The Ambivalence of Faith: Sanctification, Religious Mitigation, and the Ethics of Suffering in Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter

Abstract

Greene was born on October 2, 1904. His father served as the headmaster at Berkhamsted School, where Greene received his early education before attending Balliol College, Oxford. Greene found school life difficult and monotonous, leading to a period of depression that eventually required psychoanalytic intervention. In his essay The Revolver in the Cupboard (1946) and his autobiography A Sort of Life (1971), Greene articulates the profound sense of despair he experienced during his school years. Oxford did little to alleviate his psychological distress, and he became increasingly aware of what he perceived as the futility and moral ambiguity of human existence. Although not naturally inclined toward scholarship, Greene aspired to academic achievement and ultimately earned a degree in modern history. In The Heart of the Matter (1948), the character Scobie is not a Catholic by birth but converts at the time of marriage. While Scobie regards his faith more as a habitual practice than a passionate conviction, it nonetheless transforms his life. He becomes one among many churchgoers, treating prayer as a formal obligation akin to maintaining a diary.