This thesis examines the Catholic Worker movement’s understanding of antimodernism and modernity through its first farming commune, Maryfarm. Created during the middle of the Great Depression, Maryfarm became the initial foray into Peter Maurin’s ideal of the agronomic university. As part of Maurin’s three-point program for social reconstruction, the agronomic university would conceptually seek to re-humanize individuals through the land. According to the Catholic Worker movement’s co-founders, persons had lost their inherently dignified, selfless, and communal nature through modernity’s demystification of the divine, its reliance on science, and its industrial work ethic. By working together, living together, and owning machinery together on the land, modern individuals would relearn their authentic nature, return to modern urban cores, and reconstruct modernity from within. Yet, Maryfarm’s reality proved anathema to its ideal. Within and without, Maryfarm’s critics increasingly perceived the commune’s disorganization through its lax work ethic and its decentralized structure. While some principled Catholics Workers tilled the land, others failed to realize Maurin’s embodied ethic of self-discipline and personal responsibility for the common good. As the Depression’s unemployed and transient homeless congregated at the commune, the reality of Maryfarm’s decentralized structure grew increasingly discordant with Maurin’s ideal. To understand the discrepancy between Maryfarm’s conception and reality, this thesis argues that the Catholic Worker sought to decenter modernity (as epitomized by industrial capitalism) through its personalist philosophy and its understanding of urban and rural space. The Catholic Worker movement rejected modernity’s individuality, profit-drive, and dehumanizing labor ethos. Through a theology of the Body of Christ, it appropriated the era’s emphases on personal responsibility, thrift, and self-discipline and utilized them to address industrial capitalism’s woes. By seeing Christ in others, Catholic Workers would cultivate selfless personal responsibility for the preservation of community. The movement’s conception of the agronomic university also decentered modernity through its emphasis on rural spaces. With the spiritual and degrading hollowness of industrial cities, the land provided an outlet to reconceive one’s personhood. After this cultivation, Catholic Workers would return to urban spaces and spread their revolution of the heart. But as seen through the reality of Maryfarm, Maurin’s notions of self-discipline and personal responsibility only would reify modern conceptions of individuality and independence. To undertake this study, this thesis historiographically intervenes with two new theoretical perspectives. First, it analyzes Catholic Worker personalism through modern art and, subsequently, embodied practice. To situate personalism historically, this thesis uses modern art as a lens to understand an American antimodern milieu, which challenged modernity and industrial capitalism’s perceived hollowness. By seeking something tangible, Catholic Workers utilized the theology of the Body of Christ to discipline the body to articulate notions of individuals working for the common good. From this antimodern aesthetic, this thesis transitions to another perspective, spatial analysis, to evaluate the conceived agronomic university. The farm’s conceived space sought to reorient individuals out of modernity and into a contemporary manifestation of an envisioned medieval community. Yet, the founders recognized the inextricable connection between urban and rural spaces, the former for its food and the latter for its workers. Eventually, these reconstructed persons would return to urban cores to spread their work ethic. With these two perspectives, this thesis examines conceived bodies and conceived space on Maryfarm’s physical land. As a confluence for unemployed workers, Maryfarm became home to various flows of modern individuals, who brought their experiences, hopes, and desires with them. Because of personalism, Maryfarm rejected any emplaced authority. Instead, workers had to cultivate self-discipline and selflessness on their own. As a contested space, Maryfarm allowed individuals to derive their own meanings and work ethics from their experiences, particularly along gendered lines. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 8, 2019. / Catholic Worker, Farming, Modern Art, Personalism, Peter Maurin / Includes bibliographical references. / Jamil Drake, Professor Directing Thesis; Aline Kalbian, Committee Member; John Corrigan, Committee Member; Michael McVicar, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_709063 |
| Contributors | Austin, Nicholas Scott (author), Drake, Jamil William (Professor Directing Thesis), Kalbian, Aline H. (Committee Member), Corrigan, John (Committee Member), McVicar, Michael J. (Committee Member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Religion (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, master thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (102 pages), computer, application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds