Flannery O'Connor has been studied and lauded under many labels: the Southern author whose pen captured the soul of a proud region struggling to emerge out of racism and poverty, the female writer whose independent spirit and tragically short life inspired a generation of women, the Catholic artist whose fiction evokes themes of sin and damnation, mercy and redemption. Now, and for the first time, The Abbess of Andalusia affords us an in-depth look at Flannery O'Connor the believer. In these pages you will come to know Flannery O'Connor not only as a writer and an icon, but as a theologian and apologist; as a spiritual director and a student of prayer; as a suffering soul who learned obedience and merited grace through infirmity; and truly, as the Abbess of her own small, but significant, spiritual house. For decades Flannery O'Connor the author has touched her readers with the brilliance of her books. Now be edified and inspired by the example of her life.

The good news of Jesus Christ is a subversive gospel, and following Jesus is a subversive act. Exploring the theological aesthetic of American author Flannery O'Connor, Michael Bruner argues that her fiction reveals what discipleship to Jesus Christ entails by subverting the traditional understandings of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Confessions is the ; honest and heart-rending ; account of a woman who was born into a Catholic family, ; attended parochial schools and fully embraced the beliefs ; of her faith, but ran into major roadblocks in college. ; Amidst the radical feminist college environment of the ; 1960's, she lost her faith, and her morality, jumping ; aboard the bandwagon of "free love." She indulged ; in a series of love relationships in college, all of which ; crashed and burned. Despite the obvious contradiction ; between feminist teachings and her own experience, Murray ; still believed she had to free herself from the yoke of ; tradition. Attaining a doctorate in philosophy, with ; an emphasis on the feminist writings of Simone de Beauvoir, ; Murray taught philosophy in college. For many years, she ; launched a personal vendetta against God and the Catholic ; Church in the classroom, trying to persuade students that ; God did not exist, mocking values Catholics hold dear, and ; touted feminism as the cure for many social ills. When she ; discovered she was pregnant, Murray followed the route that ; feminists offer as a solution for unmarried women. Much to ; her surprise, her abortion was a shattering emotional ; experience, which she grieved over for years. It was the ; first tragic chink in her feminist armor. After her ; marriage in 1982, she anguished over the decision to have ; children, but became an advocate of the ; "child-free" movement, believing children were ; burdens and life could be happy life without them. Later in ; her forties, Murray experienced a mysterious series of ; events in which it seemed that "someone" was ; inviting her back to God. The mysterious calls came from ; different ports, including nature, books and other people. ; Gradually, she realized that the One seeking her was ; Christ, and the place He was calling her to was the ; Catholic Church. Eventually realizing it was only in the ; Church that she would find what she was seeking - the ; person of Christ and his love and mercy - Murray returned ; to the Church, and finally found healing and forgiveness ; for the abortion. Lorraine Murray's Confessions are ; a revelation. They reveal the nasty truth behind women's ; "liberation". Her experiences, and the lessons she ; learns from them, serve as a timely warning of the folly of ; feminism and the destructive impact that feminism has on ; those who fall under its malignant spell. - ; Joseph Pearce, author The Quest for ; Shakespeare "Confessions of an ; Ex-Feminist is the gripping story of millions of women ; who lost their religious and intellectual anchors during ; the tsunami of the fatal sixties and seventies. It is a ; movingly honest confession of how pride, arrogance, ; immaturity, ambition, craving to be "liberated", ; blinds the female soul. Abortion kills babies and wounds a ; woman's soul to its very core. But a prodigal daughter ; found her way back home, crushed by guilt, driven by ; repentance, and discovers that God's mercy is boundless. ; She is now given the crucial mission of shouting on roof's ; tops: feminism is the arch enemy of women. This book should ; become a vade mecum of young girls". - ; Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, author The Privilege ; of Being a Woman "Lorraine Murray's ; absorbing and poignant book traces her passage from the ; heart of the Catholic Church to the epicenter of the sexual ; revolution and back again. With candor, humor and a knack ; for storytelling, Murray reveals the mysterious ways God ; worked in her soul and leaves readers richer for having ; shared her journey." “/DIV>

“Many of my ardent admirers would be roundly shocked and disturbed if they realized that everything I believe is thoroughly moral, thoroughly Catholic, and that it is these beliefs that give my work its chief characteristics.” —Flannery O’Connor Flannery O’Connor’s work has been described as “profane, blasphemous, and outrageous.” Her stories are peopled by a sordid caravan of murderers and thieves, prostitutes and bigots whose lives are punctuated by horror and sudden violence. But perhaps the most shocking thing about Flannery O’Connor’s fiction is the fact that it is shaped by a thoroughly Christian vision. If the world she depicts is dark and terrifying, it is also the place where grace makes itself known. Her world—our world—is the stage whereon the divine comedy plays out; the freakishness and violence in O’Connor’s stories, so often mistaken for a kind of misanthropy or even nihilism, turn out to be a call to mercy. In this biography, Jonathan Rogers gets at the heart of O’Connor’s work. He follows the roots of her fervent Catholicism and traces the outlines of a life marked by illness and suffering, but ultimately defined by an irrepressible joy and even hilarity. In her stories, and in her life story, Flannery O’Connor extends a hand in the dark, warning and reassuring us of the terrible speed of mercy.

Revelation & Convergence brings together professors of literature, theology, and history to help both critics and readers better understand Flannery O’Connor’s religious imagination.

Embracing Solitude focuses on the interior turn of monasticism and scans the Christian tradition for women who have made this turn in various epochs and circumstances. New Monasticism is a movement assuming diverse forms in response to the turn to classical spiritual sources for guidance about living spiritual commitment with integrity and authenticity today. Genuine spiritual seeking requires the cultivation of an inner disposition to return to the room of the heart. The lessons explored in this book from women spiritual entrepreneurs across the centuries will benefit contemporary New Monastics--both women and men. The accounts will inspire, challenge, and guide those who follow in the footsteps of the renowned spiritual innovators profiled here.

Daniel Moran explains how O'Connor attained that status, and how she felt about it, by examining the development of her literary reputation from the perspectives of critics, publishers, agents, adapters for other media, and contemporary readers.

2001 Choice Outstanding Academic Title A compelling study of O'Connor's fiction as illuminated by the teaching of the desert monastics. "Lord, I'm glad I'm a hermit novelist," Flannery O'Connor wrote to a friend in 1957. Sequestered by ill health, O'Connor spent the final thirteen years of her life on her isolated family farm in rural Georgia. During this productive time she developed a fascination with fourth-century Christians who retreated to the desert for spiritual replenishment and whose isolation, suffering, and faith mirrored her own. In Flannery O'Connor, Hermit Novelist, Richard Giannone explores O'Connor's identification with these early Christian monastics and the ways in which she infused her fiction with their teachings. Surveying the influences of the desert fathers on O'Connor's protagonists, Giannone shows how her characters are moved toward a radical simplicity of ascetic discipline as a means of confronting both internal and worldly evils while being drawn closer to God. Artfully bridging literary analysis, O'Connor's biography, and monastic writings, Giannone's study explores O'Connor's advocacy of self-denial and self-scrutiny as vital spiritual weapons that might be brought to bear against the antagonistic forces she found rampant in modern American life.