Allen Tate and the Catholic revival

the long version

The Catholic Literary Revival represents a fascinating yet often misunderstood chapter in Catholic intellectual life. Catholic writers, scholars, artists, and social reformers saw the period as the most impressive resurgence of Catholic culture since the Middle Ages. Converts to Catholicism, including elite intellectuals of the post-World War I "lost generation," played a significant role in the Revival's drive to reconnect Western civilization with its spiritual roots. This book investigates the influence of the Catholic Revival on one such convert: Southern Agrarian writer Allen Tate (1899-1979). One of America's foremost men of letters, Tate incorporated the Revival's Christian humanism into his distinctive critique of secular industrial society. Tracing the course of Tate's Catholic experience - from the antimodernist climate of the 1920s to the pluralism of the postconciliar period - the author sheds light on the dilemma of the lay religious critic in an era of shifting symbols, fleeting loyalties, and moral uncertainty.