250 - The Prophetic Voice In Modern Fiction

The Prophetic Voice In Modern Fiction
By William R. Mueller
183 pp. New York, Association Press, 1959. $3.50.

Literature may be related to Christian faith in three ways: first, as literary method in the use of symbol, metaphor, and story are applicable to theological analysis; second, as literature treats the basic and perennial problems of human existence with which theology must come to grips; and last, as specific writers may express their visions of life in terms of a Christian frame of reference, as do Milton, Bunyan, and, in our own time, Eliot, Fry, and Auden. Professor Mueller is concerned, in his brief and stimulating study, with relationships of the second type. He brings to his task an educational background which includes degrees from Princeton, Yale, and Harvard, along with his present position as professor of English at Goucher College in Baltimore, and ordination to the Presbyterian ministry. In his book, he establishes a "dialogue" between the Christian Scriptures and the works of six leading modern novelists. The Bible, he holds, offers the "definitive" word on the relationship between man and God; but at the same time man must understand his own situation, its limits and its problems, before he can proceed to the fuller understanding of his own redemption. Much contemporary literature which passes as being "religious" fails to provide man with such needed insights, and so Mueller concentrates his attention upon the apparently "more secular" novels of James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), Albert Camus (The Fall), Franz Kafka (The Trial), William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury), Graham Greene (The Heart of the Matter), and Ignazio Silone (A Handful of Blackberries). Each of these works Mueller sees as offering modern man some larger measure of self-knowledge than he may already have acquired, and they are thus understood as being a prelude to the understanding of Biblical faith. Thus, as Mueller writes, "The serious student of modern fiction may discover that his reading eventuates in a self-knowledge alerting him to Biblical affirmations which have previously gone unnoticed."

Mueller treats his six novels in terms of six themes-although he is careful to make clear that the themes do not exhaust the significance of the novels, nor the novels the significance of the themes: here, again, his chosen word "dialogue" is significant. The themes are, for Joyce's novel, vocation; for Camus', the fall; for Kafka's, judgment; for Faulkner's,

251 - The Prophetic Voice In Modern Fiction

suffering; for Greene's, love; and for Silone's, the remnant. To each, a chapter is devoted, and each chapter is divided into three parts: the first part analyzes the novel itself in terms of the appropriate theme, and at the same time provides enough knowledge of the novel so that a reader may follow the account without having read each of the novels involved; the second part of each chapter provides a brief and suggestive survey of the Biblical treatment of the same theme; and the third section discusses the relationships between the Biblical insights and those provided by the novelists. In the course of his treatment, Mueller concentrates upon a number of very significant points. There is, for example, his sighting of Camus' conception of hell as self-knowledge apart from faith or hope or love. There is, too, the conception in Camus' novel of the good man who tips his hat to the blind-a fitting symbol for much which passes as virtue in contemporary society-and there is also the confession of Camus' protagonist that throughout his life, despite his reputation for benevolence and virtue, he was merely looking for "objects of pleasure and conquest" in his relations with other people.

These examples, restricted to Mueller's treatment of one novel for reasons of the limitations of space, will serve to suggest how he leads the reader from concern with the subjects of his own book, into a deeper understanding of the novels he treats, into a desire to read those novels for himself, and ultimately into a desire for a closer analysis of the Biblical treatments of the same themes. Professor Mueller has thus provided a useful introduction, not only to six of the more prominent novels of our time, but also to the mind of our time as it is represented in those novels. With wisdom and discernment, he provides an analysis of the problems facing modem man, an understanding of certain representative responses to those problems, and a comparison of those responses with the distinctively Christian responses. Some will feel, as I do, that at points Mueller has underestimated the distance separating certain of these novels from the Christian faith, but most will agree that he has clearly contributed to our understanding of modern man. Although self-knowledge is not all that is involved in salvation, it does figure prominently in salvation, and Professor Mueller cites Calvin's linking of self-knowledge with the knowledge of God as the main characteristics of wisdom. As Mueller says, "One can hardly reach a cherished destination if he does not know his point of departure." Mueller has admirably provided us with suggestive insights into our present situation, as our actual point of departure. He writes with a clarity of style which reflects his clarity of mind.

Roland Mushat Frye
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia