Tuesday, June 28, 2005

From "The Habit of Being", pg. 370

The dissecting language [speaking of a Karl Adam book] repels me too; this is what is known as The Pious Style...In some pious writers there is a lot about the Church being the bride of Christ. This kind of metaphor may have helped that age to get a picture of a certain reality; it fails to help most of us...The only places you can really avoid the Pious Style are in the liturgy and the Bible; and these are the places where the Church herself speaks.

2 comments:

Fred said...

I wonder if "dissecting language" refers, for example, to devotions to the heart of Jesus, the wounds of Jesus, etc.

TS said...

Perhaps. She specifically relates that her devotion to St. Therese of Liseux increased after she read a book that got beyond all the "roses, little flowers and other icing". O'Connor was pretty much allergic to sentimentality.