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The University of Notre Dame

From "The Power And The Glory" To "The Honorary Consul": The Development of GrahamGreene's Catholic ImaginationAuthor(s): Mark BoscoSource: Religion & Literature, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer, 2004), pp. 51-74Published by: The University of Notre DameStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40059952 .Accessed: 08/04/2011 06:19

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FROM THEPOWERANDTHEGLORYTO THEHONORARYONSUL:THE DEVELOPMENTOFGRAHAM GREENE'SCATHOLICIMAGINATION

MarkBosco,SJ

GrahamGreene: atholic r Post-Catholic?In a book-length nterviewwithMarie-FrangoiseAllain late in GrahamGreene's ife,Greene described he imaginative oleCatholicismplayed nhis long writing career by alluding to his literaryhero Henry James:"There does exist a patternin my carpetconstitutedby Catholicism,butone has to stand back in orderto make it out" (Allain159).It is a fittingmetaphor or the manner n whichCatholicism'sdifferences often inscribedin manyof Greene'scharacters,plotsand theme.If Catholicismn not theveryfabricof manyof his texts,it is alwaysa threadthathelpsto bind his

literarypreoccupationsnto a recognizablepattern.With the success of Brightonock1939),Graham Greene enteredintohis most productiveyears of writing, producinga series of novels thatexploredthe boundariesand loyaltiesof religiousfaith as understood nthe dimensionsof the Catholic consciousnessof his characters.In thissameperiodcriticsbegan callingGreene a "Catholicnovelist,"a label thatinadvertentlyworkedto mark the restrictionsof his talent. Reviewersofhis earliereight novels were amusedby this supposed religiousturn in anovelistwho had heretoforeshownmasteryfor melodrama and the psy-chological thrillerin such works as TheMan Within1929) and StanboulTrain1932). The themes in Greene'searlynovels,beset with criminalsand conspirators,alienatedprotagonistsand their betrayalof loyalties,R&L36.2 (Summer2004) 51

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52 Religion& Literature

actually find expression in all his great novels of this middle period: theCatholic Pinkie in BrightonRock,who conspires to marry Rose in the falloutof a gang murder; the whiskey priest in The Powerand theGlory 1940), whobetrays his celibate vows by fathering a child; the convert Scobie in TheHeartof theMatter(1948), whose double loyalties to wife and mistress causehis suicide; and the adultery of Bendrix in The Endof theAffair 195 1)whoplays a game of loyalty and betrayal between his mistress, her husband,and her God. In each instance, Greene's use of Catholicism extends thepsychological and moral crisis of characters beyond their own deceptionand treachery, and places it in confrontation with God. Indeed, Greeneillustrates that one's faith and belief in God is as treacherous a place as theworld of politics and espionage.Because of this intense confrontation with religious interiority, earlycritics with a religious disposition had shown a reticence in accepting theparadoxical way Greene's Catholic imagination inverts and even subvertsthe formulas and doctrines of his faith. Many accused him of heresy inManichean andJansenist varieties. The space between the fallen nature ofGreene's characters and the mysterious, inscrutable grace of God was toowide a theological gap to be countenanced, and Greene's disdain fortraditional expressions of Catholic faith and piety portrayed throughouthis novels proved troubling to many in the pre-Vatican II discourses of theCatholic Church. Indeed, Greene's most famous novel, The Powerand theGlory,was for a time on the Church's Index of Forbidden Books. Criticsimplicitly questioned the veracity of Greene's Catholicism because of theway he transgressed the boundaries of Catholic orthodoxy. As RogerSharrock notes, Greene the convert was continually compared at this timewith Catholic novelist Francois Mauriac, who "with the faith in his bonesand a known, convincing regional background, was able to escape heresy.But did Greene's [faith] really exist or was it not the product of a personaltrauma?" (Sharrock 14).Other critics who show a secularistprejudice have claimed that Greene'sCatholic novels show little originality and rely on religious dogmas as adevice merely to heighten the melodramatic effects of his stories into acontrived seriousness. The religious struggles are viewed as false in termsof contemporary expressions of the psychological novel. If Catholic criticswere hesitant to accept Greene's Catholic imagination during this most"Catholic" period of his career, secular critics took Greene to task forobscuring his humanism with religious tensions.1 Indeed, since Greene'slater novels eschewed the interiorized theological consciousness of hisearlier Catholic characters, commentators have been quick to divide his

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MARKBOSCO,SJ 53work into a Catholic and a post-Catholic period, with political andpostcolonial concerns as the moral barometer of his later novels.Robert Pendleton for instance, argues that Greene's Catholic novelswere but a psychological and stylistic detour from his "Conradianmasterplot," a perhaps unconscious attempt by Greene to create a genrethat set him apart from the overt homage his thrillers owed to Conrad'snarrative themes and protagonists. Pendleton suggests that Greene's nov-els operate as "deviations" and "misplaced repetitions" of Conrad'sinteriorized thrillers (Pendleton 5). And Cates Baldridge, in an otherwisenuanced discussion of the conception of God in Greene's novels, con-cludes that Greene created his own idiosyncratic and powerful religioussystem that, seen over the accumulation of his novels, divested itself of anyorthodox form of Catholicism, so that "his novels of the fifties and beyondare in an undeniable sense 'post-Catholic' novels and even 'post-Chris-tian'" (Baldridge 129). Baldridge argues that Greene's deity is imagined asone in the midst of cosmic entropy, a God who never triumphs in theworld, much less in the human person.2What is strikingabout both Pendleton and Baldridge's argument is howit returns to the Protestant English interdisciplinary tradition- the heri-tage of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, George Eliot, andMatthew Arnold- that stressesin literature the absence of God, or at leastGod's virtual impotence and demise in the modern world of Enlighten-ment rationalism, science and philosophical idealism. Also missing inmuch of the discussion that marks Greene's novels into religious andsecular categories is any appreciation by such critics of the theologicalcentrality of Catholic mediation, specifically in the person of Christ and inthe sacramental vision of Catholicism. And rarely,if ever,does the literarycriticism question the relevance of developments in Roman Catholicismthat resulted from the Second Vatican Council on Greene's artistic imagi-nation. Indeed, the evidence to do so comes in countless interviews andessays in which Greene continues to engage the social teaching of Catholi-cism and post-Vatican II theological texts, as well as in the subject andtheme of most of the novels written in the last decades of his life.3Apost-VaticanI Catholicmagination?

