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Summer Books:
Great
book about 13 Catholic authors
THE CATHOLIC
IMAGINATION IN AMERICAN LITERATURE By Ross Labrie University of
Missouri Press, 306 pages, $39.95 |
By WILLIAM F. McINERNY
This reviewer stands in mute awe before the grandeur of this
publication.
In only 283 pages of text Ross Labrie presents a scholarly,
extensively researched, incisive, probing, intellectually and spiritually
stimulating analysis of 13 significant Roman Catholic authors and their
works.
These authors are: Orestes Brownson, Caroline Gordon, Allen Tate,
Paul Horgan, William Everson/Brother Antoninus, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy,
Robert Lowell, J.F. Powers, Daniel Berrigan, Flannery O'Connor, Ralph McInerny,
and Mary Gordon.
They and their works were chosen for three reasons. First, each
represents distinguished intellectual and artistic achievements. Second, these
authors are/were practicing Roman Catholics. Third, their works focus on Roman
Catholic spirituality and beliefs.
The first prism Labrie uses for reading this literature is that of
their Catholic imagination within an American context. Components of this
imagination are skillfully presented and articulated in the opening
chapter.
Labrie makes the case that Catholic imagination in American
literature entails a sacramental vision of the universe, an emphasis on
incarnation, a balanced understanding of nature in terms of its goodness and
flaws, an openness to the world, the influence of Thomism and natural law,
reverence for the community of saints, respect for authority and hierarchy,
sensitivity to the roles of suffering in life, a passion for one's church and
an inherent optimism, all fused with American political consciousness. Another
tier of Catholic imagination is also examined in detail -- specifically, each
author's creative use of literary techniques.
It is bracing to follow Labrie's learned, acute study of how these
components and techniques manifest themselves in each author's literary
feats.
Moreover, the Catholic imagination revealed in each chapter is
complemented by other prisms of investigation that make one's reading
experience all the richer. Labrie carefully compares these authors with each
other on important points demonstrating likenesses and differences. He includes
references to weighty correspondences between them. He thoroughly explains
their literary artistry. And, since all but one of the authors encountered the
effects of Vatican II, Labrie frequently includes important conclusions
regarding how that ecumenical council influenced their works. Thus readers are
treated to a fivefold interwoven exploration of Catholic imagination.
Additionally, Labrie provides an insightful introductory and
concluding chapter addressing what the Catholic imagination entails and what
the legacy of the Catholic imagination in American literature is, respectively.
A bibliography of 254 titles of primary and secondary works of and regarding
Catholic literature also awaits readers. If one wishes to know what sources and
resources are out there on the subject, this is the place to start.
Exquisitely written, masterfully composed, comprehensive in scope,
rich in insight, this work deserves a wide readership. Given the depth and
complexity of the analyses, this is not a work to read quickly. Rather, Ross
Labrie's publication should be savored, slowly.
William F. McInerny, a professor of theology and religious
studies at Rockhurst College, Kansas City, Mo., is a frequent reviewer for
NCR.
National Catholic Reporter, May 23,
1997
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