Decadence and Catholicism [Paperback]

As the editorial reviews state, those of orthodox stripes will likely dismiss this book out of hand, especially those uneasy with homo/sexuality. After re-reading the text, to me the author appears to have unwittingly identified the uneasy tension in Catholicism between having an otherworldly outlook and being an Incarnational faith. Most interesting were the connections between liturgical norms and sexuality, with the elaborate liturgical choreography and vesture of both Catholic and Anglican "High Church" as an expression or sublimation of sexual energies. Overall the book is interesting for its stories and implications--and if the book offends, readers must sort out if offense is caused 1) by the text with unwarranted assumptions or 2) the tension existant in Christian life about whether to best express sexuality through ascetism or an artistic appreciation of the senses.

People today will know far too well for discussion the vehement condemnation of extramarital sex by the Vatican, whilst those with a broad reading like me will have an idea of how they can defend their position on practical and historical grounds. What will surprise people, then, is how sensual many nineteenth and early twentieth-century aesthetes found Catholicism's rituals, and the result that people who were (and sometimes remained) by the Church's standard extremely sinful in their sexual behaviour at times could see such sin as useful and even as concordant with the rituals involved in Catholic and High Anglican faith. It is thought that they managed to discover grace in the heart of such sins. There is also the element of mysticism that often was very shocking to readers of the time the writers wrote.

"Decadence and Catholicism" is essentially a study of the modernist literary movement, popularly descried as "art for art's sake" and involving a fascination with the pagan, mystical aspects of Catholicism even as it professed atheism. What Ellis Hanson shows (and I knew from Elizabeth Kantor) about the attraction of High Church ritual for such literary modernists as Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde and especially J.K. Huysmans, who of the lay writers studied was the most full-fledged covert to Rome is that it was related to the surprising beauty inherent when a Catholic knows of sin. There is also curiously a sense of the Church as a corrupt ("decadent" in another sense) but wondrous institution in many of these writers.

"Decadence and Catholicism" begins with Poe and Baudelaire, neither of whom ever converted to Christianity but whose work nonetheless is filled with a mixture of sensuality and highly Christian symbolism. The point that the erotic satanism for which Baudelaire was so controversial in his heyday was a back root to the Church is one I can particularly relate from my experience listening to Kate Bush and Bryan Ferry, whose work in many places carries this theme. This is also true of Paul Verlaine, whose moving from sensual to explicitly religious subjects reminds me of the above-mentioned musicians, and whose public behaviour remained controversial even after he attempted to convert to Catholicism as a prisoner.

Huysmans, as mentioned earlier, was a much more reliable convert than Verlaine, but Hanson shows quite easily that the "decadent" and "Catholic" parts of his career overlap with quite good detail, and Oscar Wilde, noted heavily by Kantor as a decadent attracted to Rome, is also very well-described, especially with respect to his meetings with Pius IX and Leo XIII and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The last full chapter, "Priests and Acolytes", looks at a number of decadents who actually became Catholic priests, the best-known being John Gray and Frederick Rolfe. One at times wonders why the Church hierarchy did not censor them given what they were apparently writing, and the detail given is not as good as with the better-known writers earlier in "Decadence and Catholicism".

There are quite a few flaws in the book. Many have noted that the origin of the "decadent" movement is not clearly defined, nor (since High Anglicanism is covered deeply) is "Catholicism". There is also the point that the root of the idea that sin is useful lies, as Sara Maitland (perhaps the nearest modern writer in spirit hereto) points out, in the mystical theology of Julian of Norwich and other medieval mystics. The way in which the movement ended is also treated poorly: the fact that such Catholic and High Anglican converts as Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene and W.H. Auden had a faith that was highly moralistic and without room for decadence. Another factor is that whilst "Decadence and Catholicism" points out that the authors concerned saw extramarital sexuality as generally sinful, it does not emphasise this, describe how they sublimated their sexual desires, or contrast it with the already nascent movement to eliminate sinfulness from sexuality. Another point which I can note myself is that High Church ritual may be an attraction to cope with psychological problems quite different from what Hanson thinks. Having spoken about Eric Gill to autism expert Michael Fitzgerald, I think it possible that part of the attraction of "Catholicism" may relate to someone lacking in empathy through autism being perversely attracted to an institution that requires qualities diametrically opposed to those associated with autism. Gerard Manley Hopkins, briefly mentioned in the book, is widely though of as having Asperger's Syndrome and my point may apply to some others in this book. Although the way in which Hanson likens the homoeroticism he describes in early twentieth-century High Church life it to gender-bending gives me doubt, it is an omission nonetheless.

All in all, "Decadence and Catholicism" is a fascinating read on topics that appear to be contradictory. They can I feel be linked by the desire to symbolically revive the mystical "right" brain in an industrialising Western culture (Leonard Shlain could have used this book in writing the latter parts of The Alphabet Versus the Goddess). though the books ends are not very well-tied to the body of the volume, it is very easy for me to relate what Hanson shows here to both medieval mysticism and the 1960s counterculture. Combined with the information it provides on important writers, it stands as quite a good read.

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