the pencil reads

It is a curious thing that both fictional stories I've read on Christian persecution are so unconventional. My perception of Christian persecution was first shaped by the Bible narratives -- Paul and Silas singing in the prison and the chains falling off -- and then by the historical narratives. In college, I was mesmerized by Tertullian's quote: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." I was in awe of the unshakable faith and joy of the early martyrs.

And then I read Silence by Shusuku Endo, and then Philip Yancey's article, and now The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. What is up with Endo and Graham? They are turning my world upside down.

In defense, Graham does not go as far as Endo in his scathing bitterness at the silence of God. The martyrdoms in Silence are very sad and haunting -- it makes a person tear -- but the persecution in The Power and the Glory tends towards the comic and matter-of-fact. The only scandal of the novel, really, is the portrayal of the priesthood. The church protested against the novel's portrayal of the priesthood in 1954, 14 years after the novel's publication, and rightly so, for the main character of the novel is a priest addicted to whisky, power, and various other vices.

But that is the beauty of this novel... That God does triumph despite our doubt, sin and human wretchedness; that he can make the ugly beautiful. If God saved us while we were still sinful, how much more is he still saving us now? (Rom 5:10) Surely he can save a drunken priest. Of course, this is the antithesis of what John Wesley preached. A distinctive of Methodism is the doctrine of sanctification -- that the journey after justification is one towards holiness and perfection -- towards Christ-likeness so to speak. In fact, John Wesley believed that because of the grace of God, it is possible to be perfect in this life. Christians are holy just as fig trees produce figs.

But not Greene's whiskey priest.

Silence and The Power and the Glory are rather alike in most areas. Both novels feature a Judas; both novels' main character is a flawed Christian; both novels don't attempt to second-guess God's role. Both are based on a Christian framework: while The Power and the Glory has a stronger sense of Christian duty, Silence is more sentimental and existentialist.

But there is one primary difference between the two novels: how they end. It is because of their different endings that we get their diverging titles. One title is despairing, the other, triumphant. In spite of all the foibles of the priest and the blatant sin of the virtuous Christians in The Power and the Glory, there are still many, many little graces that redeem the characters. As Greene puts it in this novel, "when you visualize a man or woman carefully, you can always begin to feel pity -- that is a quality God's image carries with it." The redemption was in the little things.

The prose in The Power and the Glory is compelling and some say that this is Graham Greene's magnum opus. It is a good book. Go read it if you have the time.
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Posted on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 at 3:20 PM. :)