Literature and Mercy
Cultures and Faith Vol. XXIV 2016 N.1
Theme: Mercy and Literature
Vol. XXIV 2016 N.1 of the Dicastery's journal is now out with its focus on literature and mercy.
From the Editorial:
Editorial
This edition of our journal is a small celebration of the descriptive power of literature to open our eyes to the human condition. We have papers on Thomas More’s Utopia in its fifth centenary, Shakespeare’s mercy in his 400th anniversary, the oft-overlooked poet Pierre Emmanuel during his 100th anniversary, and a panorama on mercy in contemporary fiction.
These judges, novelists, poets, playwrights and wordsmiths represent and interpret history allowing us to change our perspectives, if we open our eyes. In the spirit of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, each time we approach or return to a work of literature, we are faced with the sometimes utopian use of imagination to challenge our ideals and visions, our beliefs and understandings, our relations with our fellow men and women, our priorities, our mentality, our culture. As the Bard of Avon put it: “we are such stuff as dreams are made of”.
The four articles take us beyond human justice as depicted in Measure for Measure, into the real source of mercy; they offer a glimpse into the divine. The development of the perceptive French Catholic cultural movement through the agony of the 20th century speaks of the abyss and the transcendent and our need for hope. Contemporary literature, refreshment for our eyes and lives, can continue the process of unveiling our origins and nature, portraying the new contexts and languages of mercy.
In short, we are given another chance.