tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post1129259406849854255..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Confessional Culture and American CulturePaul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-21032233514512890492012-12-22T11:24:45.804-07:002012-12-22T11:24:45.804-07:00Three things strike me about the case Ray mentions...Three things strike me about the case Ray mentions in the Messenger. First, "confessional culture" may need further elucidation. I think there is a popular notion that Catholics the early to mid-twentieth century were nothing if not observant of rules, especially the ingrained notion that the rule keepers/makers were priests and nuns and the rule observers/breakers were laity. Consider the character Patsy (Joan Carroll) in the Bells of St. Mary's. She tries to make sense of her parents' separation but under the care of the good priest, Fr. O'Malley (Bing Crosby), who has all the answers. Trust is implicit in such interactions, common among Catholics, but now made public on the big screen. A similar kind of affirmation arises in the privacy of one's home when readers of the Tertiary Den find a shock to one's religious sensibilities given the balm of good order and reason through the ministrations of the priest/confessor. Anthony Burke Smith is carving out considerable new ground on the role of film in facilitating Catholic identity and may be useful for further consultation (as well as Colleen McDannell's edited collection Catholics in the Movies where Smith has an essay on Fr. O'Malley's other appearance in Going My Way).<br /><br />Secondly, the titilation of problems of the internal forum now exposed for public consumption is something relatively understudied, it seems to me, though Jim O'Toole's work on confessional practice may be of some assistance (see his piece in ed. O'Toole, Habits of Devotion). Though this is mainly confined to the sacramental aspect--the use of the confessional for the forgiveness of sins--the place of that ritual is surely given a reinforcing boost by things like the Tertiary Den. Both open up to become conduits for God's grace and healing through priestly counsel.<br /><br />Finally, in this weekend's NY Times Book Review, Paul Elie bemoans the fact that there is precious little today in the way of an identifiable (Catholic) Christian literature. Where are the Flannery O'Connors of today, he wonders? But O'Connor could tap into a readership attuned to certain religious feelings and rules fed by things like the Tertiary Den. What do we have at present that is somehow comparable, that would give the creative set fodder for making important contributions to literature? Blogs? Patrick Hayesnoreply@blogger.com