SIR Social Sciences Investigation Abstract
THE CATHOLIC FAITH IN LITERATURE: SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Presenter:
Everett Brokaw, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Advisor:
Dr. Mark Bosco, Loyola University Chicago
Abstract:
Catholic spiritual autobiographies were analyzed and compared in order to discover overarching trends and key methodologies. The scope of the research was to discover the variety of ways which are used in expressing the personal narrative of the individual's relationship with God in light of Roman Catholicism's tradition. In conjunction with reading numerous published autobiographies, the class discussion and work from The Catholic Literary Imagination served as an opportunity to supplement the methods manual formulated with interactive lecture on the Catholic imagination in literature. The sole utilization of Catholic authors served to show the varying and imaginative differences between Catholics throughout the Christian era. A focus was placed on modern and contemporary literature, and writing of authors of both genders were analyzed to show the differing discourses between women and men in their constructions of spiritual autobiographies. Summarizing the methods and critical components of the Catholic spiritual autobiography, a manual was then created by which one may record one's own journey to Christ in the larger frame of Catholic literature.