Overview

Although scholars have widely acknowledged the prevalence of religious reference in the work of Cormac McCarthy, this is the first book on the most pervasive religious trope in all his works: the image of sacrament, and in particular, of eucharist. Informed by postmodern theories of narrative and Christian theologies of sacrament, Matthew Potts reads the major novels of Cormac McCarthy in a new and insightful way, arguing that their dark moral significance coheres with the Christian theological tradition in difficult, demanding ways. Potts develops this account through an argument that integrates McCarthy’s fiction with both postmodern theory and contemporary fundamental and sacramental theology. In McCarthy’s novels, the human self is always dispossessed of itself, given over to harm, fate, and narrative. But this fundamental dispossession, this vulnerability to violence and signs, is also one uniquely expressed in and articulated by the Christian sacramental tradition. By reading McCarthy and this theology alongside postmodern accounts of action, identity, subjectivity, and narration, Potts demonstrates how McCarthy exploits Christian theology in order to locate the value of human acts and relations in a way that mimics the dispossessing movement of sacramental signs. This is not to claim McCarthy for theology, necessarily, but it is to assert that McCarthy generates his account of what human goodness might look like in the wake of metaphysical collapse through the explicit use of Christian theology.

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9781501330735

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Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament is and will for a long time remain the best treatment we have of McCarthy as proto-postmodern theologian. Matthew Potts' readings recuperate the category of 'story' for postmodernity. Richard A. Rosengarten, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature, The University of Chicago Divinity School, USA Matthew Potts's book is sometimes as dark and haunting as McCarthy's novels themselves. It is a complex meditation through close readings of the books and their characters, contained within careful readings of Nietzsche, Arendt, Adorno, Auerbach, Judith Butler and others. Against the background of the failure of religious institutions in which deep and sacramental elements rise to the surface of life known often as mere violence, Potts offers a reading of these fictions which avow the profound vulnerability at the heart of God and make space for a sacramental understanding of the world in which nihilism and decay are never far away. David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow, UK Cormac McCarthy's work is fraught with Christian imagery, but often Christianity becomes a dark, moral undertow in the works, seemingly designed to highlight a nihilistic, violent view of the world. Churches most often lie in ruin, talismans scattered. Prayers go unanswered. The morally 'good' often brutally die. Though Potts (ministry studies, Harvard Divinity School) acknowledges the validity of Gnostic, nihilistic, and existential readings of the novels, he systematically and deliberately guides readers through a theological approach, examining McCarthy's frequent invocations of sacrament (the Eucharist in particular) in a nonreductive context and using postmodern theory as critical ballast. In doing so, Potts provides a revelatory bright stroke in the rapidly expanding field of McCarthy scholarship. Of particular interest is Potts's reading of The Road, as he casts, for example, new light on the baptismal images in the text. In places, Potts's mode could be more integrative: he tends to use subheadings within chapters to 'flip' between direct textual analysis and contextual development (rather than intertwining these modes). For example, a discussion of the father and son in The Road stops dead in its tracks to develop subsequent sections on 'divine dispossession' and 'narration and incarnation.' Overall, however, Potts's immersion in McCarthy yields fresh insights and previously unexplored theological angles. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. -- E. Hage, SUNY Cobleskill CHOICE McCarthy readers will find that Potts' focused reading of the philosophical and Christian allusions in McCarthy helps him elucidate particular scenes and then weave his insights into a careful, broader argument about McCarthy's worldview. This approach provides a clearer understanding of McCarthy's persistent scenes of human kindness amidst violence and inhumanity. -- Mark Busby, Texas State University, USA Southwestern American Literature

Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament is and will for a long time remain the best treatment we have of McCarthy as proto-postmodern theologian. Matthew Potts' readings recuperate the category of 'story' for postmodernity. Richard A. Rosengarten, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature, The University of Chicago Divinity School, USA Matthew Potts's book is sometimes as dark and haunting as McCarthy's novels themselves. It is a complex meditation through close readings of the books and their characters, contained within careful readings of Nietzsche, Arendt, Adorno, Auerbach, Judith Butler and others. Against the background of the failure of religious institutions in which deep and sacramental elements rise to the surface of life known often as mere violence, Potts offers a reading of these fictions which avow the profound vulnerability at the heart of God and make space for a sacramental understanding of the world in which nihilism and decay are never far away. David Jasper, Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow, UK Cormac McCarthy's work is fraught with Christian imagery, but often Christianity becomes a dark, moral undertow in the works, seemingly designed to highlight a nihilistic, violent view of the world. Churches most often lie in ruin, talismans scattered. Prayers go unanswered. The morally 'good' often brutally die. Though Potts (ministry studies, Harvard Divinity School) acknowledges the validity of Gnostic, nihilistic, and existential readings of the novels, he systematically and deliberately guides readers through a theological approach, examining McCarthy's frequent invocations of sacrament (the Eucharist in particular) in a nonreductive context and using postmodern theory as critical ballast. In doing so, Potts provides a revelatory bright stroke in the rapidly expanding field of McCarthy scholarship. Of particular interest is Potts's reading of The Road, as he casts, for example, new light on the baptismal images in the text. In places, Potts's mode could be more integrative: he tends to use subheadings within chapters to 'flip' between direct textual analysis and contextual development (rather than intertwining these modes). For example, a discussion of the father and son in The Road stops dead in its tracks to develop subsequent sections on 'divine dispossession' and 'narration and incarnation.' Overall, however, Potts's immersion in McCarthy yields fresh insights and previously unexplored theological angles. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. -- E. Hage, SUNY Cobleskill CHOICE McCarthy readers will find that Potts' focused reading of the philosophical and Christian allusions in McCarthy helps him elucidate particular scenes and then weave his insights into a careful, broader argument about McCarthy's worldview. This approach provides a clearer understanding of McCarthy's persistent scenes of human kindness amidst violence and inhumanity. -- Mark Busby, Texas State University, USA Southwestern American Literature Potts offers a valuable contribution to McCarthy studies as well as scholarship in Christian theology, noting that scholarship on the novels, for all its attention to McCarthy's treatment of religious themes, pays too little attention to this trope ... One of the most notable achievements of this text is its engagement with an impressive roster of postmodern theorists, including Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavaerero, Karl Barth, and Judith Butler, while also conducting careful, insightful readings of McCarthy and his critics ... [T]he question of how to locate value and meaning in these novels has remained one of the foremost concerns for McCarthy scholarship. Without retreating into a reductive, totalizing account, Potts manages to bring a fresh perspective on these enduring questions. -- Nicholas Lawrence The Cormac McCarthy Journal This meticulously thought-out and presented discussion of the sacramentality within the works of Cormac McCarthy is both engaging and convincing, leaving me to wonder how McCarthy scholars will respond to the insights and analysis Potts has taken such great care to lay out. Regardless of whether those scholars agree or disagree with Potts, they certainly must engage with him, as his reading of McCarthy suggests shortcoming in much of what has already been written. Reviews in Religion and Theology To those interested in the dynamic relationship between theology and literature, the work of novelist Cormac McCarthy has long been begging for a sustained critical treatment. With the recent release of Mathew Potts's Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament, we are treated to such a book-a study that is to be particularly commended for mining the theological content so prevalent in McCarthy's work ... Pott's beautifully written text makes choice contributions not only to sacramental aesthetics, but to the fields of ethics and narrative theory as well. -- Michael Murphy Reading Religion

Author Information

Matthew L. Potts is Assistant Professor of Ministry Studies at the Divinity School of Harvard University, USA. His teaching and research focuses on Christianity and contemporary American literature.

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