Religious paradoxes in Graham Greene’s novels

Abstract

Graham Greene's work, especially his major novels, reveals his probing interest in religious matters. His writing indicates that throughout his career he has found himself involved in essential - and often paradoxical - questions concerning religious faith, particularly as these questions impinge on the twentieth-century mind. In this article some of Greene’s paradoxical views on religious matters are explored in a more universal and anti-institutional context than the strictly Roman Catholic one in which his work is usually examined As exemplars of Greene’s work in which religious paradoxes are central, Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory and Monsignor Quixote are discussed. This article underscores the fact that Greene has almost single-handedly redefined twentieth-century Roman Catholic notions on piety with his constant revelation that pious people often lack charity while salvation is possible for sinners. It also shows that Greene’s novels radically question the doctrines on morality espoused by conventional churches, thereby displaying his own religious sensitivity and courage.