Re: Orthodox Catholicism

a:t (tarratus@MERC.RX.UGA.EDU)
Fri, 31 Jan 1997 17:18:44 EST5EDT

> David wondered about Percy and existentialism, and I remember the "Catholic
> Existentialist" statement somewhere, too--I think. I haven't found it yet,
> but we all know that Percy read lots of Marcel at one time. In
> Conversations w/ WP. ("The Man and the Novelist") Percy states, "And so,
> what the artist does ... is simply to validate the human experience and to
> tell people the deep human truths which they already unconsciously know."
> He goes on to say that "alienation ... is nothing more or less than a very
> ancient, orthodox [!!] Christian doctrine. Man is alienated by the nature
> of his being here. He is here as a stranger and as a pilgrim, which is the
> way alienation is conceived of in my books." Another great line comes
> around in "WP talks about Kierk" -- "the only way to be yourself is to be
> yourself transparently before God." Seems like mixing the two is a start,
> at least, towards some kind of Catholic Existentialism--??
> Karen

Very interesting discussions we've been having around here. Regarding
the orthodoxy (without quotations, without capitalization) of the
philosophy of alienation, which in one of its forms is captured by
Existentialism it seems to me: I'm not sure of the church's (meaning
pre-Reformational) thinking on the fall, but some reformational
thinking on the Fall includes the notion that Alienation was indeed a
huge part of the consequences--- alienation from God primarily, but
with all the attendant alienations-- man from woman (vice versa), Man
from the earth and fruitful labor, and the interesting one with
regards to Percy's statements, Man's alienation from himself. Without
a reconciliation to God we have no clue who we are, what our sense
and purpose in this world is because we were created to serve God.
arthur