A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) depicts the fall and rise of civilization and the preservation of fragments of its knowledge throughout, while highlighting the moral truths of the Christian faith. Remarkable for both characterization and thematic development, ithas come to be regarded as one of the greatest works of post-apocalyptic social science fiction. Its structure, replete with repeating symbols and parallel events, fully examines the cyclical nature of history, and the reflective reader will be moved to ask important questions.
The narrativefollows the post-apocalyptic mission of a Catholic monastery in the southwestern American desert, where monks preserve what remains of...
is a retired secondary teacher of English and philosophy. For forty years he challenged students to dive deep into the classics of the Western canon, to think and write analytically, and to find the cultural constants reflected throughout that literature, art, and thought.
Get Salvo in your inbox! This article originally appeared in Salvo, Issue #65, Summer 2023 Copyright © 2024 Salvo | www.salvomag.com https://salvomag.com/article/salvo65/truth-preservers
