John Boyle, a professor of Catholic studies at the University of St. Thomas, was featured in the National Catholic Register as part of a story exploring renewed interest in Nobel Prize-winning author Sigrid Undset following the opening of her canonization cause. Boyle discussed why he teaches Kristin Lavransdatter alongside the Catechism of the Catholic Church, describing the novel as a powerful way to help students engage with the Catholic faith.
From the article:
John Boyle, a professor of Catholic studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, has his students in a graduate class on “The Essentials of the Catholic Faith” read two books: the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Kristin Lavransdatter.
When asked why he chose Undset’s book, he said he wanted a work of literature that would offer something “concrete” to allow the class to talk about the substance of the Catechism. Kristin Lavransdatter, he said, is “simply a glorious text to teach in that context.”
Boyle told the Register that the book might at first be frustrating for a reader accustomed to a “rom-com” storyline, where any difficulties are swiftly dealt with as the plot wends its way to a happy ending.
“Undset has frustrated us with a portrait of life that we feel is true – we just wish it wasn’t true – and then shows us what it might look like to live that life well in the struggle, in the limitations, to use Pope Leo’s language,” he said.
“What would it mean to grow through those limitations, not simply to possibly overcome them? Really, that’s the place where God is operative,” Boyle said.
