Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted SouthWm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 M05 2 - 272 pages Flannery O'Connor was only the second twentieth-century writer (after William Faulkner) to have her work collected for the Library of America, the definitive edition of American authors. Fifty years after her death, O'Connor's fiction still retains its original power and pertinence. For those who know nothing of O'Connor and her work, this study by Ralph C. Wood offers one of the finest introductions available. For those looking to deepen their appreciation of this literary icon, it breaks important new ground. Unique to Wood's approach is his concern to show how O'Connor's stories, novels, and essays impinge on America's cultural and ecclesial condition. He uses O'Connor's work as a window onto its own regional and religious ethos. Indeed, he argues here that O'Connor's fiction has lasting, even universal, significance precisely because it is rooted in the confessional witness of her Roman Catholicism and in the Christ-haunted character of the American South. According to Wood, it is this O'Connor -- the believer and the Southerner -- who helps us at once to confront the hardest cultural questions and to propose the profoundest religious answers to them. His book is thus far more than a critical analysis of O'Connor's writing; in fact, it is principally devoted to cultural and theological criticism by way of O'Connor's searing insights into our time and place. These are some of the engaging moral and religious questions that Wood explores: the role of religious fundamentalism in American culture and in relation to both Protestant liberalism and Roman Catholicism; the practice of racial slavery and its continuing legacy in the literature and religion of the South; the debate over Southern identity, especially whether it is a culture rooted in ancient or modern values; the place of preaching and the sacraments in secular society and dying Christendom; and the lure of nihilism in contemporary American culture. Splendidly illuminating both O'Connor herself and the American mind, Wood's Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South will inform and fascinate a wide range of readers, from lovers of literature to those seriously engaged with religious history, cultural analysis, or the American South. |
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Page 1
... body of Christ and that on this we are fed . It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ , you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle ...
... body of Christ and that on this we are fed . It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it but if you believe in the divinity of Christ , you have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle ...
Page 2
... body of the risen and reigning Christ . As such , it cannot decay into final decrepitude and death , even if it remains scrofulous and sclerotic . Hence the frequent likening of the church to Noah's ark : only the storm without exceeds ...
... body of the risen and reigning Christ . As such , it cannot decay into final decrepitude and death , even if it remains scrofulous and sclerotic . Hence the frequent likening of the church to Noah's ark : only the storm without exceeds ...
Page 5
... hun- ger and thirst also pervade the whole of her fiction , as her characters yearn unwittingly for a sustenance that the world cannot give , for a Eucharistic feeding from the slain body and drained blood of Christ 5 Introduction.
... hun- ger and thirst also pervade the whole of her fiction , as her characters yearn unwittingly for a sustenance that the world cannot give , for a Eucharistic feeding from the slain body and drained blood of Christ 5 Introduction.
Page 6
Ralph C. Wood. feeding from the slain body and drained blood of Christ . Especially in The Vi- olent Bear It Away do we discover that O'Connor emphasizes the utter objec- tivity of both sacraments : they do not represent subjective acts ...
Ralph C. Wood. feeding from the slain body and drained blood of Christ . Especially in The Vi- olent Bear It Away do we discover that O'Connor emphasizes the utter objec- tivity of both sacraments : they do not represent subjective acts ...
Page 30
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Agrarians Allen Tate American atheist baptism become believe Bible biblical Bishop called Catholic character child Christ Christ-haunted Christian church civil confessed culture dead death declared deny discern divine Donald Davidson Eugene Genovese evil faith final Flannery O'Connor fundamentalists Genovese Georgia God's gospel grace H. L. Mencken Hulga human Ibid Jesus John Karl Barth letter liberal literary live Lord Lucette manners Mason Tarwater means Milledgeville Misfit modern moral Motes mother mystery Nelson never Nigger nihilism nihilist Parker person preacher preaching Press prophet Protestant Quoted race racial racist Rayber redemption refuses regard Reinhold Niebuhr religion religious reveals sacramental salvation Sarah Ruth secular sense sinful slavery slaves social soul South Southern spiritual story suffering summons Tarwater Tarwater's Tate's theological things tion tradition truth University vision vocation voice W. H. Auden Walker Percy wants Wise Blood woman Word writer York Young Tarwater