This book, by Harold Frederic, was assigned reading for my recent class on pastoral caregiving. It was a fascinating read.Written in 1896, it tells of a young Methodist pastor in (Western?) New York State. The book begins with an Annual Conference, strangely resembling those of today. Pastors are busy politicking, trying to impress the right people so that they get the best appointments possible. Young Rev. Theron Ware is a gifted orator and holds a bright future. He and his wife Alice are disappointed with their appointment to a backwater town.
The Methodists there are fundamentalists from the frontier traditions of American Methodism. Theron is dissatisfied with their crude and simplistic faith. He seeks out the companionship of the town's intellectuals: a Catholic priest, a retired doctor and amateur Biblical scholar, and the red-haired organist at the Catholic church.
The priest and his scholarly companion introduce Theron to enticing and unfamiliar ideas. Their studies have shown that the Bible is largely myth. In fact, truth itself is a meaningless concept, as is morality. The organist -- beautiful and intellectual -- shines in comparison to Theron's wife, who has fallen under the spell of religious revival that fills the Methodist congregation. Together, these bohemians seduce Theron Ware away from his Christian faith and his wife.
This book was published 109 years ago, but is shockingly applicable today. The professor never said why, but I suspect that he assigned this book to point out how easy it is for the clergy to be seduced by sex, money, and bad theology.
5 comments:
John,
Thanks for posting this- sounds like a must read for all of us. I plan on getting a copy STAT.
Hey, you know, this might be a great time for a change in blog-persona. You've served as the Jon Stewart of Methodist bloggers for a while now. But with this book catches on, maybe you could angle to be our Oprah.
Just don't make us read Angela's Ashes. Sad, depressing books are inferior to sad, depressing movies because when you start to cry like a little baby and curl into the fetal posistion, you kind of have to put the book down for a while.
Hey, if you're going to be the Methodist Oprah (boy, that was odd to type!), I have an autobiography for you. It tells the story of my days on Death Row while recovering from a sex change operation before I finally invented the Internet. Do you think you can make it a NYT Bestseller?
Thank you, all, but I think that I would prefer to be Methodism's Jerry Springer, rather than Oprah.
As an English minor I'd like to point out that no-one in The Damminition of Theron Ware comes off in a particulurly attractive light, unless it's Theron's long-suffering wife.
Ware is allways hypocritical, vain and ambitious, and his congrigation is a bunch of judgemental bigots. I really don't blame Theron for finding some more congenial company! Yes, the preist, the organist, and the naturalist enjoy playing cat-and-mouse with Theron, ( but it's a mistake to read The Dammnition as a polimec against liberalism and for evangelicalism.
Also, there's real scum on the "fronteer Methodist" side as well, in the form of the swindleing evagelists.
Good point, Whit. The congregation, although morally above Theron, is hardly the model of Christ-like love.
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