Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Books

Novel Theology

by Jimmy Hopper

The Riverwood Book Group recently completed Graham Greene’s novel of love in wartime London, The End of the Affair. Greene was Catholic, and his “serious” novels deals with the moral ambiguities of life as seen from a Christian perspective but without glib answers. This aspect is very visible in The End of the Affair, in fact, Christian choices are the theme and essence of the book.

So that I won’t be a “spoiler,” since I know some members of Riverwood who want to read this book, I’ll quote this passage without much accompanting information about character, plot, etc. It is from a letter one character writes to another and it speaks of conversion:

What’s the use? I believe there’s a God—I believe the whole bag of tricks, there’s nothing I don’t believe. They could subdivide the Trinty into a dozen parts and I’d believe. They could dig up reconds that proved Christ had been invented by Pilate to get himself promoted and I’d believe just the same. I’ve caught belief like a disease. I’ve fallen into belief like I fell in love. I’ve never loved before as I love you and I’ve never believed before as I believe now.

As we considered this passage, it was said that it spoke strongly of both election and irresistible grace, a very “reformed” position from a practicing Catholic. Or, to put it another way, Truth is Truth.