Ruth Franklin has a simply stunning essay on the religion and writing of Graham Greene. A must-read, especially if, like me, you too would take doubting Thomas as your patron.
Greene’s fundamental difficulty as a Christian was that he doubted his own ability to love God—to make the leap of faith, the unconditional surrender, that transforms a sinner into a saint. But his failings as a Christian were his virtues as a novelist, because the novelist’s dedication is to humanity, not divinity. If man truly is made in God’s image, then the distance between the two poles may not be as great as Greene thought. “Some of us have a vocation to love God,” he once prayed. “Some of us only have a vocation to love a human being. Please let my vocation not be wasted.” It was not.
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Also, while you're reading, pick up a copy of the Pulse today and check out John Totten's remarkable interview with Jeff Tweedy.
Posted by mesh at September 28, 2004 05:02 PM | TrackBackThe Arcade Fire are amazing. I'm just biding my time until I get the cd.
Posted by: Eb at September 28, 2004 09:35 PMThanks for posting the Greene piece, Mesh. I had read a poor review of the third volume by Sherry recently (and the review had to do with some of the negative things mentioned in this review), but after reading this, I want to get through this three volume biography one of these days (sooner than later hopefully). The Catholic trilogy is one of my favorite pieces of literature. There's something about his books that resonate at an emotional, personal level for me. He also seems like a genuinely authentic man - he is who he was and couldn't pretend to be anything other than that. That kind of spiritual honesty, living in the kind of tension, usually leads Christians into fundamentalism rather than honesty about themselves. He's my patron saint, if anyone, for that reason.
Posted by: scott cunningham at September 30, 2004 09:52 AM