Catholic theology before Vatican II was often a hermetic, scholasticendeavor that stressed the individual's status before God in terms of moralprecepts and ritual obligations. The revival of Thomism in the earlytwentieth century began a conscious dialogue between the Church and the

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philosophyand culture of modernity,arguingthat the Church'sphilo-sophicaland theological synthesishad an importantrole to play in bothsocial and political aspects of society.With the advent of the SecondVatican Council (1962-1965), a dramatic shift in theological emphasisaffectedthe practiceand attitudes oward Catholic belief in a number ofimportantways.The Councilemphasizeda theological"perspectiverombelow,"a methodologywhich stressedGod'smanifestation f graceon thehorizontalplane of humanrelationshipswithin and without the Church.The secular concerns of society,even the mostprofaneof them, becamepossibleways o the sacred.Thisemphasiss noted nrenewedChristologicalconcerns that stressed he humanityof Christ as its startingpoint, and inthe emphasison communaljustice over personalacts of charityin theChurch's ocialteaching.Perhapsmore profoundwas the reorientationof the sacramentality fCatholicism, o thatsacramentsare neither to be isolated n ritualactionsstemming romanintermediatingpriest,nor confinedto the functionalisminherent in the theological concept of ex opere perate "by the workworked" a claim that the sacramentsbestow God'sgraceinvirtue of theperformanceof the sacramentalaction.The Council affirmed hatGod'sgraceintervenesnot onlyin thepriest's unctionsbutin the diffusionof allthe baptized members of the church community.All forms of humaninteractionwith the world have the possibilityof being sacraments,de-finedas a visiblesignof God's invisiblereality.The Council clearly rejected the body-and-souldualism of humannature that was partof aspectsof the legacy of Catholicthought.In anattemptat a more holisticunderstanding aking seriously he doctrine ofthe Incarnation, he body is not portrayedas at warwith the soul;ratherthe bodyand the soulareconsubstantial,acredco-constituents f humanlife.The divine is foundin the endeavorsof the body,so that the spirituallife must be understood n part as the strivingof the body, ust as bodilydesiresmust be understood as a possible path for the soul. This addedtheologicalemphasison the human body groundedthe Church'spost-Vatican II social teachings on the dignity of the human person, thesacramentalnatureof human work,and the call forjustice to meet thephysicalas well as the spiritualneeds of people.Finally,there was a reorientationof the Church'sself-understandingand its relationship o the outsideworld. The documents of the Councilcontinuallystressedthe "pilgrim"natureof the church as a "peopleofGod,"implying hat it was at the sametimeholyand sinful,needingto beconstantly renewed. As to the situation of the world, the documents

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MARKBOSCO,SJ 55recognizedthe need for a criticalreadingof the "signsof the times"inwhich the Church might more fully enter into the political and socialstrugglesof peoples.Itreinterpretedheteachingextra cclesiamulla alusno salvationoutsidethe Church realizing hat the Church as institutionis not solelythe Church of Christ,and so not the sole arbiterof salvation.Indeed, the Council makesexplicitthat non-Christianreligionsmay alsoserveas instrumentsof salvation.4It is true that after Greene'spublicationof A Burnt-Out ase n 1961,Greene extricatedhimself from the stylisticintensityof his character'sCatholicinteriorityas the primaryfocus for formulating he crisesin hisnovels.Whethera character's ctionscontributed o hispersonalsalvationor damnationwas no longerthe paramount ssue; rather,Greene'sfocusturnedto human action derivingfrompoliticalrelationships hat allego-rized thehumanstruggle n economicand moral terms.Most criticismhasseen this as a "post-Catholic"maneuveron Greene'spart, a turn awayfrom the imaginativeworld of Catholicism.Yet Greene'sartisticconfron-tationwith his religious maginationparallels he developments n Catho-lic theology,doctrineandliturgysince VaticanII. When Greenereturns oexplicitlyreligiousthemes in his later novels,his Catholic imagination sengaged in a dialogue with both the political concerns as well as thereligiouscrisesof belief that have become partof the CatholicChurch'sown experiencesincethe end of the Council.I am not suggesting hatGreene waswritingthesenovelswith Catholicsocial teachings and doctrinalcontroversies n mind. In fact, Greene'sconcern for the "humanfactor"is not necessarilyalwaysembodied inCatholicism.What I am suggesting s that to compartmentalizeGreene'swork nto a Catholicandpost-Catholicperiodbetrays he organic growthof his religious maginationand his literaryartistryas he lived in tensionwith his religiousfaith in the last half of the twentieth century.Therestrictivengredientsof the historicalgenreof the Catholicnovel obfus-cate a considerationof the way his Catholic imaginationcontinues toframe his work. Greene's ironic stance toward the use of theologicalcategoriesin these later novels does not remove the issues of faith andbelief fromthem,buttransposes hemintopoliticaland socialconcerns nwhich ustice,salvation,even the mysteryof divinegrace,mightbe mani-fested. Where Catholicismwas more monolithic in his earliernovels, itnow becomespartof a dialoguewith the contemporary ituationsof histexts. To this end, I want to look a little more closely at the shape ofGreene'sCatholicismand then turn to two of his novels that show thecontinuityand the developmentof his Catholic imagination.I want to

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suggest that comparing The Powerand the Glory(1940) and The HonoraryConsul1973) llustrateshow Greene'sreligious maginationhad shiftedhisemphases n the intervening hirty-five earsthat saw the greatestchangein the Catholic Church n centuries.The Contoursof Greene'sCatholicImagination:1940 and 1973

Greene's conversionto Catholicismdid not happen in a vacuum,andthe simple rejoinder hat he converted o marryVivienDayrell-Browningbelies the complexmannerin which CatholicismengagedGreene'sexpe-rience of life throughouthis long literarycareer.The preoccupationsofhis religious maginationare illustrative f the problemsand preoccupa-tions which have formed the consciousnessof much of the twentiethcentury,and his Catholicvision is always n dialoguewith the culturalandpoliticalworldin whichhe finds himself.It is important hen to begin bychartingcertainof these characteristics f "Greeneland,"he term oftenused to describe the existentialand religiousgeographyof Greene'snov-els.

All the mostimportant hings n a writer's ife,Greene oftendeclared ninterviews,happenedduring he firstsixteenyears.It seemstrueof Greene,for his creativitywas shaped by the literaryheritageof the VictorianandEdwardianage that was a stapleof his early reading.He greatlyadmiredthe novelsof HenryJames andJoseph Conrad, the adventurestories ofRider Haggard,the detectivestoriesof G. K. Chesterton,and the manyworksof RobertLouisStevenson,a familyrelationon his mother's ide. Inhis Collectedssays 1970),Greene shows his appreciationof each of thesewriters n the formativeyearsof his imagination.His love of the politicalthrillerand theadventurestoryowesmuch to Conrad,andhisfocus on theinterior tensions in the consciousness of his characters owes much toJames. Further,Greene'searly years were markedby his discomfort atschool the divided loyaltybetween his father the Headmaster and hisschoolmates, he loss of privacy, he acts of betrayal,and the antiauthori-tarian strain of adolescence.All these contributed to his sense of theprecariousnessof his life and the world'sinjustices.Greene'sreligiousimaginationis so deeply grounded in these early experiencesthat theyshowup thematically n all of his mostdeeplyfelt work.Though he often disparagedhis youthfulconversion o Catholicismasmerelypragmatic, twasnevertheless n importantact.This had the effectof positioninghim in a religious, ntellectualhistorythat enabled him tocritiquethe comfortable iberalismof his EnglishProtestantroots at the

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MARKBOSCO,SJ 57same time that it offered supportfor his creative turn to the religiousinteriorityof his characters.In effect, Greene found in Catholicism adoctrinaland imaginativediscoursethatwas compatiblewith his earliestexperiencesandgavehimsome criticalobjectivityn crafting he contoursof his own creativity.Whether as a novelist,playwright, ournalist, oressayist,Greene demonstrates hat Catholicismgavehim a point of viewthroughouthis long career.LikemanyBritish ntellectualswho convertedduringthistime,Greenefound solace and support n his readingof John Henry Newman. In theepigraphto his travelbook on Mexico, TheLawlessRoads1939),Greenequotes from Newman's ApologiaPro VitaSua:

The defeat of good, the success of evil, physical pain, mental anguish, theprevalence and intensity of sin, the pervading idolatries, the corruptions, thedreary hopeless irreligion ... inflicts upon the mind the sense of the profoundmystery which is absolutely beyond the human situation ... if there be a God, sincethere is a God, the human race is implicated in some terrible aboriginal calamity.

