Jennifer Frey - Flannery O’Connor and the Vision of Grace

Flannery O’Connor is one of the most celebrated American fiction writers. Yet she has often been misunderstood by the very critics who praise her. O’Connor was sometimes called a hillbilly nihilist, but she responded that she was simply “a hillbilly Thomist.” In this talk, delivered February 13, 2020, at the University Club of Chicago, Dr. Frey explores the action of divine grace in the short stories of O’Connor, and how her vision of grace is inspired by the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas.