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SACRAMENTAL SUFFERING: THE FRIENDSHIP OF FLANNERY O’CONNOR AND ELIZABETH HESTER†
Article first published online: 28 MAY 2008
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2008.00464.x
© 2008 The Author. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Additional Information
How to Cite
WOOD, R. C. (2008), SACRAMENTAL SUFFERING: THE FRIENDSHIP OF FLANNERY O’CONNOR AND ELIZABETH HESTER. Modern Theology, 24: 387–411. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2008.00464.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 28 MAY 2008
- Article first published online: 28 MAY 2008
Abstract
As the only orthodox Christian writer the American nation has yet produced, Flannery O’Connor created a remarkable body of fiction rooted in a profoundly sacramental theology. The depth of O’Connor's sacramentalism has recently been revealed with the opening of her remarkable letters to Elizabeth Hester, her most important epistolary friend. Their eleven-year correspondence centers upon two inseparable matters: conversion and suffering. The aim of this essay is to explore how the gift (or refusal) of faith comes through the embrace (or rejection) of a participation in God's own life through a life of sacramental suffering.