God and the Novelists: 5. Graham Greene

Citation

Hass AW (1998) God and the Novelists: 5. Graham Greene. The Expository Times, 110 (3), pp. 68-72. https://doi.org/10.1177/001452469811000302

Abstract
First paragraph: One thing can always be said of a Catholic mind: no matter how rogue its doctrine, no matter how lapsed its piety, no matter how 'mortal' its sins, God remains in view. Or at least, this can be said of Graham Greene. The many novels of this great modern reader writer always depict, somehow, a view of God. It may not be a view the Catholic Church expects, or anyone else for that matter, whether they espouse a faith or not, but amid the sometime dark, sometimes, perfidious, sometimes comical , sometimes satirical, sometimes honest, sometimes paradoxical, yet always hugely entertaining pages of Greene's world, God has an uncanny way of , if not appearing on the scene, always infusing the scene. And often at the unlikeliest of places, or by the unlikeliest of means. In Greene's Catholic mind, faith is always a complex issue, never straightforward, and never entirely comfortable. And so correspondingly is his view of God. But for that very reason he remains one of the most significant of the 'Catholic' English novelists of this present century, where religious faith, particularly in its highly organized dress, has become uncomfortable for so many.

Keywords
Graham Greene; Theology; Literature

Journal
The Expository Times: Volume 110, Issue 3

People

Dr Andrew Hass

Reader, Religion