studies in the Theological Horizon of Modern Literature''. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. 1966. * *''The Poetics of Belief: Studies in Coleridge,

Arnold Arnold may refer to: People * Arnold (given name), a masculine given name * Arnold (surname), a German and English surname Places Australia * Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria Canada * Arnold, Nova Scotia Uni ...

, Pater, Santayana, Stevens, and Heidegger''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1985. *''The Climate of Faith in Modern Literature''. New York: The Seabury Press. 1964. (editor)

External links

Religion and Literature at U Chicago's Divinity School
*Gerhart, Mary and Anthony C. Yu, eds. ''Morphologies of Faith: Essays in Religion and Culture in Honor of Nathan A. Scott Jr.'' Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.
"Remembering Nathan Scott"
by Henry L. Carrigan, Jr. {{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Nathan A., Jr. University of Chicago faculty Religious studies scholars American literary critics American Episcopal priests 1925 births 2006 deaths Columbia University alumni University of Michigan alumni Presidents of the American Academy of Religion 20th-century American Episcopalians 20th-century American clergy 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics