(Page 23 of 23) - Saving Grace: The Incarnational Art of Flannery OConnor, the "Bad Catholicism" of Walker Percy and the Immanent Mysticism of Nietzsche as Potential Routes to the Quickening of Bourgeois Liberalism authored by Miller, Fiona.

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Saving Grace: The Incarnational Art of Flannery OConnor, the "Bad Catholicism" of Walker Percy and the Immanent Mysticism of Nietzsche as Potential Routes to the Quickening of Bourgeois Liberalism

Unformatted Document Text: 23 strictly naturalistic understanding of human beings as incapable of supporting ‘life’ as O’Connor and Percy. He may want to go beyond good and evil, to leave Christianity behind, but he never wants to abandon the possibility of good and bad. He does not believe that good and bad are simply pragmatic outcomes or signs of mere strength [Kraft], although they would be in a purely materialist world. Spiritualized force, Macht, will to power channeled through Geist, art and culture take the place of the divine for him. To some, such a replacement for the divine will seem as rich and meaningful as Enoch’s shrunken man. Can a body of thought that denies the existence of a transcendent realm help to “quicken” modern life? This question, I fear, will seem ludicrous to people serious about their religious beliefs. It will seem one more instance of an intellectual pride that seeks to beautify rather than do away with nihilism. Yet, modern life has hardened hearts and heads to the faith that informs the work of O’Connor and Percy. Given this hardening of hearts, it seems worth asking whether Nietzsche’s immanent mysticism can tell us anything about the possibility of quickening lives in a secular age. Having drawn a connection between O’Connor, Percy, and Nietzsche by pointing to their attempts to reunite matter and spirit, I will, however, leave this question for another day. quicken Western man. Cf. Henry T. Edmondson III, Return to Good and Evil: Flannery O’Connor’s Response to Nihilism (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2002), pp. 43-49.

Authors: Miller, Fiona.

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strictly naturalistic understanding of human beings as incapable of supporting

‘life’ as O’Connor and Percy. He may want to go beyond good and evil, to leave

Christianity behind, but he never wants to abandon the possibility of good and

bad. He does not believe that good and bad are simply pragmatic outcomes or

signs of mere strength [Kraft], although they would be in a purely materialist

world. Spiritualized force,

Macht, will to power channeled through Geist, art

and culture take the place of the divine for him.

To some, such a replacement for the divine will seem as rich and

meaningful as Enoch’s shrunken man. Can a body of thought that denies the

existence of a transcendent realm help to “quicken” modern life? This

question, I fear, will seem ludicrous to people serious about their religious

beliefs. It will seem one more instance of an intellectual pride that seeks to

beautify rather than do away with nihilism. Yet, modern life has hardened

hearts and heads to the faith that informs the work of O’Connor and Percy.

Given this hardening of hearts, it seems worth asking whether Nietzsche’s

immanent mysticism can tell us anything about the possibility of quickening

lives in a secular age. Having drawn a connection between O’Connor, Percy,

and Nietzsche by pointing to their attempts to reunite matter and spirit, I will,

however, leave this question for another day.

quicken Western man. Cf. Henry T. Edmondson III, Return to Good and Evil: Flannery
O’Connor’s Response to Nihilism (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2002), pp. 43-49.

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