The Catastrophe of the Self: Walker Percy on Sin and Transcendence

Throughout his writings, Walker Percy explores modern man’s catastrophic failure to understand who he is. This talk will explain Percy’s diagnosis of this catastrophe–its nature and causes–and various false avenues of escaping it.  We will pay particular attention to how Percy’s understanding of the spiritual crisis of modernity–a crisis of self-knowledge– plays out in his science fiction novel, Love in the Ruins.