Sometime in the 1950's the Jesuit scholar Miguel Bernad who is a pioneering literary critic and foremost book reviewer in the country made a startling observation about an aspect in the literary production of our writers in English when he averred that Philippine Literature in English does not seem to have a clearly defined theological dimension. Criticized for this contention, Bernad in a lecture delivered at the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School explained that his observation points to a fact, not a defect. This probably was the reason why Bernad throughout his lecture text did not mention or analyze any Filipino writer; instead he cited the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Donne, Blake, Dostoevski, and Greene to illustrate his point. Despite his seemingly scathing comment, Bernad somehow ended with an optimistic note.
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