How religious search for meaning shaped contemporary assumptions about friendship, gender, reading and writing.

Constance M. Furey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University. The research for this book was aided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

1. A new kind of religious life; 2. Creating an alternative community: spiritual values and the search for meaning; 3. The spiritual quest: reading and writing about God and salvation; 4. Necessary relationships: desire for God and each other; 5. Defining the ideal: words of praise for fools and bishops, women and martyrs; 6. Epilogue.