Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament - by Matthew L Potts (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Although scholars have widely acknowledged the prevalence of religious reference in the work of Cormac McCarthy, this is the first book on the most pervasive religious trope in all his works: the image of sacrament, and in particular, of eucharist. Informed by postmodern theories of narrative and Christian theologies of sacrament, Matthew Potts reads the major novels of Cormac McCarthy in a new and insightful way, arguing that their dark moral significance coheres with the Christian theological tradition in difficult, demanding ways. Potts develops this account through an argument that integrates McCarthy's fiction with both postmodern theory and contemporary fundamental and sacramental theology. In McCarthy's novels, the human self is always dispossessed of itself, given over to harm, fate, and narrative. But this fundamental dispossession, this vulnerability to violence and signs, is also one uniquely expressed in and articulated by the Christian sacramental tradition. By reading McCarthy and this theology alongside postmodern accounts of action, identity, subjectivity, and narration, Potts demonstrates how McCarthy exploits Christian theology in order to locate the value of human acts and relations in a way that mimics the dispossessing movement of sacramental signs. This is not to claim McCarthy for theology, necessarily, but it is to assert that McCarthy generates his account of what human goodness might look like in the wake of metaphysical collapse through the explicit use of Christian theology"--

Book Synopsis

Although scholars have widely acknowledged the prevalence of religious reference in the work of Cormac McCarthy, this is the first book on the most pervasive religious trope in all his works: the image of sacrament, and in particular, of eucharist. Informed by postmodern theories of narrative and Christian theologies of sacrament, Matthew Potts reads the major novels of Cormac McCarthy in a new and insightful way, arguing that their dark moral significance coheres with the Christian theological tradition in difficult, demanding ways.

Potts develops this account through an argument that integrates McCarthy's fiction with both postmodern theory and contemporary fundamental and sacramental theology. In McCarthy's novels, the human self is always dispossessed of itself, given over to harm, fate, and narrative. But this fundamental dispossession, this vulnerability to violence and signs, is also one uniquely expressed in and articulated by the Christian sacramental tradition.

By reading McCarthy and this theology alongside postmodern accounts of action, identity, subjectivity, and narration, Potts demonstrates how McCarthy exploits Christian theology in order to locate the value of human acts and relations in a way that mimics the dispossessing movement of sacramental signs. This is not to claim McCarthy for theology, necessarily, but it is to assert that McCarthy generates his account of what human goodness might look like in the wake of metaphysical collapse through the explicit use of Christian theology.

Review Quotes

"It might seem, at first glance, willfully counterintuitive to scour McCarthy's resolutely horrific fiction for signs of grace. Yet this is precisely what makes McCarthy such a rewarding case study for a literature of sacrament ... This book warrants careful reading and critical attention. Given the various ways Potts is alive to the subtleties of Christian theology--especially to the semiotics of sacrament--and given how dexterously he transposes that thought into the space of literature, this book will surely be of value in ongoing debates about the postsecularism of American letters. Moreover, the book's value within the more specialist discourse of McCarthy criticism will be doubly pronounced. While Potts delivers new and significantly revised readings of well-known moments within McCarthy's canon, the polemical edge given to some of his claims is certainly justified. Inattention to sacrament is 'regrettable, ' we are told, because it 'impoverishes interpretation' (1). The truth of this claim is born out in its antipode: a newfound knowledge of the sacrament, made perfectly legible here, will certainly enrich our reading." - Modern Fiction Studies

"Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament is and will for a long time remain the best treatment we have of McCarthy as proto-postmodern theologian. Matthew Potts' readings recuperate the category of 'story' for postmodernity." --Richard A. Rosengarten, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature, The University of Chicago Divinity School, USA

"Matthew Potts's book is sometimes as dark and haunting as McCarthy's novels themselves. It is a complex meditation through close readings of the books and their characters, contained within careful readings of Nietzsche, Arendt, Adorno, Auerbach, Judith Butler and others. Against the background of the failure of religious institutions in which deep and sacramental elements rise to the surface of life known often as mere violence, Potts offers a reading of these fictions which avow the profound vulnerability at the heart of God and make space for a sacramental understanding of the world in which nihilism and decay are never far away." --David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow, UK

"Cormac McCarthy's work is fraught with Christian imagery, but often Christianity becomes a dark, moral undertow in the works, seemingly designed to highlight a nihilistic, violent view of the world. Churches most often lie in ruin, talismans scattered. Prayers go unanswered. The morally 'good' often brutally die. Though Potts (ministry studies, Harvard Divinity School) acknowledges the validity of Gnostic, nihilistic, and existential readings of the novels, he systematically and deliberately guides readers through a theological approach, examining McCarthy's frequent invocations of sacrament (the Eucharist in particular) in a nonreductive context and using postmodern theory as critical ballast. In doing so, Potts provides a revelatory bright stroke in the rapidly expanding field of McCarthy scholarship. Of particular interest is Potts's reading of The Road, as he casts, for example, new light on the baptismal images in the text. In places, Potts's mode could be more integrative: he tends to use subheadings within chapters to 'flip' between direct textual analysis and contextual development (rather than intertwining these modes). For example, a discussion of the father and son in The Road stops dead in its tracks to develop subsequent sections on 'divine dispossession' and 'narration and incarnation.' Overall, however, Potts's immersion in McCarthy yields fresh insights and previously unexplored theological angles. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty." -E. Hage, SUNY Cobleskill, CHOICE

About the Author

Matthew L. Potts is Assistant Professor of Ministry Studies at the Divinity School of Harvard University, USA. His teaching and research focuses on Christianity and contemporary American literature.