Practicalities on the Composition of the Research Paper “Issues of Existential Christology in Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory”
Dr. S. Robert Gnanamony
Professor of English
Kalasalingam University
Krishnankoil 626190
Email robertgnana@yahoo.co.ukABSTRACT
Preparing a research paper involves both joys and sorrows. It is a very serious thing with plenty of heartburns attached to it. To make a frank confession as a research scholar I took long six months to compose my paper “Issues of Existential Christology in Graham Greene"s The Power and the Glory”. It means the scholar has to read between the lines before he or she entertains any idea of composing a research paper. The scholar has to pass through many agonising moments in the course of his or her composition. However, when the paper is published in a good journal of repute, the joy it gives is incomparable. In this paper I wish to present before you my agony and ecstasy of the practicalities on the composition of the paper in reference. I would like to state at the outset that there is no substitute to reading. In other words, the first priority of a research scholar should be reading, reading and reading. A research paper has to present an idea in convincing terms without deviating from its focus. A research scholar should never boast; he/she should always think that he/she knows only very little. The moment he/she thinks that he/she knows something, the scholar is lost. However, I must state here that I have read some five novels of Greene, and of all these novels, the one that went heady to my heart was The Power and the Glory. I read it three times. I think to write a research paper, one has to read the primary source at least three times. I took existentialism as a philosophical tool for my first PhD programme on Arthur Miller. So I went through Kierkegaard"s Either/Or and John Macquarrie"s Existentialism, to name a few texts of repute. I also went through the writings of Sartre. The ideas I had gained on existentialism came to my help to take my next step, construction of the theory--Existential Christology. My familiarity with the Gospels of the New Testament enabled me to define Existential Christology. My Sunday School exposure in my boyhood days and my attending the Church service on Sundays and my keen listening to the messages delivered by missionaries on the electronic media helped me define Existential Christology. It goes as follows: Existential Christology, among other things, highlights the Messiah"s passion, his being betrayed for a pittance of thirty pieces of silver, the anguish of his soul especially when he was „deserted" even by his Father in heaven, his trials with their false witnesses, his agony in Gethsemane, his enemy"s hunt after his soul, the rising of unjust witnesses against him, his flagellation, the gathering together of scourges upon him, his crucifixion, his lamentations etc. My familiarity with Apostle Paul"s Epistles and his passionate ministry in the good old days helped me delineate the essence of Christ. In this paper I have made an attempt to re-state how I composed my research paper Issues of Existential Christology in Greene’s The Power and the Glory.INTRODUCTION: AGONY AND ECSTASY
Preparing a research paper is not a joke. It is a very serious thing. To make a frank confession as a research scholar I took six months to compose my paper “Issues of Existential Christology in Graham Greene"s The Power and the Glory”. It means the scholar has to read between the lines if he or she has any idea of composing a research paper. The scholar has to pass through many agonising moments in the course of his or her composition. However, when the paper is published in a good journal of repute, the joy it gives is incomparable. In this paper I wish to present before you my agony and ecstasy of the practicalities on the composition of the paper in reference.NO SUBSTITUTE TO READING
I would like to state at the outset that there is no substitute to reading. In other words, the first priority of a research scholar should be reading. A research paper has to present an idea in convincing terms without deviating from its focus. A research scholar should never boast; he should always think that he knows only very little. The moment he thinks that he knows something, he is lost. However, I must state here that I read some five novels of Greene, and of all these novels, the one that went heady to my heart was The Power and the Glory. I read it three times. I think to write a research paper on it, one has to read it at least three times.EXISTENTIALISM FOR CRITIQUEING THE POWER AND THE GLORY
I took existentialism as a philosophical tool for my first PhD programme on Arthur Miller. So I went through Kierkegaard"s Either/Or and John Macquarrie"s Existentialism. I also went through the writings of Sartre. The ideas I had gained on existentialism came to my help to take my next step, construction of the theory Existential Christology.CONSTRUCTION OF THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
It is common knowledge that the starting point for Christology is acknowledging Jesus Christ as the saviour. To know Christ is not only to know his graces but also his angst-ridden soul for the sinners. When a believer acknowledges Christ as his Lord, a sense of human impotence and guilt comes in along with the desire for salvation, which according to Christology is possible only through Jesus Christ. In Christology, there is no place for reason. In fact, Christology goes dialectically opposite to humanism, which stresses man"s freedom, dignity, rationality and responsibility. It may be remembered that Kierkegaard (1813-1855), the father of Christian existentialism said once, “I have no aptitude for truths, principles, systems; but for crumbs, fragments, fancies, sudden inspirations” (cited in John Macquarrie (33). Christian existentialists like Kierkegaard and Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1788) reject the idea that reason can support faith. In fact the very basement of Christianity is faith. In other words, Christianity is a paradox that demands a leap of faith for anyone who wants to be a Christian. The Christian Existentialists were of the opinion that only the fool would say in his heart that „there is no God"; those who try to prove the existence of God is even more foolish. As John Macquarrie observes, “Faith involves a leap beyond reason” (33).FAMILIARITY WITH THE GOSPELS
My familiarity with the Gospels of the New Testament enabled me to define Existential Christology. My Sunday School exposure in my boyhood days and my attending the Church service on Sundays and my keen listening to the messages delivered by missionaries helped to quickly define Existential Christology. It goers as follows: Existential Christology, among other things, highlights the Messiah"s passion, his being betrayed for a pittance of thirty pieces of silver, the anguish of his soul especially when he was „deserted" even by his Father in heaven, his trials with their false witnesses, his agony in Gethsemane, his enemy"s hunt after his soul, the rising of unjust witnesses against him, his flagellation, the gathering together of scourges upon him, his crucifixion, his lamentations etc. It also insists on subjectivity and intensity, which are the criteria of truth and genuineness. One important issue that we identify in Christology is the moments of painful decision; these moments are marked by deep anxiety. Life on those moments cannot be reduced to a system of ideas, for life in those intense moments cannot be smoothed out without distortion of reality. Christology underlines Christ as both human and God. The expressions in The Bible, “form of a servant”, “in habit found as a man”, “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Phil., ii: 7; Rom., vii: 3) may project a different image of Christ. But in reality, they just describe a mode of being or hint at the presence of a higher nature in Christ not seen by the senses. On the other hand, Apostle Paul plainly speaks of Christ “manifested in the flesh” (I Tim., iii: 16), as possessing “a body of flesh” (Col., i: 22), as being “made of a woman” (Gal., iv: 4), as being “born of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom., i: 3), and as belonging “according to the flesh of Israel” (Rom., ix: 5).NOTIONALITY ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF CHRIST
My readings of Apostle Paul"s Epistles addressed to the early churches and his passionate ministry in the good old days helped me delineate the essence of Christ. Please read it. Apostle Paul uses the terms “form of God”, “image of God”, when he speaks of Christ"s divinity, in order to show the personal distinction between the Eternal Father and the Divine Son (Phil., ii: 6, Col., i: 15), Christ is not merely the image and glory of God (I Cor., xi: 7), but also the first-born before any created beings (Col., i: 15) in whom the fullness the godhead resides with that actual reality which we attach with the presence of the material bodies. Only in two respects Christ"s humanity differed from the rest of men: firstly, in its entire sinlessness (I Cor., v: 21; Gal., ii: 17; Rom., vii: 3) and secondly, in the fact that Christ was the second Adam, representing the whole human race (Rom., v: 12-21; I Cor., xv: 45-49). It implies that Christ felt whatever an average man felt too. Real Christianity is not in doctrines and rituals; real Christianity is found in world-renouncing terms and the inward decision of the individual. Though philosophers like Kant, Schelling have divergent views about Christ, the present paper has no space for their arguments. I proceed with the assumption that Christ is both God and man and to live like Christ (sinless) should be the sole objective of every man. Christology insists on man"s will, and increasingly stresses on man"s ability to change his will; man can forsake the world, deny himself and die to the world to possess Christ. In this paper I have made an attempt to re-read Graham Greene"s classic novel, The Power and the Glory1 with Existential Christology as a tool.The essence of existential Christology is found in St. Matthew 10: 37-39:
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he
that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of
me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my
sake shall find it. (Emphasis added).
