In an article published almost twenty years ago, Walker Percy talked of modern man's peculiar predicament, the result of secular man living under the protection of a tradition he ridicules and of religious man being unable to live the life his faith demands. Percy compares "our posture" to that of "the cat in the cartoon who ran off the cliff and found himself standing up in the air. Maybe he can get back to earth by backing up; on the other hand he might be in for a radical change of perspective."… After three novels showing the contortions of the cat in midair, Percy's new novel, Lancelot, is a dialogue between secular man and religious man on what the world may look like once the cat discovers that he is too far from the cliff to get back. (p. 186)

Lancelot clarifies his position through a mad black/white...