"Leave us with the men who commit the mean and revolting and real crimes; mean as St. Peter when the cock crew, and yet the dawn came."
Genre fiction in general and detective fiction in particular rarely receive recognition for literary merit. Moreover, in addition to the critique or dismissal of detective fiction on stylistic grounds, the literary establishment tends to find such fiction overly reliant on gimmicky plots rather than rich themes and characterization.
This season of Global Catholic Literature, Mysteries of Faith: On Catholic Detective Fiction and the Search for Justice, will seek to address the perceived stylistic and substantive deficiencies of detective fiction by highlighting some canonical authors who wrote detective stories and the deep philosophical and theological themes that pervade their work.
While the figure of Father Brown certainly looms large in Catholic detective fiction, he hardly exists in a vacuum. Fr. Brown's creator, G.K. Chesterton was himself a member of the Detection Club which included the famed Oxford convert Fr. Ronald Knox, Agatha Christie, who lobbied for the Tridentine Latin Mass and whose Hercule Poirot is Catholic, and Dorothy Sayers, a deeply committed Christian who translated Dante's Divine Comedy into English. Consequently, Mysteries of Faith will incorporate readings from Detection Club authors as well as putting them in conversation with Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe to reveal the deeper mysteries at the heart of Catholic detective fiction.
“We are only trying to find the truth. What are you afraid of?”
“I am afraid of finding it.”
Dates: Mondays in October (7:00 - 8:30 pm)
Monday, October 6
Monday, October 13
Monday, October 20
Monday, October 27
Registration:
Early Bird Registration: $65 through September 2
Regular Registration: $75 through October 1
To learn more and register, click the button below. Questions? Contact Joe Perez-Benzo (jperezbenzo@collegiuminstitute.org).
Collegium Institute will provide copies of the readings to all participants in the United States. International participants are welcome to join, but please note that we can't guarantee that we will be able to send you a copy of the texts if you live outside of the US.