The book is a collection of works by Marco Beck - Former media executive, Latin scholar, poet and essayist - that well summarize its cultural commitment: he reflects on men and books belonging to the open-face confrontation with the figure and the message Jesus. They proposed that writers are often ignored by critics for the mere fact of presenting a religious thought, marked by Christian faith. The work you pay much attention to the texts in which are represented the conflict between matter and spirit, between light and darkness, between meaning and absurdity of existence, especially when they relate to the most humble strata of society. Following the lesson of the card. Martini, one of his maître à penser, the A. It reminds us that the human spirit oscillates continuously between the two poles of faith and doubt, with various shades in between (see p. 91). The book consists of five sections: "In the Bible and literature"; "Literature as a faith"; "Antiqua seeds of the Word"; "Novecento area»; "Four" evangelists "modern." In the first section of the A. This brings out the intertwining of the Bible and literature, through actualizing readings of the prophet Jeremiah, the Song of Songs and the Book of Job. In the second section detaches the publishing theme of Christian inspiration. Citing p. Antonio Spadaro, the A. recalls that "literature is a serious game, that is a" get involved "" (p. 44). And this seriousness and unconditional willingness to get involved was that the A. He is asking, as editor, to be authors of Sao Paulo. Or he asks them to be "restless researchers of the absolute", according to the beautiful image offered by p. Ferdinando Castelli, which is remembered as the cor inquietum constitutes' the driving force of the literature "as a search - win or lose, anyway strenuous - of Truth, the Absolute, the love of God (cf. p. 91) .
In the third section should be read in the singular "pre-Christian intuitions" in the authors of the Greek and classical Latin. For example, the carpe diem of Horace's memory, is an exhortation to focus on daily living "direct drive", to catch, to taste it. It seems "to echo the rough, but constructive sapienzialità the biblical Ecclesiastes" (p. 160), and can be seen in the exhortation of Jesus to not "wearing ourselves for tomorrow," because "each day has enough evil thereof "(Mt 6:34). Why Simone Weil, noticing some similarities between the classical thought and the Christian message, speaks of a "pre-Christian intuition" of Horace (cf. p. 161). In the fourth section contains profiles of writers of the twentieth century and contemporary, fascinated or just feel challenged by the Gospel. It starts from the itinerary of synthesis between literary criticism and spiritual excavation, and refers back to p. Castles, and especially with his Faces work of Jesus in the modern literature. Finally, the last section offers portraits - both in the human dimension both in the literary - of four important interpreters of the plot between faith and reason, fallen almost in a damnatio memoriae, where today they relegated the publishing industry: it is Italo Alighiero Chiusano, Mario Pomilio, Ferruccio Ulivi and Luigi Santucci. In conclusion, this is a work of Beck well maintained, offering interesting insights and stimulates to move, with the "restless spirit" of Augustinian memory, in a continuous journey in search of truth.
Valentina Cuccia