Katholischer Diskurs im Zeitalter der Moderne: Englische Schriftsteller des “Catholic Literary Revival” von 1890–1940 (review)

Anna Tomczyk contextualizes the “discourse of English Catholic intellectuals between 1890 and 1940” (p. 18) within the accelerating modernization processes that led to profound changes in the sciences, moral values, and social and political life. According to Tomczyk, following Jacques Maritain’s terminology, the contributions of Catholic intellectuals to these developments range from antimodernist to ultramodernist positions.

In part 1 Tomczyk presents the different phases of the Catholic revival after 1800 in Europe in general and England in particular, emphasizing Cardinal John Henry Newman’s importance for English Catholics.

Part 2 addresses the responses of English Catholic authors to contemporary developments with the common denominators of the role of transcendence in a secularized world, the insistence on Christian values in the face of rising skepticism and the dogma of progress, their view on technological advances as both a curse and a blessing, their insistence on the family being society’s core as an answer to the tensions between individualism and collectivism, and, finally, their concern with man’s position between the sciences and faith. Tomczyk presents multifaceted, far-from-uniform reactions from journalistic texts and sermons to papal encyclicals, resulting in a lively and complex picture of Catholic intellectual life that has managed to leave the isolation of pre-emancipation England (1829) and become appealing enough to attract converts. Apart from G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc a number of lesser known intellectuals are introduced, including Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, Philip Gibbs, Monsignor Ronald A. Knox, and John Alfred Noyes.

In part 3 Tomczyk interprets literary texts from various genres, including some that are the first critical appraisals. First, she introduces four different lyrical voices and Catholicism’s attraction for writers of decadence. Tomczyk then turns to Alice Meynell—feminist, Catholic journalist, and hostess of a literary salon for Catholic and nonreligious intellectuals—in her role as a religiously unorthodox poet of formally traditional religious verses on contemporary topics. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., is presented with his lesser known “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo” (1882); and Noyes’s epic sequence The Torch-Bearers (Edinburgh, 1922, 1925, 1930) is introduced as an example that tries to reconcile science and religion. Benson’s futurist novels Lord of the World (London, 1907) and The Dawn of All (London, 1911) are presented as a—somewhat strange—mixture of a religious and technological society in a future dominated by Catholic priests. In her attempt to rehabilitate Benson’s novels and Knox’s satire Memories of the Future (London, 1923) from oblivion, Tomczyk sees in the three books a precedence of a preserving religious practice and doctrine over a relativism characteristic of modernism, Tomczyk’s intentions become focused: She points at their relevance for today’s discussion on values in which, according to her, decidedly Catholic voices should be raised more clearly and loudly. Part 3 ends with the introduction of a forgotten high modernist, surrealist, and open text that resists both religious and literary categorization: John Gray’s Park (London, 1932).

Tomczyk’s achievement is of no small order. She rediscovers a wrongly neglected English Catholic tradition, contextualizes Catholic intellectual life from the 1890s to the late 1930s within their contemporary cultural discourses, and recovers a number of texts from neglect. One critical remark, however, should be made: Tomczyk contrasts a parrhesic, dissenting, underprivileged discourse of a Catholic minority position with a homogenized “Other,” thus emphasizing the complexity of the inner-Catholic discourse, while presenting the position of the Other as a dominant, vaguely Protestant-Anglican, liberal, agnostic, and scientific culture. This, however, does not detract from a valuable book for those who want to learn more about a fascinating yet widely neglected period of English Catholic intellectual life and literature.