Jacob Phillips

“Being Scorned by One's Own is Perfect Joy”: The Strange Case of Dorothy Day: The Strange Case of Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day has long been seen as an enigma in understandings of twentieth-century American Catholicism. With the publication of Dorothy Days extensive letters and diaries in 2008, the enigmatic character of Days relation to various fault lines of Catholic identity has been made even more apparent. Days ability to sidestep received opinion, in order to disclose (arguably) something of an inner resonance between apparently differing viewpoints, often left her sitting uneasily with the proponents of different positions across the spectrum of Catholic thinking, causing her to quote St Francis, saying that “being scorned by ones own is perfect joy.” This review article gives a summary of the contributions made by these volumes to understandings of Days life and work, before discussing three particular fault lines, where Days ability to straddle differing positions is most perceptible: her practice of pre-Conciliar spirituality, her attitude to ecclesiastical authority, and her position on matters pertaining to gender and sexuality.

'Being Scorned by One's Own is Perfect Joy'

Dorothy Day has long been seen as an enigma in understandings of twentieth-century American Catholicism. With the publication of Dorothy Days extensive letters and diaries in 2008, the enigmatic character of Days relation to various fault lines of Catholic identity has been made even more apparent. Days ability to sidestep received opinion, in order to disclose (arguably) something of an inner resonance between apparently differing viewpoints, often left her sitting uneasily with the proponents of different positions across the spectrum of Catholic thinking, causing her to quote St Francis, saying that “being scorned by ones own is perfect joy.” This review article gives a summary of the contributions made by these volumes to understandings of Days life and work, before discussing three particular fault lines, where Days ability to straddle differing positions is most perceptible: her practice of pre-Conciliar spirituality, her attitude to ecclesiastical authority, and her position on matters pertaining to gender and sexuality.

'Being Scorned by One's Own is Perfect Joy': The Strange Case of Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day has long been seen as an enigma in understandings of twentieth-century American Catholicism. With the publication of Dorothy Days extensive letters and diaries in 2008, the enigmatic character of Days relation to various fault lines of Catholic identity has been made even more apparent. Days ability to sidestep received opinion, in order to disclose (arguably) something of an inner resonance between apparently differing viewpoints, often left her sitting uneasily with the proponents of different positions across the spectrum of Catholic thinking, causing her to quote St Francis, saying that “being scorned by ones own is perfect joy.” This review article gives a summary of the contributions made by these volumes to understandings of Days life and work, before discussing three particular fault lines, where Days ability to straddle differing positions is most perceptible: her practice of pre-Conciliar spirituality, her attitude to ecclesiastical authority, and her position on matters pertaining to gender and sexuality.