Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer

Smith, Brian A. Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2017.

Brian Smith's Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer is a analysis of Percy's writings from the viewpoint of political philosophy. Most of the published writings on Percy consider his work as a novelist or his work in linguistics. Smith co-edited an earlier work with Peter Lawler on Walker Percy: A Political Companion to Walker Percy. As far as I know, these are the only two published works that looks at Percy as a political thinker. Smith is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Law at Montclair State University.

Smith compares Percy with Alexis de Tocqueville. He thinks like Tocqueville, "Percy investigated the temptation to seek complete solutions to life's persistent dilemmas, and traces the moral, political, and theological consequences of these challenges" (xv). Reading Smith's book, I thought that Percy and Saint Augustine had similar ideas. Both argued that the city of God was not to be expected in this world, and that a moderate politics should be attempted in this world. Smith's book "explores the ways Percy deploys his understanding of the human person as a wayfarer with particular attention to its effects on our understanding of society and politics" (xv). The condition of wayfarer points at the restlessness of the human condition and how complete fulfillment cannot be achieved in this life. This seems similar to Saint Augustine's idea of the restless heart in his confessions.

Percy emphasized that alienation was a permanent situation of the human condition and the desire to eliminate it could lead to negative consequences. Percy also thought many people go wrong in describing the human condition. An example, would be social scientists who see man as an organism like any other organism. Smith asserts, "Today's best scientific approaches still cannot explain why a person can be well-fed, comfortable, have many friends, a romantic partner, and a good job but still feel unhappy" (xv). Percy believed that alienation could teach us about the human condition.

Percy's wayfaring view was based on the Christian faith. Percy did not seek to convert people directly through his writings. He sought to make the case for a Christian view of the human condition indirectly. Percy believed that we lived in a secular, postmodern age and that direct attempt at evangelism would not be effective. Instead, he concentrated  on an indirect and "multi-faceted approach" (xvii). There is controversy over whether Percy was trying to evangelize his readers. It seems although Percy was concerned about people welfare, he was committed to the art of writing novels. This is evident because of the awards he won for his novels. However, he did seek to make a case for the Christian faith indirectly.

Smith's Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer includes three parts. The first part is "diagnosing the malaise." Chapter one focuses on Percy's description of different human attempts to develop a theory of man: new age philosophy and spirituality, existentialism, psychotherapy, materialism, and others. Percy did not think that these theorist presented a "coherent" theory of man. In chapter two, Smith explores the consequences of these theories. Percy criticized scientism and materialism because it describes people as organisms in an environment that leaves out the scientist doing the observing. Part two describes attempts to cure the condition of alienation. Chapter three analyzes people constant movement. Chapter four describes Southern Stoicism and how it conflicts with Christianity. Chapter five looks at the connections between boredom, alienation, "death-in-life," violence and Percy's emphasis on the apocalypse. The last part discusses ways to cope with alienation. Chapter six uses Percy's essays to indicate a path to a new social science. The last chapter describes "Percy's vision of family, community, and faith." Smith thinks that Percy provides a way to live with alienation in this life without turning to the extremes of the Left and Right.

Brian Smith's Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer is a good addition to the abundant secondary literature of Walker Percy. He makes a strong case that Percy should be considered as more than a novelist, but as an important political and social thinker for our time. It is highly recommended for all those interested in Percy's work and political science in modern times.