What kind of reverberations has it created in critical circles, particularly non-Catholic?
O’Brien: Reactions have been mixed. It has been reviewed widely in the English-speaking world. Some of the critics are extremely positive, and others extremely negative. Fundamentalist Protestants have been critical because of the strongly Catholic message in the tale. Other Protestant reviewers, sympathetic to culture and the intellectual life, have been generally favorable. Catholics are divided. Some literary scholars believe it is an important book, both as literature and as spirituality. However, a certain class of Catholic reviewers have slammed the book hard. Generally, this latter group is very nervous about any reflection on apocalyptic questions, and thus they have tried to dismiss what I was saying, calling it a Catholic version of hysterical fundamentalist “end times” speculation. They ignored completely the call of Our Lord to “stay awake and watch” which every generation of Christ’s followers must do. Moreover, I explained carefully in my introduction that the book’s purp
