A Subversive Gospel - (Studies in Theology and the Arts) by Michael Mears Bruner (Paperback)

About the Book

The good news of Jesus Christ is a subversive gospel, and following Jesus is a subversive act. Exploring the theological aesthetic of American author Flannery O'Connor, Michael Bruner argues that her fiction reveals what discipleship to Jesus Christ entails by subverting the traditional understandings of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Book Synopsis

Conference on Christianity and Literature (CCL) Book of the Year - Literary Criticism

The good news of Jesus Christ is a subversive gospel, and following Jesus is a subversive act.

These notions were embodied in the literary work of American author Flannery O'Connor, whose writing was deeply informed by both her Southern context and her Christian faith. In this Studies in Theology and the Arts volume, theologian Michael Bruner explores O'Connor's theological aesthetic and argues that she reveals what discipleship to Christ entails by subverting the traditional understandings of beauty, truth, and goodness through her fiction. In addition, Bruner challenges recent scholarship by exploring the little-known influence of Baron Friedrich von Hügel, a twentieth-century Roman Catholic theologian, on her work.

Bruner's study thus serves as a guide for those who enjoy reading O'Connor and--even more so--those who, like O'Connor herself, follow the subversive path of the crucified and risen one.

The Studies in Theology and the Arts series encourages Christians to thoughtfully engage with the relationship between their faith and artistic expression, with contributions from both theologians and artists on a range of artistic media including visual art, music, poetry, literature, film, and more.

Review Quotes

"Asked to adapt Flannery O'Connor's final novel, The Violent Bear It Away, into a screenplay, Michael Bruner found that the assignment brought him closer to the beating heart of the author's fiction than he had ever felt as a literary critic. In effect rewriting The Violent Bear It Away from the inside out rather than from the outside in, Bruner came to appreciate 'her startling and sometimes pulverizing vision of things.' He felt he understood the 'theological profundity' of her fiction more fully, especially the profound care she brought to her deeply flawed, often grotesque characters. She regarded her backwoods prophets, Bruner tells us, with an 'almost primal, filial empathy as a fellow sufferer on the road to redemption.' In A Subversive Gospel, Bruner helps readers understand that O'Connor's fiction is founded upon limitations: the disease she inherited from her father, the demands of her craft, and what he calls her 'unwavering adherence to the strict delineations, even confines, of Christian dogma.' Such limitations explain, in part, why O'Connor wrote with such ferocity. Equally attuned to her penchant for tragicomedy and to her theological fluency (the Austrian theologian Friedrich von Hügel, neglected by previous scholars, looms over this account), Bruner provides a compelling reading of the redemptive quality of O'Connor's major work. As Bruner aptly describes it, 'she is performing surgery on the soul, without anesthesia.'"

--Mark Eaton, professor of English, Azusa Pacific University

About the Author

Michael Mears Bruner (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is associate professor of practical theology at Azusa Pacific University. Born and raised in the Philippines as the son of missionaries, he is currently a resident scholar at the Huntington Library, an ordained minister in the PC(USA), and a recent recipient of a Lilly Endowment in theology and the arts.