St. John of the Cross' transformative love in the works of Stephenie Meyer

Abstract

Stephenie Meyers name stands out amongst recent authors of fantasy-fiction largely due to the thematic versatility, beauty, imagination, and overall sense of peace that enlightens her work. These have mesmerized countless readers who have grown to love the characters at the centre of her books almost as much as the person who created them. Her novels are characterized by the centrality of love and its ability to transform, build, and renew. This springs in a large part from Meyers Christian Mormon beliefs, which she maintains heavily inform her writing. The dissertation will examine the complete published works of Stephenie Meyer to illustrate how they hring forward the Christian belief of the transformative power of love over against instinct, sin, and temptation. To facilitate this project, other works of vampire fiction will be be discussed in order to illustrate the growth of the vampire 'image ' and its relation to sin, evil, and raw instinct, thus highlighting how Meyer has appropriated and changed this inherited mythology and imbued it with Christian values and virtues. A detailed explanation of the Catholic doctrine surrounding love and its purifying effects on the soul will then be made, relying as a primary authority on the works of St. John of the Cross, while at the same time making comparisons to the various examples illustrating these values in Meyer's novels. In this way, the dissertation will show what is of value and what has perhaps been changed or glazed over in Stephenie Meyer's story-lines, as well as that which is wholly different from the Catholic-Christian mentality - largely due to the author's Mormon roots. The research will then conclude by a discussion on the value of this type of analysis of popular culture in Catholic catechesis and evangelization.