Flannery O'Connor on Purity, the Most Difficult of the Virtues: "A Temple of the Holy Ghost"

February 9, 2013
University of North Carolina
Pleasants Room, Wilson Library
RALPH WOOD has served as University Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor since 1998. He previously served for 26 years on the faculty of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he became the John Allen Easley Professor of Religion in 1990. He has also taught at Samford University in Birmingham, at Regent College in Vancouver, and at Providence College in Rhode Island. At Baylor, his main appointment is in the Religion Department, but he also teaches in the Great Texts program as well as the Department of English. He serves as an editor-at-large for the Christian Century and as an editorial board member for both the Flannery O'Connor Review and Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review.

[@Teachering]

I thoroughly enjoyed this marvelous talk to do with a story by Flannery O'Connor and its theology. I am Catholic and was delighted to hear an interpretation of O'Connor given from a Baptist point of view. Such insight and understanding of Catholic Christian teaching! Flannery O'Connor has always been a mystery to me more so than any other writer I have studied. This talk has thrilled me and given me appetite to return to the stories of O'Connor and better able to be entertained by them.

[@FlowLai]

Catholic visitor here. What a GIFT Dr. Ralph Wood is to the people. And I absolutely love Flannery's writing as well

[@candiceazzara8877]

I love this talk...

[@bobtaylor170]

Thank God, the sound got so much better when the guest began to speak. I thought this was going to be the normal extremely worthwhile speech on TH-cam which is almost maddening to try to listen to because the sound is so bad.

[@sanddollar252]

Excellent! Would love to have you as a professor.

[@herberthuber8500]

15:10
There are different opinions on Josef Pieper's role in the Nationalsocialism. I guess, Kurt Flasch: Katholische Wegbereiter des Nationalsozialismus: Michael Schmaus, Joseph Lortz, Josef Pieper. 2021, has not been translated into English yet. The title translates to: Catholic trailblazer for Nationalsocialism: Michael Schmaus, Joseph Lortz, Josef Pieper.

[@j.h.9376]

Very wonderful talk, but that rendition of the Tantum Ergo was not at all how it is normally sung. It really really changes that scene to make it sound flippant there. To do the Old Rugged Cross heartfelt then the Latin in a mocking tone really shows a preference. I think folks should look up some renditions on youtube to get a better understanding of what they sang.

[@jbell0243]

The way this man talks he’s very nearly a Catholic.

[@dougmoore5252]

That fine Baptist preacher is very, very close to Catholicism.