Lit Discussion Group: Imago Dei Explores “The Power and the Glory”

By: Jereme Harlan

On Sunday, September 28th, 6 members of Imago Dei’s Literature Discussion Group met at Costello’s Café to talk about Graham Greene’s “The Power and the Glory.” We discussed everything from his motive for writing the novel, to identifying the different protagonists and antagonists, to even a way-off-track-but-somehow-connected discussion about the war in Iraq. It was a fun and lively dialogue loosely guided by our moderator, Vivian. A few times she had to steer us back on track so that we were actually discussing the novel, but for the most part we had a surprisingly intellectual dialogue about the novel’s symbolism, various themes, and connection to Christianity that was very similar to a college literature class.

The Christian aspect of “The Power and the Glory” was unmistakable, and comprised the main vein of the novel. On surface level it is a Catholic novel, since Greene converted to Catholicism in his mid-twenties, but the novel is also generally regarded as his masterpiece. We agreed that Greene’s style and motive for writing this was not to “preach” Catholicism, but rather to tell a simple story about a “whiskey priest” who is on the run for his life in early 1900’s southern Mexico. The whiskey priest is so named because he is a bad priest: he fathered a child and drinks way too much alcohol; but by the end of the novel he is a martyr for the cause of Christ. Although Greene’s style of writing is factual and far from poetic, his main character is epic in scope. He is a very human yet Christic figure; he is a solitary opposition to political and religious turmoil to which his fellow citizens readily succumb; he is an unfortunate (yet necessary) casualty in a conflict he neither understands nor supports.

Overall, “The Power and the Glory” was a fun read, but even more enjoyable was sitting at a café table in north Portland, sipping a cappuccino, and discussing it with fellow book lovers. Imago Dei’s Literature Discussion Group has a large membership but typically has little participation—percentage wise. We haven’t yet decided what we will be reading/discussing next month, but whatever it is, we would love to have even more people join us for good coffee and a friendly conversation.