Greene's debt to Newman cannot be underestimated.His insightsarefound throughoutGreene'snarrativeworld, for like Newman, Greeneacceptsthe existenceof evil as a factof life,as the "wayof the world."InNewmanhe foundboth a theological ensand a groundforsupport or hisambiguousprofessionof faith,notingin an interview,"Asa writer, haveoften been criticizedby the pious.Newmananswers hem"(Cassis287).This "aboriginal alamity" s the world of "Greeneland," landscapefilled with lonely, pathetic, and sometimesmalevolentcharacters.Inci-dentsof pursuit,actsof violence,andvoluntaryand involuntarybetrayalpopulatea worldsetagainsta background f miseryandsqualor.Greene'scharacters ive as exiles or on the extremeedges of society,consciousoftheirfailureand theirbetrayalsof one anotherand, often,of their faithinGod. Throughouthis texts the eschatologicalcertaintiesof both Chris-tianityand Marxistideology are alwaysthwartedby the inevitabilityoffailure.Greenelandis thus an uncomfortableplace for both bourgeoisreligious piety Catholic and Protestant as well as Marxist ideology,preciselybecauseof the optimisticassumptionsabouthumannature andtheeschatologicalUtopiashatpervadeboththesepositions. ndeed,Greeneimpliesthatonly the hopelesscauses thatengagecharactersareworthyofallegiance,specificallybecause they are unlikelyto succeed. Failure,asTerryEagletonclaims,is the one legitimateform of victoryin Greene'snovels, suggestingthat the doctrine of the Incarnationfinds its textualembodimentnot so much in humancreativity, ut in humanfailure thetragic,radically allen natureof humanity(Eagleton114-15).

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Though Eagleton overstates the situation, it is true that the primaryreligious nsightthat is sustained hroughoutGreene'sreligious andscapeis the Christiandoctrineof the elix culpa,he happyeffect of humansin asthe causeof God'sgracemanifested n the Incarnation o an individualora community.The Incarnation is revealed to characterswhen they dis-cover that their sins or their suffering bring them into an analogicalrelationshipwith the sufferingGod in Christ. Even in Greene's leastovertly religiousnovels,his protagonistsexperiencesuch a manifestationor Joycean "epiphany."His reluctant and often degraded heroes areennobledbythewayinwhichtheycome to understandandface their ownfailure and/or worthlessnessbefore God or before those to whom theyhave committed hemselves.There isalwaysa dialectical train n Greene'sreligious magination, hen, a criticalresponse o what Greene consideredthe major flaw of his Protestantheritage:the denial of this aboriginalcalamitythatcompromisesall of the noblestof humanaspirations.Greene'sreligious magination s also centered on the tensionbetweenbelief and unbelief,mirroring hroughhis novelsthe epistemologicalandexistentialdilemmas of his century.In thisway he is in parta productofthe Enlightenmentand liberal establishment,privilegingdoubt as thepremierevirtue of humanity,claimingthat, "doubt ike the conscience isinherent n human nature . . perhaps heyare the samething" Yours,Etc.225). Orthodoxy,or "rightbelief," s alwaysopen to doubt,because thereis never only one perspectivein which to understandtruth, and it isinevitablyopen to mystery.Greenesubversively utsthisostensibly ecularvirtueat the serviceof a Catholicsensibility.He oftenhighlights he virtueof doubtin the concludingremarks f manyof hisnovels,whereina priestcomments on the possibilityof redemption or the hero/antihero.This remarkusuallycomes at the expense of complacent certitudesgiven by the institutionalChurch. In the final pages of TheHeartof theMatter1948),forexample,Louiseworriesthat Scobie's suicide sendshimto hell, to which Fr.Rank,the parishpriest,answers,"The Churchknowsall the rules.But it doesn't knowwhat goes on in a singlehuman heart"(272).And in as late a novel asMonsignoruixote1982),the priest-herohasa disturbingdreamin which he watchesChristget off the crossbefore hispersecutors,makingthe whole worldknow with certaintythat he is theSon of God. As the priestawakenshe feels "the chill of despairfelt by aman who realizedsuddenlythat he has takenup a professionwhich is ofuse to no one . . . who must livewithoutdoubt or faith,whereeveryone scertainthat the same belief is true"(70).So doubtbecomes a two-edgedsword orGreene'scharacters:t canallow forthe ineffableandmysterious

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MARKBOSCO,SJ 59workingof faith to be recognizedandhonored or it can leadto a rational-istic and ultimately kepticalstance towardhumanflourishing.Greene claimedin a late interviewthat he understood aith and beliefas two differentrealms: "WhatI distinguish s between faith and belief.One may have less belief as one growsolder but one's faith can say,'Yes,but you are wrong.'Belief is rational,faith is irrationaland one can stillcontinue to have an irrational aith when one's belief weakens"(Cassis334.) Greene locatesfaithin acceptanceof God and a trust n God's loveandmercy,where belief is foundin human rationalization ndinstitution-alization of God throughtheology and the Church.Doubt, whether inpolitical or religioussystems, is at the heart of the human enterprisebecause it checks any overt triumph of ideological excess. It suggestsGreene'saffinity o the dialecticalpowerof Kierkegaard's leapof faith,"wheretremblingself-doubt,placed in extreme situationson the precipiceof despair, s honored above any religiouspharisaismor political partyline, even if it means relinquishing he power or the comfort that comesfrom suchinstitutionalizedtructures.In thislight,arguing hatGreene has a discernibleCatholic maginationcannot meanthat Catholicdifferences always n reference o the Protestantintellectualandreligiousheritage rom which he came,thathisconversionto Catholicismand his imaginativeuse of it is a rejectionf his Englishculturalheritage.Rather,Greene'sreligious magination indsin Catholi-cisma perspective,a place to stand,and in doingso, a place to reflectandcritique he world,includingthe world of Catholicism.To use the theolo-gian David Tracy'sunderstandingof analogicaland dialecticalreligiouslanguage,we mightsaythatGreene,as a convert mbued with a modern,Protestant,iberalethos,hasa well-developeddialectical maginationcon-stantly challengingthe more precisely analogicaltendencies of his pro-fessedCatholicfaith.If, accordingto Tracy, he analogical magination sproneto an easyaccommodationof differences n its desire forsynthesis,order and harmony, the dialectical imagination becomes a propheticdiscourse hat focuseson humanuncertainty, egatesformulaicclaims onthe natureof faith and God, and emphasizes he self-destructiveorces atwork in the human heart.5Greene's texts constantlycriticize the self-satisfiedreligiouspietismhe foundin either Catholicismor liberal Protes-tantism,and excoriates he excessivelynstitutional ide of Catholicism orits certainty, ts triumphalism,and its tendency to compromisewith thepoliticalpowersandprincipalities f this world.Greene embodies, then, what the theologian Paul Tillich calls the"protestantprinciple," he "protestagainstthe tragic-demonic elf-eleva-

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60 Religion& Literaturetion of religion that liberates religion from itself for the other functions ofthe human spirit"(Tillich 245). Indeed, in a book-length interview Greeneclaims, "I fear that I'm a Protestant in the bosom of the Church" (Allain168). Greene's texts constantly enact this tension between the dialecticaland analogical language of religious faith, which influences many critics toargue that Greene's conversion never carried the full engagement of hisheart or head. As one who disagrees with that assessment, I find that thetransgressive play upon Catholicism in Greene's literary landscape- interms of Catholic orthodoxy and the Church's claim to certitude- neverreally denies the significance of his Catholic vision. Rather, this critiqueand transgression is purifying and deconstructive, a task of the dialecticaltendencies of his own complex religious imagination.Significantly, the Catholic Church performed its own purification andrenewal through the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council and inthe years following. The focus and thrust of Catholicism took on newparadigms to articulate its role in the world, showing an evolution, or inNewman's phrase, a "development" away from the Church's dialecticalstand against the Reformation and the concomitant antagonism to En-lightenment thought in western civilization to a more analogical standtoward political and religious communities outside Catholicism. Greeneinhabits this borderland too, a space in which his Catholic imaginationevolved as his experience and study of Catholicism evolved throughout hislife. Two novels may help to compare the evolving expression of Greene'sCatholic imagination, especially through the differing ways that the theol-ogy of Christ structures or ironizes the themes in the novel; the ways inwhich priesthood and the sacraments are understood in the texts; and therelationship of political ideology to religious faith.The Power and theGlory:1940

Greene's most famous novel re-enacts an archetypal story of pursuitand betrayal, specifically drawn in Catholic terms by making the chasemotif operate on two levels. The first is the fugitive priest attempting toescape from the pursuing forces of a political state in which Catholicism istreasonable and priesthood is punishable by death, the second the discov-ery that the priest is even more intensely pursued by the power of God'sgrace. From the opening scene when the nameless whiskey priest arrives atthe port from which he might have made an escape, the narrative followsthe priest'sjourney in which his own purgation and self-knowledge growsin direct proportion to his ability to minister to those Catholics in need of

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MARKBOSCO,SJ 61the sacraments.He knows himself to be a flawedpriestwho, in a stateofdrunkenness,has fathered a child, and havingbeen strippedof comfortand thepraiseof thepious,now livesin fear of being caughtandexecuted.He is tormentedbyhisplacingothers n political eopardywhentheyhidehim from the authoritiesand moraljeopardyby temptingthem to betrayhim formonetaryreward.His faithis tested anew at each place he hides from his pursuers.Afterarrivingat a relatively afeplace,he makesthe fatal choice to return o theprovince n order to hear the confessionof an Americangangster,ensur-ing his own arrest and execution. The novel ends with the ideologicalconflict between the priestand the pursuingatheistlieutenant,drawingout the novel'scentraloppositionsand ironies: oyaltyand betrayal,hopeand despair, uccessand failure, he desire forpeace and the necessityforsubversiveactivity.The morning of his execution, the priestbelieves hehas been a terribledisappointmentto God, yet the structureand thetextureof the story eave the readerwithno doubtof his sanctity.Greenemasterfullyconveys a strikinglycontemporaryhagiographythat has apopularand immediateappeal beyonditsreligioussignification.

The novel containsallthe obvious ngredientsof what is considered heclassic CatholicNovel. First,the whiskeypriestis the "sinnerat the heartof Christianity,"who realizes that Christ is intimately inkedwith everysinner:"Itwas for this worldthat Christdied;the more evilyou saw andheard aboutyou, the greaterglory layaroundthe death. .. It was too easyto die forwhat wasgood ... itneeded a God to die for the half-heartedandthe corrupt{ThePower nd heGlory 7). Second,thepriestparticipatedn a"mystical ubstitution," theological orm of scapegoat nwhichthepriesttakes upon his shouldersall the sins not only of the world, but of theChurch its corrupt eaders,its superstitions rightlypointed out to thepriest by the lieutenant. Third there is an extended criticism of thematerialistdeologyof the lieutenant,as when the priest's aithprivilegesthe dignityof the individual:"thatwas the difference . . between his [thepriest's] aithandtheirs,thepolitical eadersof thepeoplewho caredonlyforthings ikethe state,the republic: his child was more important hatawhole continent" 82).And the lieutenantcontemplates n Marxist ashionthat"Itwas for these [children]he wasfighting.. . He was quitepreparedto make a massacre for their sakes first the Church and then the for-eignerand thenthe politician" 58).Finally,God as the Hound of Heavenpursuing hepriestthroughthe labyrinthof his fallen naturestandsas thecentral religiouslens of the novel, exposing God's passionatelove andmercyin the leastexpectedof places.

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62 Religion& LiteratureOther manifestationsof Greene's Catholicimaginationat workin thenovel that decidedly locate his theologicalvision in the Catholic worldbefore the SecondVaticanCouncil.The most striking s the way that theunderstanding f Christserves o illustrate profoundlyCatholicaestheticinwhichan individual sgraspedbythe formof Christandso isshapedbythat form. In TheGloryof theLord:A Theological esthetics(1982) the theolo-gian Hans Urs von Balthasar races this theologicalaestheticthroughoutChristianhistory and notes its prevalence in such French authors as

GeorgesBernanosand FrancoisMauriac,both novelistsof the EuropeanCatholic Revivalduringthe earlyhalf of the twentiethcentury.Greene'sfriendshipwith Mauriac and criticalreading of his work is well-docu-mented, and Greene appropriatesmany of the religiousthemesof theseFrench Catholic writers.In this theologicalaesthetic,Christbecomes, ineffect, the ultimate "Form"of God'sbeauty,not only radiating he tran-scendentalbeautyof AbsoluteBeing,but also expressing t in a definitiveway,even when hiddenin the mysteryandpainfulnessof the Cross.In thislight, the form of Christstands as the measureof all being, grantingasignificanceo all of creationbeyond tssingular ignificance.The believer'sparticipationn this Christ orm is a continualunfoldingof momentswhenBeauty,hidden in the uglinessand terror of life, shines forth. Ultimateparticipation s granted to the believer through the freely chosen self-sacrificemade out of love forsuchbeauty.6Greene'sspecificgenius s the imaginativewayhe placesthis aestheticatwork n the wastelandgeographyof a persecutedChurch n Mexico. Thewhiskeypriest undergoesa change of vision throughhis sinfulnessandsuffering.What he first thinksugly the poor, the prison hostages,themestizocompanionwho betrayshim are now seen as manifestations fGod'spresence.True to the notion of the "happy ault"of Adam'ssin,thepriest's piritualenlightenmentcomes not because he disavowsor escapeshis sinfulness,butpreciselybecauseof it. In beingbrought ow he sees thebeauty of Christshiningforth or, as the priestreflects,in "the shock ofhumanlove"atwatchinghisillegitimatedaughter.Keyto this understand-ing is the priest'sanalogicalunderstanding f the similarityn the dissimi-larityof everyonehe meets.As he attemptsto flee the mestizo,the priestruminates,"atthe centerof his own faith therealwaysstood the convinc-ing mystery thatwe weremadein God'simage.Godwasparent,but Hewas also the policeman, the criminal, the priest, the maniac, and thejudge" (101). While in prison he is moved with affection for his fellowprisoners,noting that "he wasjust one criminalamong a herd of crimi-nals. .. He hada sense of companionshipwhichhe had neverexperienced

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MARK BOSCO, SJ 63in the old days when pious people came kissinghis black cotton glove"(128). And when a woman complains to him about the surroundingugliness, he priestvoices the heart of a theologicalaesthetic:

Such a lot of beauty.Saints talk about the beauty of suffering.Well,we are notsaints,you and I. Suffering o us isjust ugly.Stench and crowdingandpain. Thatis beautiful n that corner to them. It needs a lot of learningto see thingswith asaint'seye:a saintgetsa subtletaste forbeauty. ..When [they]sawthe lines at thecornersof theeyes,theshapeof the mouth,how the hairgrew, t wasimpossible ohate.Hate wasjust a failureof imagination.(130-31)The novel climaxeswith the whiskeypriest participating ullyin the formof Christby returning o thewoundedcriminal,an act of compassionanda commitmentto thatwhich he now sees as trulybeautiful.His executionis a finalparticipationn the Cross,and the text impliesthe full statureofthe religiousaestheticin the finalpages of the novel. In thisway Greeneactualizesa distinctlyCatholic tradition of an analogical aesthetic, ofputtingon the form of Christ as the standardof one's true self beforeGod.There is not only the symbolicweightof the alterChristusplaced uponthe characterof thewhiskeypriest.If he standsasa representative f whatsainthoodmightlooklikein Greene'sreligious magination,he also servesas the primarymediatorof the presenceof God throughhis sacramentalservice. Greene'spriest charactersare ontological in nature they aredifferentand set apart not in moral virtue,but in virtue of their ritualfunctions. Such is true of the whiskey priest. When the young CoralFellowsasks the priest why he does not simply renounce his faith, heanswers,"It'simpossible.There's no way. I'm a priest. It's out of mypower"(40).Even PadreJose, who hasmarriedhis housekeeperand tries

to live comfortably, uffers he pangsof consciencein betrayingwho andwhat he is before God. Acutely aware of the disjunctionbetween hispriestlydutyandhis own moralfailure, hewhiskeypriestnotes that "aftera time the mysterybecametoo great,a damnedmanputtingGod intothemouthsof men:an odd sortof servant, hat, for the devil"(60).When hetries to offerprayers or a dead infant,he can find nothingmeaningful osay,yetrealizes hat"the Hostwas different . . that was a fact somethingyou could touch"(151).And in his final conversationwith the lieutenant,he retorts,"it doesn'tmatterso muchmy beinga coward and all the rest.I canputGodintoa man'smouth ust the same andI cangivehim God'spardon. It wouldn'tmake any difference to that if every priest in theChurch was like me" (195). This sense of a functional ex opere perate

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expresses he ontologicaldifferenceof both thepriesthoodand its mediat-ing function thatpervadesGreen'sCatholicimagination.On the surfaceof the text, the sacramentalaction of the priestis thesole vehicle to make God's grace presentto the world,a religiousvisionthat fits quite comfortably n the traditional Catholic sensibilityof theearlytwentiethcentury.This understandingof priesthood emphasizesaverticalrelationship o God in which allparticipate hroughthe actionsofthe priest. Greene'simaginationfocuses on the stable mediationof thesacraments, pecificallyof Confession and Eucharist,as a means to saveone's own soul. At first glance, a pietisticand privateunderstandingofsalvation is affirmed in the text. Twice the whiskeypriest voices suchthoughts:"The Churchtaughtthat it waseveryman'sfirstdutyto savehisown soul"(65),and later,"Ihave to get to shelter a man'sfirstdutyis tohimself eventhe Churchtaughtthat,in a way"(155).Andyetthese serveas ironicstatements, orpartof the priest'sgrowthcomes in rejecting hecatechetical eachingsof his Churchbecausetheyact to truncatehis faithand hisability o care for thosein need of his consolationquapriest.So thetext stressesdialectical,deconstructiveanguageof the priest's nsights nthe midst of hisexperienceof the analogicalsacramentalanguageof hisfaith. The tension is alwaysthere between the primacyof faith over asuspectinstitutionalization f that faith, and the mediatingvision of thepriest's acramental ole over a politicalState whose aim is to suppress hatrole.A finalaspectof Greene'sreligious maginationemerges n theideologi-cal conflict between a persecuted Catholicism and a ruthless,secularsocialism.This conflict structures he entire novel. The lieutenant,de-scribedthroughoutthe text as priest-like n his cause to help the poor,desires to obliterate the Church even if it means shooting hostages toensurethe captureof the priest.Forhim, the loss of life is a smallpricetopay in orderto be sociallyprogressive,or the Church and God seemsto support only the toleration of the abject poverty of the poor. Thewhiskeypriestresponds o the lieutenantwithan argument hat still causemanycritics o cringe:"We'vealwayssaid thepoorare blessedand the richare going to find it hard to get into heaven.Why shouldwe makeit hardfor thepoormantoo? . . . Whyshouldwe givethepoor power?It'sbettertolet himdie in dirt and wakein heaven so longas we don'tpushhis faceinthe dirt"(199).Yet thisquietism s temperedby a latentpoliticaltheologyinwhichthepolitical s conveyedon thepersonal evel.The whiskeypriestarticulates he temptationto abstraction nherent in secularprogressivepoliticsof the time. He attemptsto convince his young daughterof her

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MARK BOSGO, SJ 65

personal worth over any political notion of the human person: "I love you.I am your father and I love you. Try to understand that you are soimportant.... You must take care of yourself because you are so neces-sary.The president up in the capital goes guarded by men with guns- butmy child you have all the angels of heaven" (82). In the end, the timelyarrival of the priest's replacement in the book's final pages suggests thatthe ideological battle will be won, one person at a time.Greene's Catholic imagination is fully engaged in the text; it is withoutdoubt his novel that most closely resonates with the classical descriptionsof the Catholic novel. Catholicism stands as a mythic and almost monologicvoice, valorized in explicit ways in both style and structure. ThoughGreene's dialectical theological vision is present, there is no doubt of acertain and hard-won "glory" that permeates the novel. There is a tri-umph of faith at the expense of the political world. In this way, Greene'sconversion to Catholicism and experience of faith mirrors the theologicaldiscourse of his times. In his later novels, the mythic and monologicalvoice of Catholicism is attenuated. Just as Catholicism attempted to speakmore openly to the modern world at the Second Vatican Council, Greene'sreligious imagination reflects more dialogic and ambitious contours. TheHonoraryConsul mbodies these concerns.The HonoraryConsul: 1973

The HonoraryConsulnarrates the tyranny, corruption, terrorism, andoverwhelming poverty that are part of the Latin American political worldat the end of the twentieth century.The novel is a subtle and accomplishedvariation on Greene's continuing theme of the pursuit of personal salva-tion, but enacted in a more sophisticated political landscape. On thesurface it is about adultery,betrayal, a botched political kidnapping, and abrutal shootout. Yet Greene returns to his preoccupation with religiousfaith and the many nuances of belief, disbelief, and unbelief that charac-terize the thematic material of his earlier novels. But here and in all of hislater novels, the religious matrix has a decidedly different feel than in hisprevious works. It is more diffuse and tentative, less explicit and mono-lithic, in a more mutual dialogue with the time's social and politicalrealities.Eduardo Plarr is a doctor who lives in both physical and psychologicalexile in a border town between Argentina and Paraguay.Plarr is both OldWorld and New World, half British from his father,and half Paraguayan/Spanish from his mother. His father, a native Englishman, had been

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66 Religion& Literaturedevoted to liberationpoliticsin Paraguay.Forced o leave his fatherat theage of fourteen,he and his mother have livedin relativesafetyin Argen-tina.Plarrvenerateshis father'smemoryand nurtures he hope that he isstill alive in a Paraguayanprison. He feels the guilt of his middle-classcomfortand,in honorof hisfather,devoteshis medical service o thepoor.Apart from this one act of solidarity,Plarris emotionallycut off fromothers, nvolvinghimselfonlyinlovelessrelationshipswithmarriedwomen,an exile fromany communityand anyform of politicalor religiousbelief.

