Literary Giants, Literary Catholics

by Pearce, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9781586170776
• ISBN10: 1586170775
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-01
• Publisher: Ignatius Press

Author Biography

Joseph Pearce, director of the Aquinas Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College in Nashville, is the author of three books on Shakespeare, all published by Ignatius Press, and is the editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions of Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth. He is editor of the St. Austin Review (or StAR), a magazine of Christian culture and tradition published by St. Augustine’s Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	11	(2)
Introduction Converting the Culture: The Evangelizing Power of Beauty	13	(8)
PART ONE: TRADITION AND CONVERSION
Tradition and Conversion in Modern English Literature	21	(37)
Twentieth-Century England's Christian Literary Landscape	58	(7)
PART TWO: THE CHESTERBELLOC
The Chesterbelloc: Examining the Beauty of the Beast	65	(11)
Chesterton and Saint Francis	76	(4)
Shades of Gray in the Shadow of Wilde	80	(5)
Fighting the Euro from Beyond the Grave: The Ghost of Chesterton Haunts Lord Howe	85	(4)
Catholicism and ``Democracy''	89	(4)
Fascism and Chesterton	93	(12)
G. K. Chesterton: Champion of Orthodoxy	105	(4)
Hilaire Belloc in a Nutshell	109	(3)
Belloc's The Path to Rome	112	(13)
A Chip off the Old Belloc: Bob Copper In Memoriam	125	(3)
Maurice Baring: In the Shadow of the Chesterbelloc	128	(10)
R. H. Benson: Unsung Genius	138	(8)
Maisie Ward: Concealed with a Kiss	146	(7)
John Seymour: Some Novel Common Sense	153	(4)
PART THREE: THE WASTELAND
Entrenched Passion: The Poetry of War	157	(3)
War Poets: Cutting through the Cant	160	(2)
Siegfried Sassoon: Poetic Pilgrimage	162	(5)
Emerging from the Wasteland: The Cultural Reaction to the Desert of Modernity	167	(12)
Edith Sitwell: Modernity and Tradition	179	(5)
Roy Campbell: Bombast and Fire	184	(5)
Roy Campbell: Religion and Politics	189	(11)
Campbell in Spain	200	(10)
Evelyn Waugh: Ultramodern to Ultramontane	210	(4)
Beyond the Facts of Life: Douglas Lane Patey's Biography of Evelyn Waugh	214	(4)
In Pursuit of the Greene-Eyed Monster: The Quest for Graham Greene	218	(5)
Cross Purposes: Greene, Undset and Bernanos	223	(2)
Muggeridge Resurrected	225	(6)
PART FOUR: J. R. R. TOLKIEN AND THE INKLINGS
Inklings of Grace	231	(4)
From the Prancing Pony to the Bird and Baby: Roy ``Strider'' Campbell and the Inklings	235	(5)
J.R.R. Tolkien: Truth and Myth	240	(7)
The Individual and Community in Tolkien's Middle Earth	247	(10)
Religion and Politics in The Lord of the Rings	257	(4)
Quest and Passion Play: J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth	261	(5)
True North	266	(3)
The Once and Future King	269	(3)
Tolkien and the Catholic Literary Revival	272	(16)
True Myth: The Catholicism of The Lord of the Rings	288	(8)
Letting the Catholic Out of the Baggins	296	(5)
A Hidden Presence: The Catholic Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien	301	(5)
From War to Mordor: J.R.R. Tolkien and World War I	306	(5)
Divine Mercy in The Lord of the Rings	311	(3)
Resurrecting Myth: A Response to Dr. Murphy's ``Response''	314	(9)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Successes and Failures of Tolkien on Film	323	(3)
Would Tolkien Have Given Peter Jackson's Movie the Thumbs-Up?	326	(3)
The Forgotten Inkling: A Personal Memoir of Owen Barfield	329	(6)
PART FIVE: MORE THINGS CONSIDERED
The Decadent Path to Christ	335	(3)
The Quest for the Real Oscar: A Century after His Death, Is the Real Oscar Wilde Finally Emerging from the Shadows?	338	(4)
Making Oscar Wild: Unmasking Oscar Wilde's Opposition to ``Pathological'' Gay Marriage	342	(3)
Truth Is Stranger Than Science Fiction	345	(3)
Hollywood and the ``Holy War''	348	(3)
Three Cheers for Hollywood	351	(5)
Purity and Passion: Examining the Sacred Heart of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ	356	(3)
Paul McCartney: A Grief Observed	359	(2)
Above All Shadows Rides the Sun: The Poetry of Praise	361	(3)
The Magic of Technology	364	(3)
Russian Revelations	367	(3)
Dante: Assent's Ascent	370	(6)
Shakespeare: Good Will for All Men	376	(4)
Modern Art: Friend or Foe?	380	(4)
Salvador Dali: From Freud to Faith	384	(10)
Mr. Davey versus the Devil: A True Story	394	(5)
Totus Tuus: A Tribute to a Truly Holy Father	399	(3)
Faith and the Feminine	402	(2)
Our Life, Our Sweetness and Our Hope	404	(3)
The Presence That Christmas Presents	407	(2)
Index	409