Definitions, 2

What is "Catholic"?

Roman Catholic. Anglo-Catholic. Episcopalian ("the bridge church").

I started this line of questions in a previous post; one (hopeful) result of this site is that we all can begin talking, refining, revising, and perhaps expanding the conception of what is defined as Catholic literature.

In moving forward with this site--and my future plans of a print anthology of contemporary Catholic writing--I am amazed at the amount of writers who have experienced the Catholic tradition, who have wrangled with the faith, left the faith, returned to the faith. It's a tradition that's endlessly complicated, that resists attempts at definition (like my own).

Perhaps we should defer to Flannery here:

"The Catholic novelist doesn't have to be a saint; he doesn't even have to be Catholic. He does, unfortunately, have to be a novelist. . . if I had to say what a Catholic novel is, I could only say that it is one that represents reality adequately as we see it manifested in this world of things and human relationships. Only in and by these relationships does the fiction writer approach a contemplative knowledge of the mystery they embody."

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Also, at Vox Nova a great start to the discussion from 2008.