Since deciding to attempt the notorious NaNoWriMo, in order to try to force myself to stop talking about 'writing' and actually do it, I have been wondering whether there are currently any Catholics who describe themselves, not as writers who are Catholics, but as Catholics who are writers. I mean by this that the reader can see that the author IS Catholic, and that the writing clearly demonstrates it. Many modern Catholic writers express their Faith in so subtle a way that their work seems entirely secular.
I am not criticising that, but my own interest is in much more 'full blooded' Catholic writing. I have not come across much of anything I could recognise under this heading in the UK, but after a quick search of the net I discovered a couple of items of interest.
The first is an excerpt (see below)from an article by Marian Crowe, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Aiming at Heaven, Getting the Earth: The English Catholic Novel Today&& (Lexington Books).
The second is a website of The Catholic Writers Guild (The rebirth of Catholic Arts and Letters).
Their introduction to the group says:
"Are you a Catholic writer loyal to the Magisterium and looking for a group of like-minded writers determined to assist each other in our publishing goals?
Are you an editor, publisher, or illustrator interested in furthering the development of quality faith-filled writings?
If so, the Catholic Writers' Guild may be for you.
The Catholic Writers' Guild is a non-profit organization comprised of writers, artists, editors, illustrators, and allies dedicated to building a vibrant Catholic literary and artistic culture. We do this by encouraging Catholic writers to create, publish, perform, and share their work; by reflecting upon core Catholic values (i.e., those in accordance with the teaching of the Magisterium) in art; and by networking within the faith and literary communities. Our organization is loyal to the teaching authority of the Church. Our regular and alumni members are practicing Catholic writers, while institutional members are persons or companies supportive of Catholic writing; institutional members need not to be Catholic, but sympathetic to Catholic practices and morals. " Check out the website at: http://www.catholicwritersguild.org/index.php
I am very encouraged by both of these sites, but they are both American. I wonder if there is anything similar going on in the UK? Are there any practicing Catholic writers or aspiring writers out there, who are interested in providing Catholic literature? If so, where are you?
Excerpt from Marian Crowe's article:
(The full article may be seen at: http://www.firstthings.com/index.php)
"..Yet it is indisputable that the future of the Catholic novel is inextricably intertwined with the future of the Church. Catholic fiction, more so than other Christian fiction, has a denominational mentality. If the state of the post—Vatican II Church affected the novels written during that era, it stands to reason that the future of the Church will be a defining factor of future Catholic fiction. Sociologist David Carlin in The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America&& predicts that the Church of the future will be much smaller, a "saving remnant," in which traditionalists will outnumber liberals. His argument is too complex to go into here, but two factors are that conservative, traditional Catholics tend to be more successful at passing on the faith to the younger generation and that they are more likely to stay with the Church even when disappointed or scandalized by it.
Carlin believes that the "saving remnant" will need to resist strongly the idea that Catholicism is simply one sect among many paths to the same truth, regain a sense of the importance of being Catholic, and emphasize that which is distinctive in the Catholic tradition. Carlin also contends that the Church must recognize that it is confronting a serious enemy in secularism, an aggressive anti-Christianity that is vigorously promoting "a moral and political agenda that is flatly incompatible with Christianity." Carlin's thesis has support in high places. In Salt of the Earth&&, then Cardinal Ratzinger argued that the Church in coming years "will assume different forms. She will be less identified with the great societies, more a minority Church; she will live in small vital circles of really convinced believers who live their faith." One sign that these predictions are accurate is the trend reported in Colleen Carroll's recent book The New Faithful&& that "a small but committed core of young Christians is intentionally embracing organized religion and traditional morality." They "resist any compromise of the essential tenets of orthodoxy as capitulation to secular culture" and are having disproportionately powerful influence on their peers and the culture.
A smaller, more traditional and orthodox Church may be more conducive to good Catholic fiction for several reasons. First, Catholic fiction flourished in a period when Catholicism became more open to the secular world but still maintained a strong self-identity with clear, though permeable, boundaries. More orthodox Catholic writers are more likely to maintain the boundaries. Only a vibrant and resolute faith has the resources to allow the secular to be itself, to embrace its goodness while seeing it clearly. Secondly, the sense of salvation and damnation as truly momentous questions may once again exist in a small group of people with a strong faith more focused on traditional doctrines. Third, recognizing secularism as a serious enemy may be good for the Catholic novel. Most of the earlier Catholic novelists defined themselves in opposition to something. Fourth, the Catholic imagination, as Greeley points out, is nourished by the liturgy, ritual, art, architecture, and stories that have enabled Catholics to live in what Greeley calls an enchanted world. I suspect, however, that this imagination is also sustained by a belief in the supernatural doctrines of the creed, the efficacy of the sacraments, and clear and consistent moral teaching. Traditional orthodox believers are more likely to emphasize both the "enchanted world" of the tradition and the belief system sustaining it. American Catholic novelist Ron Hansen, in his preface to A Stay Against Confusion&&, put it well when he wrote:
Undoubtedly, the most essential element for first-rate Catholic fiction is a Catholic writer of exceptional talent. That lies in God's hands. But because I believe that God loves good Catholic novels, I think that, given a Church of greater orthodoxy, mindful and grateful of the fullness of tradition, and inspired by the work of past Catholic novelists, the future for Catholic fiction looks promising."
Marian Crowe is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Aiming at Heaven, Getting the Earth: The English Catholic Novel Today&& (Lexington Books).
I am not criticising that, but my own interest is in much more 'full blooded' Catholic writing. I have not come across much of anything I could recognise under this heading in the UK, but after a quick search of the net I discovered a couple of items of interest.
The first is an excerpt (see below)from an article by Marian Crowe, a Visiting Scholar at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Aiming at Heaven, Getting the Earth: The English Catholic Novel Today&& (Lexington Books).
The second is a website of The Catholic Writers Guild (The rebirth of Catholic Arts and Letters).
Their introduction to the group says:
"Are you a Catholic writer loyal to the Magisterium and looking for a group of like-minded writers determined to assist each other in our publishing goals?
Are you an editor, publisher, or illustrator interested in furthering the development of quality faith-filled writings?
If so, the Catholic Writers' Guild may be for you.
The Catholic Writers' Guild is a non-profit organization comprised of writers, artists, editors, illustrators, and allies dedicated to building a vibrant Catholic literary and artistic culture. We do this by encouraging Catholic writers to create, publish, perform, and share their work; by reflecting upon core Catholic values (i.e., those in accordance with the teaching of the Magisterium) in art; and by networking within the faith and literary communities. Our organization is loyal to the teaching authority of the Church. Our regular and alumni members are practicing Catholic writers, while institutional members are persons or companies supportive of Catholic writing; institutional members need not to be Catholic, but sympathetic to Catholic practices and morals. " Check out the website at: http://www.catholicwritersguild.org/index.php
I am very encouraged by both of these sites, but they are both American. I wonder if there is anything similar going on in the UK? Are there any practicing Catholic writers or aspiring writers out there, who are interested in providing Catholic literature? If so, where are you?
Excerpt from Marian Crowe's article:
(The full article may be seen at: http://www.firstthings.com/index.php)
"..Yet it is indisputable that the future of the Catholic novel is inextricably intertwined with the future of the Church. Catholic fiction, more so than other Christian fiction, has a denominational mentality. If the state of the post—Vatican II Church affected the novels written during that era, it stands to reason that the future of the Church will be a defining factor of future Catholic fiction. Sociologist David Carlin in The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America&& predicts that the Church of the future will be much smaller, a "saving remnant," in which traditionalists will outnumber liberals. His argument is too complex to go into here, but two factors are that conservative, traditional Catholics tend to be more successful at passing on the faith to the younger generation and that they are more likely to stay with the Church even when disappointed or scandalized by it.
Carlin believes that the "saving remnant" will need to resist strongly the idea that Catholicism is simply one sect among many paths to the same truth, regain a sense of the importance of being Catholic, and emphasize that which is distinctive in the Catholic tradition. Carlin also contends that the Church must recognize that it is confronting a serious enemy in secularism, an aggressive anti-Christianity that is vigorously promoting "a moral and political agenda that is flatly incompatible with Christianity." Carlin's thesis has support in high places. In Salt of the Earth&&, then Cardinal Ratzinger argued that the Church in coming years "will assume different forms. She will be less identified with the great societies, more a minority Church; she will live in small vital circles of really convinced believers who live their faith." One sign that these predictions are accurate is the trend reported in Colleen Carroll's recent book The New Faithful&& that "a small but committed core of young Christians is intentionally embracing organized religion and traditional morality." They "resist any compromise of the essential tenets of orthodoxy as capitulation to secular culture" and are having disproportionately powerful influence on their peers and the culture.
A smaller, more traditional and orthodox Church may be more conducive to good Catholic fiction for several reasons. First, Catholic fiction flourished in a period when Catholicism became more open to the secular world but still maintained a strong self-identity with clear, though permeable, boundaries. More orthodox Catholic writers are more likely to maintain the boundaries. Only a vibrant and resolute faith has the resources to allow the secular to be itself, to embrace its goodness while seeing it clearly. Secondly, the sense of salvation and damnation as truly momentous questions may once again exist in a small group of people with a strong faith more focused on traditional doctrines. Third, recognizing secularism as a serious enemy may be good for the Catholic novel. Most of the earlier Catholic novelists defined themselves in opposition to something. Fourth, the Catholic imagination, as Greeley points out, is nourished by the liturgy, ritual, art, architecture, and stories that have enabled Catholics to live in what Greeley calls an enchanted world. I suspect, however, that this imagination is also sustained by a belief in the supernatural doctrines of the creed, the efficacy of the sacraments, and clear and consistent moral teaching. Traditional orthodox believers are more likely to emphasize both the "enchanted world" of the tradition and the belief system sustaining it. American Catholic novelist Ron Hansen, in his preface to A Stay Against Confusion&&, put it well when he wrote:
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. Each Mass was a narrative steeped in meaning and metaphor, helping the faithful to not only remember the past but to make it present here and now, and to bind ourselves into a sharing group so that, ideally, we could continue the public ministry of Jesus in our world.
Undoubtedly, the most essential element for first-rate Catholic fiction is a Catholic writer of exceptional talent. That lies in God's hands. But because I believe that God loves good Catholic novels, I think that, given a Church of greater orthodoxy, mindful and grateful of the fullness of tradition, and inspired by the work of past Catholic novelists, the future for Catholic fiction looks promising."
Marian Crowe is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Aiming at Heaven, Getting the Earth: The English Catholic Novel Today&& (Lexington Books).
2 comments:
Interesting post..i pose the question re suitable literature on my blog..I will link to your blog..can you link to mine?
Check out my just-released novel, "Until I Return: Dawn of the Shining Darkness." It is a contemporary spiritual thriller based on true prophecies of saints. It is very Catholic but has been praised by non-Catholics. One author even said it would make a great movie. The publisher's website is www.VeroHousePublishing.com.
Post a Comment