Spiritual Literature

Spiritual literature is a literary genre that explores the relationship between people and the divine, drawing on formats as varied as autobiography, poetry, narrative, and prose to communicate spiritual ideas. It returns often to the metaphor of a journey, tracing a protagonist's search for deeper truth and personal transformation, as in Dante's Inferno, Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Its recurring subjects include the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, how to live an ethical life, the nature of death, and connection with the divine, and its acknowledged landmark works include Augustine's Confessions, Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ, and Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain.