Ralph Wood
Ralph
Wood, Professor of English, received his B. A. and M.A. degrees
in English from East Texas State University, as well as an M. A. and
Ph. D. in Theology and Literature from the University of Chicago. His
teaching and research commitments include Christian Literary Classics
(especially the works of Dante, Herbert, Bunyan, and Hopkins), the Oxford
Inklings, as well as 20th century theology and literature (especially
Karl Barth and Flannery O'Connor). Before coming to Baylor, he taught
for 26 years at Wake Forest University, where he won awards for distinguished
teaching. His publications include the following:
- The Comedy of Redemption: Christian Faith and Comic
Vision in Four American Novelists (Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy,
John Updike, Peter De Vries). University of Notre Dame Press, 1988,
still available.
- "Gumption and Grace in the Novels of Kaye Gibbons,"
Christian Century 109, 27 (September 23-30, 1992): 842-6.
- "Words Under the Rocks" [an essay on the film
version of Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It], Christian Century
110, 2 (January 20, 1993): 44-6. Winner of the Associated Church Press
1993 Award of Merit for Critical Reviews.
- "Traveling the One Road: The Lord of the Rings
as a 'Pre-Christian' Classic," Christian Century 110, 6 (February
24, 1993): 208-11.
- "Rapidly Rises the Morning Tide: An Essay on P.
D. James' The Children of Men," Theology Today, 51, 2 (July 1994):
277-88.
- "'Where Is the Voice Coming From?' Flannery O'Connor
on Race," Flannery O'Connor Bulletin, 22 (1993-94): 90-118. A letter
in response from Sally Fitzgerald, together with a reply from the
author, Flannery O'Connor Bulletin, 23 (1994-95): 175-83.
- "The Baptized Imagination: C. S. Lewis's Fictional
Apologetics," Christian Century, 112, 25 (August 30-September 6, 1995):
812-15.
- "Dostoevsky on Evil as a Perversion of Personhood:
A Reading of Ivan Karamazov and the Grand Inquisitor," Perspectives
in Religious Studies 26, 3 (Fall 1999): 331-48.
- "G. K. Chesterton and the Many Roads Leading to
Jerusalem," a review-essay on David Fagerberg's The Size of Chesterton's
Catholicism, Pro Ecclesia, IX, 2 (Spring 2000): 236-40.