In the 1950s, the government authorities responsible for road safety posted warning signs on highways which read: "Drive Carefully. The Life You Safe May Be Your Own." Flannery O'Conner used the slogan "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" as the title of a short story in which a young man, Tom Shiftlet, sees one of these signs soon after abandoning his bride, Lucynell, at a roadside diner on their honeymoon. Paul Elie later used the phrase again as the title of a book about four American Catholic writers: Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Walker Percy.

The original meaning of the road safety slogan is straightforward. You have an obligation to drive safely, but it also makes sense from a purely selfish point of view. O'Connor, however, draws a theological meaning from the slogan. Shiftlet, who has behaved despicably, feels "the rottenness of the world" beginning to engulf him and exclaims "Oh Lord! Break forth and wash the slime from the earth!" A storm breaks, offering temporary purification, but there is no indication that Shiftlet's life is "saved" as a Catholic would understand the term. He is as spiritually selfish and feckless as any careless driver, gambling with the lives of others. Paul Elie's book explores the Catholic faith of O'Connor and her fellow writers with the same emphasis on the spiritual meaning of the phrase, writing about their understanding of damnation and salvation from a literary standpoint.