Many thanks to Matt Emerson over at America for linking to my recent piece at The Catholic Thing: “A Catholic Moment in the Arts?”

In the article I try to put my finger on the reason why we Catholics still so often hark back to the great Catholic writers of the 20th century. I contend that there’s still something about that great collection of artists that needs recapturing today, namely–

a greater, more effective engagement with the secular world of the arts and entertainment. All of the writers listed above [Waugh, Greene, O'Connor, Percy, Spark, Powers, etc.] wrote fiction that can justly be described as Catholic, but they all also established large reputations with readers outside the Catholic fold. This was somewhat easier to do fifty or a hundred years ago. There is no question that Western culture has declined precipitously in recent decades, putting the Catholic imagination more and more out of sync with the prevailing secular culture. Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited was a Book of the Month Club selection for January 1946. It is difficult to imagine a novel about a Catholic conversion enjoying such popular approval today. And yet, in order to evangelize our culture Catholic artists must find ways to get their work in front of popular, secular audiences. It’s an enormous challenge, but one Catholic artists must take up without excuses. The culture desperately needs our vision.

Here’s the rest of the article. I’d love to hear what you think about it. In particular,

How do you think it is possible for Catholic writers (and other artists) to establish reputations outside the Catholic fold? Do you agree this is even an important endeavor? 

* The image above is a photograph I took of the model of Shakespeare’s Globe that can be found in the museum attached to the Globe Theatre in London.