Is it possible to have faith in the existence of God and not know you have faith? At first glance, that question seems a bit odd. Surely you know if you have faith. Right?
Graham Greene’s novel A Burnt-Out Case is a fascinating exploration of this question.
The protagonist is a world-famous Catholic architect, Querry, who shows up one day at a leper colony in the middle of the jungle in the Congo. Querry unrelentingly insists throughout the novel that he no longer has faith. Nobody believes him. The Catholic priests who run the leper colony, the atheist doctor who treats the lepers, the devout Catholic businessmen who is in awe of Querry, the journalist who tracks him down…none of them believe that Querry is anything other than the most devout Christian imaginable. Querry’s every action lends support to their faith that Querry has faith. Yet, Query says he doesn’t. Does he?
The title refers to the progress of leprosy. A patient has the disease and it runs its course, wreaking havoc with the body. After the disease has done all the damage it can do, the patient is released from the hospital as a burnt-out case; the disease has burnt itself out.
Querry is a burnt out case. Of that there is no doubt. But: what was the disease?
Is faith in God the disease and Querry has now suffered all he can from that belief and has now reached the end result which is unbelief? That is what Querry insists is true.
Or is unbelief the disease and Querry has now reached the end result which is belief, but he has not yet realized it?
It seems like it should be obvious which of those two things is the case, but the brilliance of the novel is that it is not clear at all.
The central question of this novel is of immense importance in the modern world. We see the constant lament that children who have grown up in the church have left the church. We see the rise of an entire generation which professes to have no religion. The common reaction to this state of affairs is the defensive cry asking how to bring this generation back to the church.
But, imagine for a second that many of the people in this generation who say they have no faith are wrong about their own beliefs. Imagine for a second they do have faith, they just don’t know it.
Why would this be? Imagine you grew up in a church which had entombed the message of the gospel, that the message of the church never felt alive to you. Imagine you confused your lack of attachment to the church of your youth with a lack of attachment to God. And then imagine that in your confusion, the church insisted that if you lacked attachment to the church, then you lacked attachment to God. What if you believed the church when you were told that?
If that is the case, and having talked with a large number of college students who grew up in the church, I suspect it is, then it calls for a radically new message.
The message needs to become: the church is flawed, it is full of sinners in need of the grace of Christ. If you think the church is flawed, then you are right. But, the failures of the church are not evidence of the nonexistence of God. You think you don’t believe in God, you think you don’t have faith that there is a God because the church seems so flawed, but consider for a moment that maybe, just maybe, deep down inside, you do know there is a God.
As Querry thinks, and maybe even concludes: “The King is dead, long live the King.”
“Querry” is an interesting name for this character, who questions some of the fundamental existential questions of modern life. The story and your reflection remind me of the parable in Matthew 21 of the two sons Jim – one who claims obedience to his Father but then doesn’t follow through vs the one who disassociates himself from his Father’s will but then does it anyway. The proof is in the pudding – at least in this example. Querry’s lived example resonated with Kingdom values even as he continued to tell himself that he had no faith. Is this simply an example of prevenient grace? Or is it an example of how hard people will work to suppress the innate knowledge of God, which I would suggest is part of the imago dei in all of us?
Chris and Jim,
I’ve read one Graham Greene novel that also ended quite abruptly with no closure – must be his style? Not having read the book maybe I shouldn’t comment – but Chris’s citing of the Matthew 21 passage is with great insight! I think scripture’s definition of faith is when trust or obedience is “in action.” But the mistake is to think that one is a pagan when faithless, as much as it is a mistake to see all pagans as faithless, as Peter Kreeft and CS Lewis have said. To be brief, our ritual-less youth are not necessarily faithless youth. And our ritual-full clergy are not necessarily faithful priests. Who was I wish, Chris, you? Didn’t you doubt the “chummy God” of modern evangelicals. You might have taken those words right from Querry. It’s a fair doubt. But The chummy evangelical (like me) needs to see Querrys with the respect that they deserve.