Flannery O'Connor and the Vision of Grace

Feb 13, 2020

University Club of Chicago

76 E Monroe St
Chicago, IL 60603

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Jennifer FreyUniversity of South Carolina

Flannery O'Connor and the Vision of Grace
- Jennifer Frey, University of South Carolina
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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, 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.

Prof. Frey also gave a talk on What Good is Happiness? at the University of Chicago on February 12, 2020, and led a lunch discussion for students and faculty on novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch, on February 14, 2020.

Jennifer Frey is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina and a Fellow at the Word on Fire Institute. She was previously a Collegiate Assistant Professor of Humanities at the University of Chicago and Assistant Director of the Lumen Christi Institute. Prof. Frey has published widely on action, virtue, practical reason, and meta-ethics, and has recently co-edited an interdisciplinary volume, Self-Transcendence and Virtue: Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology, and Psychology. She earned her PhD in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and is a wife and mother of six.