Deep Down Things: Essays on Catholic Culture

Deep Down Things: Essays on Catholic Culture explores common threads that characterize Catholicism. The contributors look successively at: Catholic culture and everyday life of the parish and of work, at Catholic culture and the imaginative life of poets and fiction writers, and at Catholic culture and postmodern life where individual conscience, skepticism, and relativism challenge Church authority and faith itself. They do so while looking for foundational components that persist and comprise a culture that Catholics recognize regardless of their diverse ethnicity, geographic location, or historical epoch. The authors of this collection have aimed to inspire both Catholics and non-Catholics alike, inside and outside the academic community, to deepen their own knowledge and appreciation of the Christian tradition generally and Catholic culture particularly. The authors hope to encourage sincere and open dialogue about Catholic culture (in the best tradition of Catholic thought) both to further the inquiry after truth and to enhance fruitful reflection upon Catholic culture and its contributions over time and across cultures.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Introduction Part I. Catholic Culture and Everyday Life Chapter 2: Catholic Initiation or Christian Initiation of Adults Chapter 3: The Idea of the Parish Chapter 4: For the Laborer is Worthy of His Hire Part II. Catholic Culture and the Imaginative Life Chapter 5: Writing as Sacrament Chapter 6: Catholic Poetry: An Essai in Definition Chapter 7: Chesterton's Catholic Imagination Chapter 8: The Sacramental and Twentieth-century French Literature Part III. Catholic Culture and Postmodern Life Chapter 9: John Dryden's Journey to Rome: Church Authority and Catholic Culture Chapter 10: Today's Possible Contribution of the Ethicist in a Catholic University Chapter 11: Philosophy and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Culture Part IV. By Way of Review Chapter 12: Is There a Catholic Culture?

About the Author :
Joseph A. Cirincione is professor of English at Rockhurst University.

Review :
Written within the broad spectrum that is called the Catholic intellectual tradition, this collection of essays, initially delivered as lectures at the Thomas More Center for the Study of Catholic Thought and Culture at Rockhurst University, demonstrates the impact of the Catholic faith on the culture, from worship and things pertaining to worship to morality and literature. It shows clearly, as the secular culture of the West gives ground to alien forces, that the Church remains a beacon and not a weathervane. Deep Down Things takes us back to Gerard Manley Hopkins as a variant of 'First Things' or 'First Principles' of the 'Highest Things.' However we look at it or name it, we pursue, as Augustine did, that which is true and that which is beautiful, beginning with the reality before us. The contributing authors show us many ways to find our own way to 'what is,' to what our lives are about.