Sacred Dread – Raïssa Maritain, the Allure of Suffering, and the French Catholic Revival (1905–1944)

"Brenna Moore brings together in this beautifully written book deep theological learning with a fine historical sensibility to give us a stunning portrait of one of the most interesting women of the 20th century. Sacred Dread is at the same time an inner history of twentieth-century Catholicism. Brilliantly illuminating Maritain's intellectual milieu, Moore shows how courageously Maritain faced the horrors of her times and at what cost, offering a theology of suffering for a deeply wounded age. In Brenna Moore this great thinker has found her perfect reader at last." —Robert Orsi, Northwestern University

"Sacred Dread is a fine study of the other Maritain, Raissa, and her rich involvements in the intellectual and spiritual life of twentieth-century France. Moore makes excellent use of primary and secondary sources and performs sensitive readings of Raissa’s own essays, poetry, and philosophic writings, to give us a convincing re-reading of the doctrine of vicarious suffering that fascinated a circle of Jewish, Christian, and secular colleagues during the surprising Catholic revival in France and across four decades of tremendous cultural crisis and ferment in western Europe." —Paula Kane, University of Pittsburgh

"Brenna Moore's Sacred Dread: Raïssa Maritain, the Allure of Suffering, and the French Catholic Revival (1905-1944) is a genuine contribution to scholarship on a major figure in the Catholic Revival. Moore's treatment of Maritain in the context in which she lived and wrote is nuanced, thoughtful, and carefully researched. Additionally, she adds significantly to conversations about gender and religion by revisiting the function of female suffering in French Catholicism between 1870 and 1970." —Marian Ronan, Research Professor of Catholic Studies, The Center for World Christianity, New York Theological Seminary