Passing by the Dragon: The Biblical Tales of Flannery O'Connor

This book attempts a close reading of the fiction of Flannery OConnor story by story with one eye on her use of the Bible and her view of the Bible in relation to her own work. After introductory chapters on OConnors markings in her own Roman Catholic Bible her book reviews in diocesan newspapers and her impatience with her wayward readers Michaels looks first at her two novels Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away and then at seventeen of her short stories from her two collections A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Michaels takes notice of OConnors explicit references to the Bible (or Bibles) in her stories and looks more particularly to the ways in which the stories are driven at least in part by specific biblical texts. Among the themes that emerge are alienation or displacement what it means to be good the relation between body and spirit and between the Old Testament and the New issues of race and gender and above all what OConnor once called the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil. For those who know the Bible well but not literature J. Ramsey Michaels introduces the wonders of Flannery OConnor whose creative stance toward the Bible produced the greatest religious fiction of the twentieth century. For readers of OConnor searching to better understand where the religiosity is Michaels is a fine guide. For OConnor scholars Michaels reveals the subtleties and complexities of OConnors use of various Bible translations. --Marshall Bruce Gentry Georgia College With deft allusion to OConnors biblically informed vision Michaels offers a pleasurable and informative approach to OConnors fiction. The sheer fun of reading OConnor is enhanced by the lucidly inviting work of this prolific and wise biblical scholar. Connecting like stories as in the chapter Two Gentlemen Callers is among the felicities that will get you reading and rethinking the work of an American great. A marvelous achievement! --Paul Borgman Gordon College J. Ramsey Michaels Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus at Missouri State University in Springfield now lives in Portsmouth New Hampshire. He has written extensively in New Testament studies including commentaries on First Peter Revelation and Hebrews and most recently a major work on the Gospel of John. Currently he is preoccupied with Flannery OConnor and a commentary of a very different sort.