Description
Book SynopsisPresents perspectives on intellectual, cultural and political questions faced by French and French-Canadian intellectuals who engaged with Catholicism in the period 1930-50, in the diverse but related fields of philosophy, theology, politics, literature and music. Names include Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Paul Valéry, Simone Weil, and many others.
Trade Review"God's Mirror illuminates a critical moment in the encounter between Catholicism, modernity, intellectual integrity, artistic creativity, and political commitment. Specialists will appreciate the authors' many original insights into the struggles of path-breaking French Catholic intellectuals in the 1930s and '40s. All of us should welcome the renewed attention the book brings to these forerunners of Vatican II and the transformation of world Catholicism." -- -Peter Steinfels University Professor Emeritus at Fordham "God's Mirror is a substantial contribution to twentieth-century French intellectual history, and more broadly to the history of Catholicism. The editors build on previous scholarship on Catholic intellectual life and political activism by highlighting the work of journalists, scholars, and artists who participated in the Catholic renewal of the mid-twentieth century." -- -Thomas Kselman University of Notre Dame "The essays in this volume reflect a broad range of subject matters-literature, music, philosophy, theology, inter-religious dialogue, social and political events-that will expand the horizons of readers in presenting the rich texture of French Catholicism during the period surveyed. The themes of renewal and engagement, the recurrent ideas, and overlapping networks among the figures discussed in the essays give unity to the diversity, making this a work that is collaborative rather than simply collected. Familiar figures can be seen in new ways, unsuspected dimensions of movements are brought to light, and connections among disparate aspects of life are convincingly made. A book to stimulate thought and enhance appreciation of multiple dimensions of French Catholic intellectual culture." -- -Charles Talar University of St. Thomas in Houston
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Contents Introduction Katherine Davies and Toby Garfitt 1. "Catholicisme ondoyant": Catholic Intellectual Engagement and the Crisis of Civilization in the 1930s Michael Kelly 2. Paul Valery and French Catholicism: Recognizing the Context of Renewal Paul Gifford 3. A Strange Christian: Simone Weil Florence De Lussy 4. Grenier and the Essai sur l'esprit d'orthodoxie Toby Garfitt 5. Charles Du Bos's Catholicism and his Politics of Sincerity in Interwar France Katherine Davies 6. From Mystique to Theologique: Messiaen's "ordre nouveau," 1935-1939 Stephen Schloesser 7. Rethinking the Modernity of Bernanos: a Girardian Perspective Brian Sudlow 8. "Into the Catacombs of the Past": Women and Wartime Trauma in the French Catholic Ressourcement Project (1939-1945) Brenna Moore 9. La Releve and its Afterlife: A Current of Catholic Renewal in Twentieth-Century Quebec Joseph Dunlop 10. Louis Massignon: A Catholic Encounter with Islam and the Middle East Anthony O'Mahony
