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| Natalie Smith |
In Dr. John Wood’s thought-provoking seminar on Flannery O’Connor and her short story, The River, McConnell Scholars discussed how the human creature is, by nature, maladjusted to the animal world. As a Christian writer, O’Connor believed that humans are meant to be eccentric, and she was not afraid of going against the grain of culture if it meant going with the grain of the universe.
Shortly after the seminar, I came across a letter written by Flannery O’Connor in response to a college student who had written her for advice because he felt he had lost his faith in God. In the letter, O’Connor encourages the student, reassuring him that is feelings are far from atypical. This unbelief of his, she claims, is in fact foundational in any Christian’s experience in the 20th century. With novel information thrown at students in their first year of college, she acknowledges that reconciling new world-views and approaches with what you know of God is a tremendous task for anyone, young or old.
O’Connor encourages the student to “cultivate Christian skepticism,” because in doing so, he will be able to find true freedom—freedom to rise above the intellects of others or even his own. She claims that her own skepticism is what helped her survive her college years, keeping her from becoming too focused on fitting her ideas into neat intellectual categories or getting entangled with or tethered down to academic complexities. She invites the reader to seek out counter-arguments and challenge everything he reads. I found it unexpected that, in a letter to a student struggling with ideas and faith, she called him to increase his skepticism—just in a different way: “don’t think you have to abandon reason to be a Christian.”
O’Connor’s letter is chock-full of incredible statements about faith and education, so much so that I recommend that every college student read her still-applicable letter. Whether or not you’re a Christian, you can gain insight on O’Connor’s life and the lessons that served as this author’s guiding light in her college years. I believe she’s right in saying that we should treat everything we learn with a healthy dose of skepticism. The next time I’m troubled or confused by a new idea or point of reference, I’ll take a breath and remember O’Connor’s advice: “wait, don’t bite on this, get a wider picture, continue to read.”
Natalie Smith, of Elizabethtown, Ky., is a sophomore McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. She is studying English and political science.