Unruly saint Dorothy Day's radical vision and its challenge for our times

Author and podcaster Mayfield (The Myth of the American Dream, 2020) profiles Dorothy Day (1897--1980), one of four "great Americans" identified by Pope Francis in 2015. Unruly Saint introduces Day to those unfamiliar with the social activist, anarchist, cofounder of the Catholic Worker newspaper, and "Servant of God" in the Catholic Church. Early life in urban areas exposed Day to the plight of the downtrodden, while reading and, later, muckraking work increased her compassion. Day's surprising conversion to Catholicism amid a bohemian lifestyle was one of many paradoxes in her remarkable life, as she fearlessly questioned authority of both country and Church and examined why the unmet realities of poverty and discrimination failed to match Catholicism's taught theology. She blended devotion to the sacred with meeting tangible needs of the hungry and homeless, while her writing championed justice for the Indigenous and people of color before "antiracism" became a buzzword. Mayfield's readers will agree that the radical Day, unwilling to be defined by others, is just as relevant and necessary today as she was decades ago.

Mayfield (The Myth of the American Dream), a teaching fellow at the Center for Faith and Justice, delivers a timely meditation on Catholic activist Dorothy Day. Born to a middle-class family in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, Day dropped out of college to become a muckraking journalist and moved in politically radical, bohemian circles. Mayfield chronicles how Day's conversion to Catholicism and her friendship with anarchist Peter Maurin inspired her in 1933 to found the Catholic Worker newspaper, which combined her religious passion with political activism. The paper, Mayfield contends, grew into a movement of voluntary poverty and hospitality that provided food, shelter, and community to those in need. Mayfield reflects on Day's influence on her own faith, recounting how discovering Day's writing challenged her to hold Christians accountable to the social justice message of the gospels. The substantial, briskly told narrative uses Day's story as a case study in progressive Christianity, reminding readers that a Christian left has long existed at the margins, "furiously impatient with all that was wrong in the world." Incisive and rousing, this should be required reading for social justice--minded Christians. (Nov.)