His self-absorbed, omfortablepeace is shatteredwhen he becomes anaccomplicein a politicalkidnappinggone awry.A group of rebels fromParaguayplanto abduct the visitingAmerican ambassadorand hold himhostage in exchange for political prisoners.Plarr agrees to help thembecausetwo of the rebels are childhood friendswho assurehim that hisfather spartof thebargained-for elease.Yet he believes ittlewillcome ofthe plan because the kidnappersare such novices.They end up kidnap-pingthe wrongman, CharleyFortnum,who servesas an honoraryBritishconsultravelingwiththe ambassador.Charley s the cuckoldwhoseyoungwife, Clara,ispregnantwithPlarr's hild. So whatbeginsas a simplefarceforPlarrsoonturns nto an awkwardandultimatelyhorrifying pisode.AsPlarrtries to find a way out of the debacle forall involved,he is shot andkilledby the militarypolice.Plarrmost resembles he typicalcharacterwhopopulatesGreene's aternovels thejaded rationalistwho casts an ironicglance at the wastelandof modern life. Given his clinicalnature and inabilityto love, he merelydismisses ife as an absurdity.Plarrfearsthe "cordof love,"claimingthatlove "is not a word in my vocabulary" 242).Only throughhis conversa-tions with Leon Rivas, the formerpriestwho leads the rebels,and withCharleyFortnum, he woundedhostagewhom Plarrtries to save,does hegradually earn that his lack of love is itself a sicknessthat he has diag-nosed incorrectly.By the end of the novel, love becomes for Plarrnot somuch an expressionof sentiment but an act of courage.He learns thatpain and fear are not merely medical and emotional problems to beconqueredbut areessentialaspectsof one'shumanity.Plarrsubmits n theend to the irrationaldemands of his heart. In a heroic act to bringpeaceand reconciliationhe risksand loses his life to end the standoff.

Though Plarrconsidershis Catholic faithonly a historical ootnote tohisJesuiteducation,he is giventhe time and spacein the rebel hideout todiscoverthat faith might not be such an absurdity.He first torments hisfriend Leonwithmetaphysicalquestionsaboutthe ex-priest's xotic theo-logicalviews,yethe realizes hatwhat hisloss of faithhasreallyeffected n

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MARK BOSCO, SJ 67him is a loss of hope in a morejust future.Listening o the formerpriest,he is forced to face that "I can no longer mock a man for his beliefs,howeverabsurd. canonly envythem"(232).As he envies Leon'scommit-ment to a religiousvision, he is equally envious of CharleyFortnum'sgenuinelovefor hiswife, Clara,even after t is exposedthat she and Plarrwere havingan affair.Leon's commitment to justice and Charley'scom-mitment to lovepermitsPlarr o imaginethe existence of God as "agreatjokersomewherewho likes to givea twist to things" 249).

If DoctorPlarr s Greene's ncarnationof thedoubtingcynicthrust ntoconversion rom unbelief to tentativebelief,LeonRivas is thepostcolonialdescendent of Greene'swhiskeypriest of The Powerand theGlory.Theflawedpacifistpriestof the persecutedChurchof 1930s Mexico is trans-formedinto the liberationistpriestof violent actionin TheHonoraryonsulLeon is a militantrevolutionarywho preachesa gospel of freedom fromboth the tyrannyof the institutionalChurch as well as from her alliancewith capitalismand despoticregimes.Rearedin upper-middle lass com-fortin Paraguay, e rebelsagainsthis own politicallycompromised atherand searches for identity as a priest of the poor and the oppressed.Despairingof the Churchand his own effectiveness sa priest,he leaves t,marriesa peasantwoman namedMarta,and becomesan amateurrebel.In FatherLeon, Greenecaptures he religiousupheaval n Latin Americaand thedevelopmentof liberation heologythat occurredafter heVaticanCouncil.As with thewhiskeypriestof ThePowernd heGlory,Greene continues oconveyan ontologicalcharacter o Leon'spriesthood, or even thoughhehasexiledhimself from the Church,Leon is stillverymucha priest n theeyes of most people, even his wife. When an elderlyman searchesfor apriest in the barriowhere the rebelsare hiding, Leon's

wife chides himsaying,"Ithinkyou shouldhavegone withthe poorman, Father.His wifeis deadand thereis no priestto helphim"(206).And unaware hatLeon isa formerpriest,CharleyFortnumobserveshim cookingbreakfast,notingthat "ashe held two half shellsover the pan therewas somethingin theposition of his fingerswhich remindedFortnumof that moment at thealtarwhen a priestbreaksthe Host over the chalice"(126).As much asLeon correctshis wife and triesto wear the mask of a revolutionary, e isstill confrontedwith the aesthetic and ontological apprehensionof hisvocationas priest.

If priesthood s stillthemain conduitof God'sgrace a verticaldescentinto the sacramental unctionsof priestlyservice it is no longerthe onlyconduit of such grace. Greene's theological imaginationbroadens the

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waysin which the presenceof God is mediated,yet, in a veryGreene-likemanner,he diffuses he priestly unction into the threemaincharactersofthe novel. His charactersperform the role of priest for one another,offeringcompassionand committed service to each other.EduardoPlarr,Leon Rivas, and CharleyFortnum,all disenfranchisedor disinterestedCatholics,realize o theirsurprise hat their conversations nd actionswithone another have a priest-likecast to them. When Charley questionsFr.Leon aboutwhyhe married, he textpointsto the inversionof sacramen-tal functions:"[Leon]saidin a low voice (hemighthave been kneeling nthe confessionalbox himself), I thinkit was angerand loneliness,SenorFortnum"(132). As the execution time nears, Leon urges Charley toreceivethe sacramentof confession,inadvertently nding up confessinghis sins to Charley.And Greene drawsa profoundly ronicimplicationofthis shared ministrywhen Plarr and Leon meet their death. Plarr,thecynicalman of science who hasjust riskedhis life for the sake of others, sdrawninto the discursiveorbit of the practiceof the priesthood.In theirfinalwords to each other,theyperformthe Catholicformulaof contritionand absolution, each voicing the other's role, so that Fr. Leon is thepenitentand Plarr s minister:

"Lie still," Doctor Plarr said. "If they see either of us move they may shootagain. Don't speak.""I am sorry ... I beg pardon ..." [said Leon]

