Synopses & Reviews
Since 1965 there has been an explosion of fiction about being Catholic, clearly a result of confusions in the post-Vatican II church. American Catholic culture has suffered severe dislocations, and fiction has provided one way of coping with those dislocations. In Testing the Faith, Anita Gandolfo provides an overview of fiction about the American Catholic experience.
The book considers emerging novelists such as Mary Gordon and Valerie Sayers and established writers like Paul Theroux. Among the popular writers covered are Andrew Greeley and William X. Keinzle. The volume also considers the emergence of new, young writers, such as Jeanne Schinto, Sheila O'Connor, and Philip Deaver. By analyzing patterns in contemporary Catholic fiction, Gandolfo shows both the shared interest these writers have in the Catholic experience and their individual perspectives on that experience. The book is the first to consider post-Vatican II Catholic literature, and will be of interest to those concerned with both the Catholic experience and current literature.
Review
Gandolfo has accomplished a major synthesis of contemporary writers of the Catholic experience, a literary group heretofore treated in piecemeal fashion. Particularly incisive is her treatment of Ralph McInerny, a serious writer long overlooked by critics. McInerny's Father Roger Dowling detective fiction (where evil is expelled and innocence restored) both illuminates McInerny's debt to the Golden Age of Catholicism past and provides an interesting counterpart to his current status as neoconservative publisher (Crisis magazine) and Catholic restorationist. . . . A solid contribution to the cultural history of twentieth-century American Catholicism and promises a more meaningful reading of the Catholic experience, both in fiction and in life's reality.The Catholic Historical Review
Review
Gandolfo has accomplished a major synthesis of contemporary writers of the Catholic experience, a literary group heretofore treated in piecemeal fashion. Particularly incisive is her treatment of Ralph McInerny, a serious writer long overlooked by critics. McInerny's Father Roger Dowling detective fiction (where evil is expelled and innocence restored) both illuminates McInerny's debt to the Golden Age of Catholicism past and provides an interesting counterpart to his current status as neoconservative publisher (Crisis magazine) and Catholic restorationist. . . . A solid contribution to the cultural history of twentieth-century American Catholicism and promises a more meaningful reading of the Catholic experience, both in fiction and in life's reality.The Catholic Historical Review
Review
This is an important book for the study of American culture, and it takes the pulse of what may be viable futures in American Catholicism.The Journal of Religion
Review
For those who still care about the survival of a Catholic presence in America, for its recovery of a moral and spiritual power, this is an important book, an ambitious book, a hopeful book. I find in the book a double value: several writers and dozens of novels are introduced to a wider readership so that to them serious attention can now be expected; additionally, she brings fresh conviction to a proposition many of us have become wary of that art is both the touchstone and the minister to a society's health.Religion &Literature
Review
Gandolfo has accomplished a major synthesis of contemporary writers of the Catholic experience, a literary group heretofore treated in piecemeal fashion. Particularly incisive is her treatment of Ralph McInerny, a serious writer long overlooked by critics. McInerny's Father Roger Dowling detective fiction (where evil is expelled and innocence restored) both illuminates McInerny's debt to the Golden Age of Catholicism past and provides an interesting counterpart to his current status as neoconservative publisher (Crisis magazine) and Catholic restorationist. . . . A solid contribution to the cultural history of twentieth-century American Catholicism and promises a more meaningful reading of the Catholic experience, both in fiction and in life's reality.The Catholic Historical Review
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-218) and index.
About the Author
ANITA GANDOLFO is Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Military Academy where she was the founding Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and a Professor of English.
Table of Contents
Preface
Faith and Imagination
Visions of Experience
Visions of Passionate Intensity
Visions of Innocence Restored?
Visions of Reconciliation
Alternative Visions
Visions of Individualism
Prophetic Vision: The Spiritual Quest
Prophetic Vision: As We Are Now
Conclusion: Vision of a Changing Church
Bibliography
Index