Flannery O'Connor and the Scandal of Faith Audiobook By Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Great Courses cover art

Flannery O'Connor and the Scandal of Faith

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Flannery O'Connor and the Scandal of Faith

By: Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Jessica Hooten Wilson
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About this listen

Flannery O’Connor is a writer who defies easy categorization. Her novels and short stories often grapple with the complex intertwining of religious faith and human nature, viewed with her sharp eye for the humorous and the grotesque in everyday life. As an author who has been beloved and dismissed in equal measure since she first began publishing in the 1950s, O’Connor’s reputation seems eternally in flux amongst critics and ordinary readers alike. Who was Flannery O’Connor, and why does her work continue to attract and repulse in equal measure?

Across six revealing lectures, Professor Jessica Hooten Wilson will introduce you to one of the 20th century’s most fascinating and divisive writers in Flannery O’Connor and the Scandal of Faith. Beginning with an overview of her brief but remarkable life, Professor Wilson will then take you through an exploration of themes in O’Connor’s work and the hallmarks of her literary style. You’ll get a clearer picture of O’Connor’s historical and geographical context while digging into how her stories can transcend time and place. Along the way, you’ll also have the opportunity to trace the impact and legacy of her work and consider why her stories endure.

By closely examining O’Connor’s novels and short stories, you’ll see how her very specific time and place—the Southern US in the mid-20th century—and her Catholic faith coalesce to create a remarkably universal lens through which to view the human experience. Flannery O’Connor’s untimely death at the age of 39 means she left behind a relatively small body of work, and yet her stories live on, and with them, her unique approach to the poignant absurdities of faith, art, and life itself.

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About the Creator

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. Her book Giving the Devil His Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year in arts and culture award, and The Scandal of Holiness received a 2022 Award of Merit. In 2019 she received the Hiett Prize for Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Other awards include a Fulbright Fellowship to Prague, an NEH to study Dante in Florence, a Biola University sabbatical fellowship funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and the 2017 Emerging Public Intellectual Award. She is a Senior Fellow at The Trinity Forum.

Insightful Analysis • Clear Explanations • Excellent Narrator • Enjoyable Lectures • Thoughtful Perspective
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It’s a great introduction to an author I’m just learning about. Dr. Hooten-Wilson is the perfect person for this task.

The author reading her own book.

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I never quite understood Readers’ fascination with this Woman, but I think this book helped my difficulty.

While she was capable of spinning a quirky good yarn I found her dark obsession with her version of Christianity offputting. Like some folks I’ve met here in The South her Worldview is so detached from My Reality that I just lose interest in following her down the Rabbit Hole.

The book does a good job of parsing her works through her dark lens, just not to my taste. Four Stars. ****

One of a kind and not in a good way.

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Wonderful writing .
Wonderful intro and compassionate and clear sharing of author's understanding of the genius of Flannery O Connor. I was not familiar with her until today and I can't wait to dip in. Thank you all that made this audio book possible !!!

Astonishing and cannot put down !

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Flannery O'Connor is an acquired taste which I have yet to fully acquire, but this brief course gave me a greater appreciation of her work and contribution.

Great overview of Flannery

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The author knows O'Connors work and has illuminated its often mystifying qualities for me. I'm going back to read and re-read more!

Illuminating

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The lecturer’s positions are clearly portrayed while not sliding into didacticism. The lecturer cites interesting facts to illuminate the writings of Flannery O’Conner.

Clearly portrayed

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I have read all of Flannery's stories and novels, but often had trouble figuring out what the point of the story was. These lectures give me the tools to go back and reread and now see what Flannery is doing. O'Connor is an impressive author as it is, but after listening to these lectures I will appreciate her even more.

Illuminating

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A nice apologetic for doing more reading… Perhaps I see what I want to see: more excuses to read, but my bias hardly proves reading to be without merit

Develop Taste

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I found the insights into O’Connor’s work to be well-founded, well-argued, and very insightful. The writer has enough confidence in the arguments to be clear and honest. The delight I found in this could lead me to say that it was mind candy, but the truth is that the insights get much deeper than the mere cognitive level. The insights, as a reader of O’Connor’s work, opened me to the author’s most fundamental (existential and spiritual) questions and challenges. Bravo.

Excellent Insights for Both Beginners and Experts

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Narrator is excellent and she tackles tough questions with fairness and integrity. For someone not familiar with O’Connor’s work, this Audible Original is a great introduction to her depth, prowess, and times.

Fascinating life cut short

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