Catholic Revival in English Literature 1845-1961 The

<i>The Catholic Revival in English Literature 1845-1961</i> presents a thorough discussion of the six principal writers of the Catholic revival in English literature-Newman Hopkins Belloc Chesterton Greene and Waugh. Beginning with Newman's conversion in 1845 and ending with Waugh's completion of the triology <i>The Sword of Honor</i> in 1961 this book explores how Catholicism shaped the work of these six prominent writers. John Henry Newman claimed in <i>The Idea of a University</i> that post-Reformation English literature was overwhelmingly Protestant and that there was no prospect of a Catholic body of literature. Describing this claim as happily lacking in prescience Ian Ker persuasively argues that Newman Hopkins Belloc Chesterton Greene and Waugh succeeded in producing a substantial body of literature written by Catholics who wrote as Catholics. These revivalists were not so much influenced by traditional themes of guilt sin and ceremony as they were attracted to unexpected facets of Catholicism. The idea of a Catholic priest as a craftsman is a recurring motif as is the celebration of the ordinariness and objectivity of Catholicism. Ker's compelling and intelligent reading of these six major writers will appeal to anyone with an interest in nineteenth- and twentieth-century English literature or the relation between literature and theology.