The Language of Grace

Book excerpt: Hawkins explores both traditional and contemporary ways grace has been handled in literature. The traditional representation of grace is explained using, among other things, the parables of Jesus. Then he turns to more contemporary literature, including O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, Percy's The Second Coming, and Murdoch's A Word Child. Through these novels and short stories, Hawkins highlights the impoverishment of spirit and imagination when religious language fails us. He presents three writers struggling to bridge the gap between ourselves and those mysterious realities we can no longer talk about.