Cathedrals of bone : the role of the body in contemporary Catholic literature / John C. Waldmeir.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waldmeir, John Christian, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--In literature.

Catholic Church.

American literature--Catholic authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Human body in literature.

Human body--Religious aspects.

Human body.

Christianity and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Christianity and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 211 p. )

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The metaphor of the Church as a "body" has shaped Catholic thinking since the Second Vatican Council. Its influence on theological inquiries into Catholic nature and practice is well-known; less obvious is the way it has shaped a generation of Catholic imaginative writers. Cathedrals of Bone is the first full-length study of a cohort of Catholic authors whose art takes seriously the themes of the Council: from novelists such as Mary Gordon, Ron Hansen, Louise Erdrich, and J. F. Powers, to poets such as Annie Dillard, Mary Karr, Lucia Perillo, and Anne Carson, to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley. Motivated by the inspirational yet thoroughly incarnational rhetoric of Vatican II, each of these writers encourages readers to think about the human body as a site-perhaps the most important site-of interaction between God and human beings. Although they represent the body in different ways, these late-twentieth-century Catholic artists share a sense of its inherent value. Moreover, they use ideas and terminology from the rich tradition of Catholic sacramentality, especially as it was articulated in the documents of Vatican II, to describe that value. In this way they challenge the Church to take its own tradition seriously and to reconsider its relationship to a relatively recent apologetics that has emphasized a narrow view of human reason and a rigid sense of orthodoxy.

Contents:

The body, flesh and bone

Discovering the body: Catholic literature after Vatican II

Writing and the Catholic body: Mary Gordon's art

Preserving the body: Annie Dillard and tradition

Clothing bodies/making priests: the sacramental vision of J.F. Powers, Alfred Alcorn, and Louise Erdrich

The body in doubt: Catholic literature, theology, and sexual abuse

The body "as it was": on the occasion of Mel Gibson's The passion of the Christ.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-208) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612699061

9780823236923

0823236927

9780823247295

0823247295

9781282699069

1282699067

9780823237418

0823237419

9780823230624

0823230627

OCLC:

647876414