"Egote absolvo" Doctor Plarr whispered in a flash of memory. (264)Both Leon and Plarr's inalwords beforetheir death intimatea sharing nthe mediation of God'sgrace, a perhapsironicportrayalof the "priest-hood of all people" which was a central theme of the documents ofVatican II. Here grace is surprisinglymanifestedon the horizontalplaneof theircareand forgivenessof each other.The doctrineof Christ s imaginativelyunderstood n ThePower nd heGlorys a theologicalaestheticof transformationnto an alterChristus.helowlywhiskeypriestis raisedup in a participationwith Christwho sacri-ficeshimself forlove'ssake.In TheHonoraryonsul,hedoctrineof Christ srendered n terms of the humanstruggle orjustice.TheJesusof humanhistoryis given precedenceover the high Christologiesof faith, echoingmuchpost-VaticanII theologicalscholarship.Salvation n Christ s seeninterms of liberationof the poor from those systemsand structures hatperpetuateinjusticesof class and race. Greene'sreligiousfusion of faithwith politicalaction marks all his works,and it is not surprising hat hewouldfindcomfortand affinitywith LatinAmerican iberationtheologies

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MARKBOSCO,SJ 69thatdevelopedafterthe VaticanCouncil. GustavoGutierrez, he fatherofliberation theology, published his English translation of A Theology fLiberationn 1973, the same year Greene published TheHonorary onsul.Greene'sextensivevisits to LatinAmerica,hisfriendshipwith liberationistpriests,and his own theologicalandpolitical nterestsneatly ntersectwiththe LatinAmerican Church'sreadingof the "signsof the times."7Nowhere is this intersection more evident than in the dialogue ofliberationtheologywith Marxism. Liberation heologyuses the contem-porary oolsof the socialsciences,at timesborrowingelementsof Marxistsociologicalanalysis o providea theoreticalexplanation or the existenceof injustice. n thetheologicaland hermeneuticaluseof the word"praxis,"liberationtheologians argue that only action leads to the possibilityforpersonaland communaltransformation, ivingvalue and truth to humanagency.As Gutierrezobserves,"Liberationheologywouldsaythat God isfirstcontemplatedand practiced,and only then thoughtabout. What wemeanby thisis thatworshippingGod and doinghiswill are the necessaryconditionfor thinkingabout him" (Gutierrez28). If orthodoxyreferstothose "correctbeliefs"that traditionallyunctionas normativefor Chris-tians,liberation heologystresses he importanceof orthopraxis,or "cor-rect action," as the most basic norm of Christian faith. In this wayGreene'stheologicalconcern mirrors o a considerableextent liberationtheology'sfocus on orthopraxisas the normativestandard or authenticfaith,forhis textsconsistently uggest hat "correctbelief"playsa subordi-nate role in the faith of his charactersand that "correctpractice" s whatdistinguisheshe religious rom the non-religiousperson.The theological and political vision of the novel is most clearly ex-pressed n the formalizeddialoguebetweenFr.Leon and Dr. Plarr.Leonexplains to Plarr that he followed his conscience against the outrighthypocrisyandcomplicityof the institutionalChurch,andleft itstrappingsof privilegeand socialposition.Yethe is stilla man of somereligious aith:"Inever eftthe Church.Mine is onlya separation,Eduardo,a separationby mutualconsent, not a divorce.I shall neverbelong wholly to anyoneelse. Not even to Marta" (232). With a bit of fatalism,Leon states aprofoundunderstandingof the Church as sacrament:"How can I leavethe Church?The Church is the world. The Church is this barrio,hisroom"(213). Where Plarr is trappedin his memory of a lost father andcynical about any future hope in finding him, Leon sees the historicalmovementof the Churchand revolutionarypoliticsas reason for hope.Merginga Marxistanalysisof historywith his religiousfaith, he claims,"The Churchlivesin time too ... I think sometimesthe memoryof that

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man, thatcarpenter, an lift a fewpeopleout of the temporaryChurchofthese terribleyears,when the Archbishopsits down to dinnerwith theGeneral, nto the greatChurchbeyondour time andplace"(233).It is thememoryof "thatman,"the human face of Jesusproclaiminga kingdomof justice,which becomes the focus of Leon'sfaith.As the kidnappers' ituationgets more desperate,Leon is questionedabouthis motives,forcinghim to speculateon the relationshipof God tohumanityin unorthodoxdualisms.In doing so, he misappropriatesheunderstandingof the ImagoDei into an ImagoHominis.n his view, thedialectical struggle of good and evil in human nature is reflectedontologicallyin God the Father,so that there must come about "theredemptionof God as well as of Man." He argues hat"[God]made us inHis image and so our evil is His evil too. How could I love God if Hewere not likeme? Divided like me?Tempted ike me?"(239).Since God,accordingto Leon, has a "day-side"of goodness and a "night-side"ofevil, God needs humanity in order for God to evolve into completegoodness.He tellsPlarr,"Ibelievein Christ. ... I believein the Cross andtheRedemption. . . God'sgood intention or once wascompletely ulfilledso that the night-sidecan never win more than a little victoryhere andthere"(240).Human actions and God'sactivityare linked so that "everyevil act of oursstrengthensHis night-side,and every good one helpsHisday-side.Webelongto Him and He belongsto us. Butnowat least we canbe surewhere evolution will end one day it will end in a goodnesslikeChrist's"240). The imageof a sufferingGod implicated n evil seems tobe the only image the priestcan findwhich bringsGod close enough togivepeople couragein a revolutionary ituation.And yet the theology of revolutionaryviolence ultimately collapseswhen Leonrefuses o killthe innocenthonoraryconsul for the sake of therevolution.His theologicalimage of a ManicheanGod of good and evilproves o be an idol, for as DavidLeigh argues n hisanalysisof the novel,the textindicates hat God in the personof the Son,JesusChrist,embod-ies an alreadysufferingBody the people of the barrio in the midstofevil (Leigh 23). Leon realizes that violence cannot overcome evil; onlycommitted,non-violent ovedoes. In the priest's inalhour of action hisown "orthopraxis" he actuallydraws out a more orthodoxtheologicalvision. Leon'spersonal,political,and religiousidentityis merged in thepractical,tangibleact of makingfaith in God presentforhimself and forothers n hisrole aspriest.He agreesto celebrate heMassin the finalhourbeforethe police stormtheirhideout.The text suggests t is preciselyas aCatholicpriestthat Leon bringsa worthycontribution o the revolution,

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MARKBOSCO, SJ 71fosteringreligiousfaith embodied in the popular religiousrituals of thepoor and of the celebrationof the sacraments.The ritualpracticeof thefaithof the poor is the ideologicalcheck on any overtlyatheistic/Marxistideology.Greenemade this sameinsightfulpointin an interviewconcern-ing the three cabinet-levelpriests n the Sandinistagovernmentof Nicara-guain the late 1980s,claiming,"thepriests'presence n the governmentofNicaragua is a kind of guarantee against a completely Marxist state"(Couto212).

