Spring Break
Speaker promotes Flannery O'Connor as Christian witness
Kat Timpf
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
Ralph Wood said Flannery O' Connor served as a witness for life in an overbearing culture of death during his speech in Phillips Auditorium Nov. 8.
Wood, professor of theology and literature at Baylor University and editor at large of the Christian Century, said O'Connor was the only major Christian writer to come out of America.
"The only important Christian writer to come out of this Protestant nation was a Catholic," Wood said. "She was not a Catholic in the same way someone else might be a Baptist or a Methodist, but in a way someone might be an atheist, who is obsessed in the denial of God - she was as much obsessed with her belief in God."
Wood said modern culture is empty and that the only way to fill that void is through the Christian church. Wood said O'Connor showed her belief in the necessity of the church through showing the struggles of characters living without it.
When Wood asked the audience - about 100 teachers and students - who had read O'Connor, most raised their hands. Wood said this was unusual and explained his disappointment that most other colleges do not teach her work.
"[O'Connor] is not being taught in a lot of places because she is considered politically incorrect, not only because of some of her political views, but because the N-word is used in her fiction - but the N-word is never used by the narrator," Wood said.
Senior Chandler Baer said she liked that Wood explained how certain current issues demonstrated this culture of death.
"I thought the part about abortion was interesting, how the secular world picks the most innocent, the most untainted part of a culture to prey on," Baer said.
Wood's speech earned positive reactions from faculty as well as students, most of whom smiled and nodded their heads throughout the speech.
Professor of Christianity and Literature John Reist, who is a college friend of Wood, said Wood successfully incorporated views of different Christian denominations in his speech.
"He did a wonderful job combining southern evangelical and Roman Catholic beliefs, showing how Flannery O'Connor uses both of those traditions," Reist said.
Wood said he became interested in O'Connor and her writing after the author visited his small college in Texas.
"She was brought to speak at our small-town college," Wood said. "I was a 20-year-old junior. I had never heard of her or even met a Catholic.
Wood said O'Connor influenced his ideas of what it meant to come from a poor white family and what it meant to be a Christian.
"She made great art out of my poor, white background," Wood said. "Also, she linked comedy to Christianity, which made me see being sour-faced, long-faced, is not what it means to be a Christian."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
Wood, professor of theology and literature at Baylor University and editor at large of the Christian Century, said O'Connor was the only major Christian writer to come out of America.
"The only important Christian writer to come out of this Protestant nation was a Catholic," Wood said. "She was not a Catholic in the same way someone else might be a Baptist or a Methodist, but in a way someone might be an atheist, who is obsessed in the denial of God - she was as much obsessed with her belief in God."
Wood said modern culture is empty and that the only way to fill that void is through the Christian church. Wood said O'Connor showed her belief in the necessity of the church through showing the struggles of characters living without it.
When Wood asked the audience - about 100 teachers and students - who had read O'Connor, most raised their hands. Wood said this was unusual and explained his disappointment that most other colleges do not teach her work.
"[O'Connor] is not being taught in a lot of places because she is considered politically incorrect, not only because of some of her political views, but because the N-word is used in her fiction - but the N-word is never used by the narrator," Wood said.
Senior Chandler Baer said she liked that Wood explained how certain current issues demonstrated this culture of death.
"I thought the part about abortion was interesting, how the secular world picks the most innocent, the most untainted part of a culture to prey on," Baer said.
Wood's speech earned positive reactions from faculty as well as students, most of whom smiled and nodded their heads throughout the speech.
Professor of Christianity and Literature John Reist, who is a college friend of Wood, said Wood successfully incorporated views of different Christian denominations in his speech.
"He did a wonderful job combining southern evangelical and Roman Catholic beliefs, showing how Flannery O'Connor uses both of those traditions," Reist said.
Wood said he became interested in O'Connor and her writing after the author visited his small college in Texas.
"She was brought to speak at our small-town college," Wood said. "I was a 20-year-old junior. I had never heard of her or even met a Catholic.
Wood said O'Connor influenced his ideas of what it meant to come from a poor white family and what it meant to be a Christian.
"She made great art out of my poor, white background," Wood said. "Also, she linked comedy to Christianity, which made me see being sour-faced, long-faced, is not what it means to be a Christian."
Hillsdale College Collegian, 2007
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