Thirty years ago, the fine theologian John Shea, teaching a course on redemption, introduced me to Flannery Oâ??Connorâ??s fiction. I found her stories violent, shocking, funny, and awfully readableâ??but they left me, as a young student without a great deal of real life experience, confused about what exactly the stories had to do with redemption.
These were dark dramas with ugly characters and gloomy endings. There was a lot more Good Friday to these tales than Easter Sunday. For me, a story about redemption ought to have a happy ending. It should not so much be about an escaped con who murders an entire family out on a country drive, or about a traveling Bible salesman who steals a young womanâ??s wooden leg.
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