In A STAY AGAINST CONFUSION Ron Hansen explores the role his religious faith plays in the creation of his fiction, an acclaimed body of work that includes such novels as MARIETTE IN ECSTASY and ATTICUS as well as the award winning short story collection NEBRASKA. The essays consider the relationship between faith and fiction, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, but always in Hansen's carefully wrought language.

In the book's preface, Hansen reveals how his Catholicism first pointed him toward a career as writer:

"Looking back on my childhood now, I find that church–going and religion were in good part the origin of my vocation as a writer, for along with Catholicism's feast for the senses, its ethical concerns, its insistence on seeing God in all things, and the high status it gave to scripture, drama, and art, there was a connotation in Catholicism's liturgies that storytelling mattered."

Once combined with what Hansen calls his, "yen to live out in my imagination other lives and possibilities," the lure of the writer's trade was inescapable. As A STAY AGAINST CONFUSION reveals, he considers his work a sacred endeavor. Those familiar with his work know his stories are awash in sacred imagery, sometimes explicitly as in MARIETTE IN ECSTASY, the story of a young woman who appears to receive the wounds of Christ, and sometimes implicitly as in ATTICUS, a mystery that includes a retelling of the Prodigal Son tale.

The first essay in the collection, "Faith and Fiction," includes Hansen's thoughts, delivered in an almost scriptural rhythm, concerning the creation and purpose of faith–based fiction:

"A faith–inspired fiction squarely faces the imponderables of life, and in the fiction writer's radical self–confrontation may even confess to desolation and doubt. Such fiction is instinctive rather than conformist, intuitive rather than calculated; it features vital characters rather than comforting types, offers freedom and anomaly rather than foregone conclusions, invites thoughtfulness not through rational argument, but through asking the right questions."

While Hansen devotes the first three essays to exploring fairly theoretical territory, charting a course for the writer of deep religious faith, A STAY AGAINST CONFUSION also includes a series of biographical sketches, ranging in subject from Hansen's grandfather, to fellow writer and mentor John Gardner, to Saint Ignatius of Loyola. In these three essays, the reader is introduced to the kind of men Hansen admires and how their lives have impacted his life and his work. Each biographical essay is imbued with a deep sense of respect for its subject as Hansen seems to explore the very souls of these three very different men.

The next five essays are critical studies of a variety of artistic and religious works, including the story of Cain and Abel, the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, a short story by Leo Tolstoy, the film Babette's Feast, and the prayer known as "Anima Christi." Hansen's keen analytical skills come to the fore here as he stretches the boundaries of each work under consideration, seeking what each might reveal about God and about the power of storytelling.

A STAY AGAINST CONFUSION ends with two essays exploring mysteries of the Catholic faith --- stigmata and the Eucharist --- which bookend a third essay detailing the martyrdom of six Jesuit priests who were killed by Salvadoran soldiers in 1989. That essay, "Hearing the Cry of the Poor: The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador," leaves theory behind in favor of a passionate retelling of the brutal suppression of the Catholic faith in El Salvador by soldiers who had been trained in the United States. The only political document in the book, this essay may well be the most powerful piece in the collection as Hansen uses his considerable abilities to paint a horrific picture of faith under persecution.

Hansen's collection should cement his reputation as a beautiful, thoughtful writer as it reveals the deeper wellspring of his work and his passionate belief in God.