45 pages • 1 hour read
Gregory BoyleBarking to the Choir
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Homie-propisms
For Boyle, the malapropisms of the marginalized are bursting with hidden insight, wisdom, and knowledge. The constant presence of homie-propisms mined for their unexpected sagacity is a motif within the work. This motif accomplishes much of the text’s subversive aims, as it takes that which normally would be dismissed or derided and uplifts it. Through this motif, Boyle asks his reader to be more careful and aware of what they filter out of their minds, and to think about why they might do so in the first place. The homie-propisms are a central and effective way Boyle challenges readers to deeper introspection. Boyle hopes readers will emerge from this introspection with a deeper and grander sense of compassion—which is, to him, a hallmark of a true encounter with God.
Kinship
The idea of kinship is a recurring motif throughout the text. Through it, Boyle asserts and develops his singularly Jesuit perspective. Instead of locating the encounter with God in the heavens or in esoteric study, Boyle persistently locates the encounter with God in human relationships to each other. For Boyle, it is through the thoughtful and persistent cultivation of compassionate and tender kinship with one another that humans encounter and understand the true nature of God as a God of boundless compassion—even and especially for those whom society regularly discards.
