The Signs of Christianity in the Work of Walker Percy

CATHOLIC SCHOLARS PRESS

Ann Mace Futrell

— "We who are interested in Percy owe Ann Futrell a large debt." – Jay Tolson, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.

A compelling reconstruction of the underlying beliefs informing novelist Walker Percy's writings, Ann Futrell's study revitalizes the Protestant roots of Percy's devout Catholicism and creates a new paradigm for understanding the author and his works. The core research explores the theological implications of American C.S. Peirce's semiotics on Percy's essays and fiction.

Recognizing each of Percy's works as a Protestant homily concerned with spiritual emptiness and contrariness, Dr. Futrell analyses the link between Percy's Christian Orthodoxy and the scientific philosophy and secularized Calvinism of Charles Sanders Peirce, and argues that Percy's theology rests squarely on the fundamental Peircian principle of human triadicity.

Of interest to semioticians as well as theologians and literary scholars, The Signs of Christianity in the Works of Walker Percy provides a challenging introduction to the thought and work of the writer.

Ann Mace Futrell is a Professor of English at Louisiana Tech University.

Publication Date: 1994