Evangelizing the Church: Soteriology, Liberation, and Transformative Action in Graham Greene’s The Honorary Consul

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholarship on Graham Greene has extensively examined the expression of his religious concerns in his work, labelling him a “Catholic writer” but also a schismatic author, due to his paradoxical departures from the catholic orthodoxy. Not until recently, scholars such as Mark Bosco (2005) and Michael G. Brennan (2016) have challenged these cliches and drawn attention to the importance of Vatican II and liberation theology discourses in shaping Greene's literary imagination. Given the diverse developments fostered by liberation theologians, further studies are needed to widen the scope of critical dialogue on sociological, epistemological and ontological dimensions in Greene's work. This article places Greene's The Honorary Consul in dialogue with Ignacio Ellacuría's theological articulation, focusing on the concepts of liberation, freedom and soteriology. In addition, it examines kerygmatic forms of announcement and denunciation and the conflictive relationship between the word and ways of transformative action involving violence in Greene's novel.