Existential Christology stresses the adherents not to live for them but for others. In the novel in reference, the priest has never even once prayed for him; he always prayed for others. Invariably with tears in his eyes, he would pray, “Oh, god, help her (his daughter). Damn me, I deserve it, but let her live for ever” (PG 208). The novel says that this was the love he should have felt for every soul in the world (PG 208). (Emphasis added).EXISTENTIAL CHRISTOLOGY VS ATHEIST EXISTENTIALISM
I"d like to highlight Existential Christology by keeping it side by side with the other existential tenets of some major European existential philosophers. Unlike Friedrich Nietzsche"s (1844-1900) existential syndrome („God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him!"), Kierkegaard believes in Christology which teaches that there is no hope for man without Christ. Kierkegaard was increasingly preoccupied with becoming a good Christian, Nietzsche2, on the other hand was struggling to get away with it even though he hailed from a clerical family. The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre (1905--) also shares the same platform with Nietzsche. He too is of the opinion that it is a godless universe, and in such a godless world, man has to take the place of God. He states, “Man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the whole world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being” (cited in Macquarrie 38). Alongside Sartre, there comes another prominent atheist existentialist Albert Camus (1913—60), who has developed a new kind of existentialism called Absurd Existentialism. According to him, Sisyphus is the symbol of mankind—the ancient hero who was condemned to spend his days rolling a boulder to the top of a hill, always to see it escaped him and crashed back down to the bottom. Though these philosophers have divergent views of man"s existence on earth, they do not differ in one aspect and that is, the suffering aspect of man.EXISTENTIAL ESSENTIALITY OF THE WHISKY PRIEST
Graham Greene"s The Power and the Glory highlights the existential essentiality of the Whisky priest. The novel also talks about the existence of evil and the hero"s fight against this evil. Though a simple man, the Whisky priest fights against the pervading evil with his enormous faith, simple courage and trust in the Lord and in the world. He is a Christ-figure with an invisible cross on his shoulders all through his lifetime. Looking more like a Sisyphus, the Whisky priest stands all alone in the universe, which is gone awry. He knows that he is a sinner; he cannot escape from it. He has a big guilt in his mind. In the night his eyes are wide open. He could not sleep. Those who cannot sleep alone know what sleeplessness means to a person. Seeing that the priest was not sleeping, the half-caste asked the priest, “Can"t you sleep?” (PG 91). The priest answered, “I was dreaming” (PG 91). The text says, “The priest thought: I mustn"t sleep, it"s dangerous […] (PG 91). The priest could not wriggle out from the presence of the half-caste (metizo). The priest even asked the metizo not to call him „Father". The priest was fully convinced that the metizo would certainly betray him to the authorities. As the text says, “Christ would not have found Judas sleeping in the garden: Judas could watch more than one hour” (PG 92). In the prison, when the priest tried to have some sleep, he was disturbed in his sleep with haunting dreams.GREENE’S THE POWER AND THE GLORY AND HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER
As the half-caste had been haunting the priest wherever he went, Roger Chillingworth had been doing the same in Hawthorne"s novel The Scarlet Letter3. Just as the expression of the half-caste was calm in the beginning, Roger Chillingworth too pretended to be good friends of the Protestant pastor Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale. But shortly, “there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight the oftener they looked upon him”. (SL 155). I find plenty of commonalities between the half-caste and Roger Chillingworth. Both are leeches in nature. As the priest was hunted down in the Power and the Glory, Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale too “was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan"s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth” (SL 155). The half-caste and Roger Chillingworth were diabolical agents, who had been burrowing into their respective companions" souls.ISSUES OF EXISTENTIAL CHRISTOLOGY IN THE POWER AND THE GLORY
As Christ was put in to bonds before his crucifixion, Existential Christology may look for an almost similar treatment to any man who wants to follow Jesus Christ. As Christ was made to carry the cross (a symbol of humiliation), anyone who wants to follow Jesus has to be ready to undergo a similar humiliating experience. The action of the novel The Power and the Glory took place in Mexico where a dictator had banned in the early years of the twentieth century all religious activities. Christianity was forbidden; priests were hunted down; if they threw away their cassock (a symbol of their calling), they were spared. The novel begins in a sombre atmosphere with Mr. Tench, a dentist looking for his ether cylinder, “into the blazing Mexican sun and the bleaching dust. A few vultures looked down from the roof with shabby indifference: he wasn"t a carrion yet” (PG 07). Anyone would be shaken with nausea in such a tensed atmosphere where revolver-wielding officers went about with a threatening menace. See for instance, “Mr. Tench heard a revolver holster creak just behind him and turned his back. A customs officer was watching him angrily” (PG 08). The vulture is a foreboding symbol in the novel; it is looking for dead bodies; but above the vulture there soars an eagle invisible to the naked eyes of man and that obviously is the Church"s triumph. In the subsequent pages of the novel, there are frequent references to this bird of prey; for instance, “A vulture hung there, an observer” (09) and again, “the vulture moved a little, like the black hand of a clock” (09).It may not be surprising when one sees the followers of Jesus Christ being betrayed by their close friends or kith and kin, for Christ himself was betrayed by his own disciple Judas. In The Power and the Glory, the half-caste who had been giving the priest his company and like Judas trapped the priest in a hut to be betrayed to the lieutenant. Before he betrayed the priest, the half-caste had requested him to say a prayer and hear his confession, “Father, hear my confession” (PG 90). The father felt that “he was in the presence of Judas” (91). Sensing that the priest did not believe him, the half-caste told him, “I wouldn"t betray you. I"m a Christian” (PG 91). The lieutenant was surprised to see the priest in the hut. He had told the priest that he never expected to see the priest again. The priest"s reply was characteristic of a committed priest: “Oh well, lieutenant, you know how it is. Even a coward has a sense of duty” (PG 190).
In the case of Jesus Christ, Annas and Caiaphas passed a death sentence on Christ; that means any one who really wants to follow Jesus Christ has to be ready even to face a death sentence. In The Power and the Glory the priest, kept under lock and key, had to face the firing squad. He was not an ignorant priest; he knew what he had been doing; had he adopted a different means, he could have saved himself. He was shut up in a lonely cell; he felt that if Father Jose were there, it would make his final moments a bit easier; but that request was not complied with. The lieutenant came to the priest"s cell often and checked what the priest was doing. He mechanically put his hand on his revolver as a grim reminder to the priest that his death would be from a bullet of a weapon like that.
Existential Christology may expect its adherents to face the haughty imperviousness of rulers and men of power and authority as Christ himself was subjected to this kind of humiliation. Having been confined in the cell along with dangerous criminals and murderers, the priest who gave his name, as Montez had to lie down in the corner of the cell like a hunted dog. The sergeant haughtily said to the priest, “What do you expect? It"ll teach you like brandy too well, wont it?” (PG 135). The job he gave the priest to do was to “fetch the pails out of the cells and mind you don"t spill them—this place stinks enough as it is” (PG 135). The pail was overflowing with the human urine and shit.
The true follower of Jesus Christ may have to stand before biased judges who would judge unjustly as Christ himself was judged unjustly. In the words of the priest, “They had given a chance to Padre Jose, but they had never given him a chance at all” (PG 209).
In Existential Christology, there is no place for any worldly adjustment and worldly compromise. If the priest made any compromise like Padre Jose, “he might be living in the capital now with Maria on a pension” (PG 95). Christology represents a mysterious priestly essence, which as Schilder observes, “incorporates into the true priesthood, and ministers the grace of a priest to all those who know of it by reason of the fact that they are included in the Messiah through faith” (23). Hanging on the cross in Golgotha, Christ was praying for his adversaries, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (St. Luke 23: 34). In the same way, before being taken to face the firing squad, the priest was thinking of all those who betrayed him, captured him and helped him and prayed, “God help them” (208). It included the half-caste, the lieutenant, the dentist, the girl Coral who helped him at the banana station, and even Padre Jose. This shows that there was absolutely no bitterness in his soul. Seeing Miguel in the cell with him, the priest felt an enormous sadness in him, for it was he who was taken as a hostage in a village and the priest prayed silently, “Oh God, send them someone more worthwhile to suffer for” (PG 135). It seemed to the priest a mockery that simple-minded people should sacrifice themselves “for a whisky priest with a bastard child” (PG 135). As the Whisky priest humbled himself, Rev Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter too humbled himself and felt that he was not at all fit to be a minister. He had told his hearers that “he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity […]” (SL 174). The minister considered himself, “a subtle, but remorseful hypocrite that he was!” (SL 174). By the constitution of his nature, “he loved the truth, and loathed the lie, as few men ever did” (SL 174).
HUMILIATION IN GALORE FOR THE CHRIST FIGURES
As Malchus, the slave slapped Christ on the face it may be a common experience to the adherents of Existential Christology. The politically powerful agencies may try to subject the true Christians to brutality and uncouth behaviour. In The Power and the Glory, the priest had to undergo worse experiences than these. When he was put in the cell for carrying a bottle of spirit, as he had no money to pay fine and get out of the prison, he was asked to clean the cells, which he did. The priest had to carry a pail of urine and shit to put it in the „excusados", the Mexican term for the place for depositing the filth. Read it from the text: “The priest bent down and took the pail. It was full and very heavy: he went bowed with the weight across the yard. Sweat got into his eyes” (PG 135). As the Whisky priest was humiliated by an outside agency, the pastor in The Scarlet Letter humiliated himself by “laughing bitterly at himself the while, and smiting so much the more pitilessly because of that bitter laugh. It was his custom too […] to fast […] rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance” (SL 175). In The Scarlet Letter, the pastor too stood on the scaffold meant for evildoers in order to shame them. Of course, he didn"t stand on it in the broad day light as his secret female companion Hester Prynne had to do a couple of years ago, but in the pitch of darkness. The novel says,Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud: an outcry that went pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one house to another, and reverberated from the hills in the background; as if a company of devils, detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro.
" It is done!" Muttered the minister, covering his face with his hands. The whole town will awake and hurry forth, and find me here! (SL 178-179).The bureaucrats in the court of King Herod considered Jesus an outcaste and accordingly it was easier for the judges to pass their judgements against him without a proper hearing. Christ was regarded not only an exile, but also an outlaw. There is a significant distinction between the two. Schilder differentiates the two in the following manner:
Being an exile means that one is no longer in one"s original dwelling place that one is a man without a country. But of such a man it can at least be said that the authority, which drives him out of his country, is the authority of law. The law pursues him; the law exerts itself against him. Hence to be an exile is not the same as to be an outlaw.
But the outlaw? Alas, he is thrust outside of the sphere of law. He is given up into the hands of arbitrary forces, of whoever wishes to take him. He is not merely exiled; he is accursed (53-54).WHISKY PRIEST AND REV. ARTHUR DIMMESDALE
The Whisky priest in the novel, like Christ, was an exile and an outlaw. The reader may know that he was always on the run. The country where he secretly ministered did not seem to be his country; he was not powerfully connected. Only poor folk recognized him as a priest and a good man. He never thought that he was a Christ-figure; he identified himself with the worst sinners who kept on slapping the master on the cheek. Though the novel does not talk about the Whisky priest being slapped on the face, his humiliation was worse than that. He suffered the affliction and humiliation for Christ, for he was drawn into the love of Christ and he was sure that he would surely go to Jesus and kiss his face. His prayer invariably would be, “O God, forgive me—I am a proud, lustful, greedy man” (PG 95). There was no pride in him; he never failed to throw open his heart to his God and also whomsoever he felt to be worthy of a clean confession. The night before his execution, he looked upon heaven and prayed, “I have been drunk—I don"t know how many times; there isn"t a duty I haven"t neglected; I have been guilty of pride, lack of charity […]” (PG 208). In the same manner, in The Scarlet Letter Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale day by day grew emaciated and his voice had a certain melancholic prophecy of decay in it. Very often he was seen “put his hand over his heart with a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain” (SL 146). The pastor felt that as he had committed a heinous crime, he was not fit to live in this world. With characteristic humility, he avowed his belief, “that if Providence should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his own unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth” (SL 146).EXISTENTIAL CHRISTOLOGY
Existential Christology gives space for hypocritical mockers who would gnash upon the believer with their teeth. He/she who wants to follow Christ should be ready to face spitting, buffeting, and beating. Even mockery becomes an act of brutality as it denies a person"s rights over against God and the universe. As Schilder observes, “All mockery which is unmingled with ingredients of wrath and love, and which has not sprung from the source of truth, calls its victim Belial, Belial! And that means: good-for-nothing, idler […]” (181). The Whisky priest and the pastor were many a time targeted for mockery. The very expression „Whisky priest" is a mocking term of derision; likewise, the pastor was taunted by his companion-physician Roger Chillingworth, who was nothing short of a fiend, about whom, the good pastor with immense terror said to Hester Prynne, “I shiver at him! Dost thou know the man? I hate him, Hester!” (SL 188). Even Hester Prynne was terrified to look at his face even though he happened to be her husband. Once Chillingworth asked her what she saw in his face; her answer expressed her fear and aversion of him: “Something that would make me weep, if there were any tears bitter enough for it” (SL 204).In Existential Christology, there is absolutely no space for pride and egoism. In his short sojourn on earth, Christ lived a very humble life. He was never seen as a proud individual; he was even mounted on a mule (a symbol of humility) and taken around. The Whisky priest in The Power and the Glory, like Christ, was never found to be proud and egoistic. He considered himself a bad priest and he did not hide this fact from anyone. In the prison when he was shut up with criminals and murderers for possessing a whisky bottle, he told the Christian woman who wanted him to hear her confession, “But I"m a bad priest” (130). Though a priest, he requested the woman, “Pray for me […] (PG 131). The priest was very much moved by seeing the condition of the Christian woman. He began to feel “an overwhelming responsibility for this pious woman” (131). At times he felt useless. He thought as he was in the prison, “he was a criminal and ought only to talk to criminals” (132).
Worldly pleasure and physical joy of any kind have no place in Existential Christology. More often than not, the lot of the true adherent of Christ is angst-ridden. The day before he was taken to the firing squad, even brandy couldn"t give him any sleep at all. It may be remembered that the priest took brandy and whisky not to get any kick out of it, but to quieten his troubled spirit. He thought his death-ordeal would take just one second. His angst-ridden soul troubled him with questions like, “How long"s a second? Then he began to cry, beating his head gently against the wall” (PG 209). Too human for heroism, too humble for martyrdom, the little worldly priest was impelled towards his squalid Calvary as much as his own compassion for humanity as by the efforts of his pursuers.
RESEARCH LANGUAGE
It goes without saying that the language chosen for the research paper is formal. Every word is to be cautiously selected. From my understanding, a research paper is like constructing a house. As the mason raises the structure brick by brick, research has to be built word by word. As the carpenter brings in doors and windows to adorn and also at allow light and air, the research paper may make references to other works of art for validating the viewpoints presented from time to time. No word should be found out of place. No quotation should be hanging unnecessarily at any part of the thesis. The quoted words should be thoroughly integrated into the thesis.CONCLUSION
The conclusion of the research paper should bring in all the threads of the paper to a convincing close. In other words, the focus of the paper should never be allowed to hang around in the middle. All the points made in the course of the paper should be brought forward to a convincing close. This is how my concluding remarks of the said-research paper go. In conclusion, Existential Christology may not be a grim reminder of man"s existence on earth. It may be that all those who try to live like Christ as the Whisky priest had done in Greene"s „modern Crucifixion Story", have to sacrifice their worldly pleasures and possessions and the reward, of course, will be an enviable place with Christ in the other world. Father Montez may be a sinner. But his sins need not be exaggerated. When a man is lonely, he is likely to err like the Whisky priest. His friendship with Maria and their daughter Brigitta need not be viewed with a monstrous proportion. The priest repeatedly repented for it and wept for this sin almost everyday; after all, he didn"t rape Maria; it was mutual love, though his religious canons forbade it. In their loneliness both needed each other. When a man was being hunted down in every moment of his life, no one would deny such a warm relationship. His addiction to spirit should also be viewed in this light. He didn"t derive any deviant pleasure out of it; he took it just to drive away his fear and pain. Man, who is made of flesh and blood, is likely to commit such sins once a while for is it not Christology that warns, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us” (I John 1: 8-10). The Whisky priest and the Pastor Dimmesdale are not the worst sinners in the world; the half-caste and Roger Chillingworth were worse than the „polluted" priests. The half-caste and Chillingworth"s revenge and betrayal had been blacker than the sins of the priests. The priests had not violated in cold blood the sanctity of the human hearts as their opponents had done. Both the priests had committed almost the same sin, and their predicaments were also the same. Their attempts to live like Christ put them into an angst-ridden situation, which I believe is the essence of Existential Christology.Before I close I want you to bear in mind that all the references made in the course of the composition of the paper should be listed as per MLA Handbook on Research (preferably the latest version) in the alphabetical order. Acknowledgements should also be made to the Net sources, if the scholar has gone to any website.
Notes
1. All further references to this text will be referred to as PG.
2. Nietzsche"s sensitivity of mind pushed him into madness.
3. All further references to this text will be referred to as SL.Works Cited
Greene, Graham. The Power and the Glory. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983 (1940).Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. London: Everyman"s Library, 1971.
John. The First Epistle General of John. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
Luke, St. The Gospel According to St. Luke. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
Macquarrie, John. Existentialism. London: Hutchinson & Co. 1972.
Matthew, St. The Gospel According to St. Matthew. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
Paul. The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
- - - . The Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians I. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
- - -. The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
- - - . The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
- - - . The Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Holy Bible. London: Cambridge University Press, n.y.p.
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Schilder, K. Christ on Trial. Michigan. W. M. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1939.