Politically,nothing has changed in the final pages of the novel. Thatboth Plarrand Leon seem to die superficially ointsto the futilityof suchworthydreamsof justiceand liberation.Butif the novel'spoliticalgeogra-phy has not changed, the religiouslandscape has undergone a subtletransformation.Dr. Plarr's eligious magination sgalvanizedbyhisexpo-sure to Fr.Leon's commitment and Charley'sselfless love for his wife.Likewise,Leon's dentityas an effectivewitnessto ajust society s disclosedfinally n his ministryas priest.The end of the novelprivileges woplacesin which the religiousand politicalimagination ntersects:hope and love.Human hope can groundpoliticalbelief onlywhen it is experienced n apersonalcommitmentto others,and human love has a stake not only increatingcommunitiesof commitment,but in the evolutionaryunion ofhumanitywithGod. Indeed,love is the transcendent ignifier n the novelthatkeepshumanactionfocusedon correctpractice.In thisway GreeneweavestogetherCatholicismand Marxismas inter-pretive discoursesto understandthe human factor in the struggleforliberation.The novelbearswitness o theongoingdevelopmentof Greene'sreligiousimagination.With the advent of the VaticanCouncil, Greenefoundin hisCatholicfaith a creativeparadigmof propheticproclamationthatbecomesembodiedin his late novelsand essays.The pilgrimnatureof the Church n dialoguewith the world,the emphasison the humanityof Christ n the doctrineof the Incarnation, he subversiveplaywith the"priesthoodof all people,"and the standardof orthopraxisover ortho-doxy in judging the veracityof religiousfaith, all show a nuanced andcomplexCatholicimagination n this novel.It seems,then,thatGreene'scontinued heologicalreadingandpoliticalengagement n the revolutionsof the twentiethcenturyelevatesanyfixeddesignationof the Catholic Novel out of the rigid confines of its past.Greene'spost-VaticanII novelsoffera freshperspective n which to charthow the discourseof Catholicismadds a dimensionof meaningbeyondthe merelypolitical,economic,and cultural deologiesthatpervademuchof literarycriticism,especiallyGreene criticism.Likewise,these novels

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72 Religion& Literatureoffer Catholic discoursea plenitudeof meaningbeyondthe emphasisoforthodoxyand authority hat is such a partof the pre-VaticanII Churchand, perhaps, beyond today'sVatican Curia. Greeneportrayscharactersinvolved with personal and political strugglesof power, influence, andequalitywho, in the finalanalysis,pointto andexpresschoicesandinsightbased on the reflectiveexperienceof committed ove. The mysteriousnessof such encounters intimates a moment of insight, transformation,orchoice of actionbeyondthepoliticalandsocialreductionisms f ideology.In his theological readingof contemporaryCatholic thinkersand in hisfocusedfascinationwith exiles and priests,Greene createsan imaginativeworldin whichtheologyandpoliticsare in constantdialogue.His writingechoes thehopesand dreamsof a religious aithcreativelymagined n themidst of the real horrorsof the twentiethcentury.

LoyolaUniversity,hicago

NOTES1. See Graham Greene:Modern Critical Views for certain negative criticisms of theCatholic novels. Frank Kermode takes Greene to task for his "neo-romantic" emphasis onCatholicism (38), while Bloom pontificates that Greene will be primarily remembered notfor his religious novels, but for his thrillers, (4-8).2. Pendleton's thesis in GrahamGreene'sConradianMasterplotbuilds upon Harold Bloom'swell-known study, The Anxietyof Influence 1974), suggesting that Greene displaces uponreligion Conrad's interiorized psychological skepticism. Baldridge's GrahamGreene's ic-

tions:The Virtuesof Extremity 2000) builds upon J. Hillis Miller's The Disappearance f God:FiveMneteenth-CenturyWriters(1963) to argue that Greene's deity is imagined as one in themidst of cosmic entropy, worthy only of the pity of failure.3. Greene, for example, had read and discussed in interviews and personal correspon-dence the works of the theologians, Hans Kiing and Edward Schillebeeckx, and hecontinued to read Newman's texts through his life. See Mary Couto, pp. 209-220, for adetailed interview on the subject. In an unpublished letter from Greene to Hans Kiing,dated 24 October 1989, he writes: "I was delighted to get your essay with its generous andindividual dedicace. The admiration is all on my side and the gratitude for helping me tokeep one foot in the Catholic Church. It's a delight to add this essay to the five books [ofyours] I have on my shelf." (Personal letter, used with the permission of Hans Kiing).4. The above summary of the Council is taken in part from Theodore Fraser'sdiscussion of post-Vatican II developments and their effect on the Catholic Novel, pp.143-151. See also TheDocumentsof VaticanI, edited by Austin Flannery, O.P.

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MARK BOSCO, ST 735. See David Tracy's The Analogical Imagination:ChristianTheologyand the CultureofPluralism,pp. 376-398, for a thorough discussion of the analogical and dialectical lan-

guage of religious discourse.6. See von Balthasar's long introduction in the Aesthetics or a concise reading of hisunderstanding of a theological aesthetic, pp. 17-117. For a more complete discussion ofthis "Catholic aesthetic" as it works throughout The Powerand theGlory,see Mark Bosco.7. Greene visited Central and South America often in the last decades of his life andused his identity as a Catholic novelist as a privileged credential in order to investigate thepostcolonial situation there. The essays and editorials from his travels highlight the centralrole that Catholicism was playing in these economically poor and oppressed nations. Forevidence of his thought, see Greene's collection of essays and editorials in Reflections ndYoursEtc. Utters to the Press, 1945-1989. See also Greene's memoir of General OmarTorrijos Herrera of Panama, Getting o Know theGeneral, heStoryof an Involvement here hespeaks of his visits to Nicaragua during the Sandinista government's reign in the early1980s.

WORKS CITEDAllain, Marie-Frangoise. The OtherMan: Conversations ith GrahamGreene.New York: Simon& Schuster, 1983.Baldridge, Cates. GrahamGreene's ictions: The Virtuesof Extremity.Columbia, MO: U ofMissouri P, 2000.Balthasar, Hans Urs von. TheGloryof theLord:A TheologicalAesthetics,Vol.1. San Francisco:

Ignatius P, 1982.Bosco, Mark. "Seeing the Glory: Graham Greene's The Power and the Glorythrough theLens of Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics." Logos:A Journal of CatholicThoughtand Culture (2001): 34-53.

Cassis, A. F., Editor. GrahamGreene:Man of Paradox.Chicago: Loyola U P, 1994.Couto, Maria. GrahamGreene:On theFrontier. olitics andReligion n theNovels.New York: St.Martin's P, 1988.Documents f VaticanI. Ed. Austin Flannery. New York: Costello Publishing, 1996.Eagleton, Terry. "Reluctant Heroes: The Novels of Graham Greene." In Modern CriticalViews:GrahamGreene.Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House P, 1987.Fraser, Theodore. The ModernCatholicNovelin Europe.New York: Macmillan, 1994.Greene, Graham. BrightonRock. 1938. New York: Penguin, 1977. . A Burnt-OutCase. 1961. New York: Penguin, 1977. . Collected ssays. New York: Penguin, 1969. . TheEnd of theAffair. 1951. New York: Penguin, 1975. . GettingoKnow theGeneral,The Storyof an Involvement. 984 . TheHeartof theMatter. 1948. New York: Penguin, 1978. . TheHonoraryConsul. 1973. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. . The LawlessRoads. 1939. New York: Penguin, 1982. . MonsignorQuixote.Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd. 1982.

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