A Kierkegaardian Interpretation of Two Portraits of Martyrdom in Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory

A Kierkegaardian Interpretation of Two Portraits of Martyrdom in Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory

本論文試圖以齊克果宗教人學思想為視角，藉其透過信仰生命成為「自我」以脫離致死絕望、及殉道意義在於見證真實救贖等觀點，探討宗教政治小說《權力與榮耀》中現代殉道者既對立亦「契合」的存在趨向、心靈痼疾、與救贖之道。此研究的焦點係此小說平行刻畫之兩個非典型「殉道者」角色，一為受宗教迫害而逃命的神父，現實生活兼具有酒鬼和私生女生父的失格身份，另一為深信且獻身社會主義、竭力迫害教會並將神父趕盡殺絕的警官，深入剖析此兩種「殉道者」角色皆陷於「無我」的犧牲和「自我」的失落兩者交錯矛盾的「殉道」旅程。從小說敘事中死亡、犧牲、和救贖的意義、自我與信仰的關係、以及出於責任或理想成為「殉道者」的存在趨向是否實為絕望現象等面向，提出深刻的反問。
此研究期能結合齊克果詮釋自我、死亡和生命獨特的動態存在觀和現代小說聚焦「殉道者」的非傳統書寫，反思現代語境中世俗化的政治承諾和超越性的宗教救贖，兩者之間的對比與終極追求。

This paper attempts to do a Kierkegaardian reading of The Power and the Glory, a religious and political novel featured by unorthodox and paradoxical portrayals of two“self-less”martyr-figures to represent Church and Communist Government—a sinful priest faced with (undeserved) martyrdom and an anti-religious but“mystic-like”lieutenant of political idealism. Through the lens of Kierkegaard’s thoughts about authenticity of being a martyr and becoming a“self”as the spiritual antidote to despair, or,“sickness unto death,”this paper means to explore the novel’s related themes of martyrdom, selfhood, despair, and salvation by interpreting its intriguing representation of the priest and the lieutenant as two“martyrs”of some“kindred spirit.”
To wrestle with the intriguing question about the“kinship”between the two opponents, Kierkegaard’s religious-existential ideas about pathology and potentiality of subjective existence, specifically his conceptions of despair, self, and salvation as existential possibilities, are appropriated to probe into the meanings of death and martyrdom and the truth about the two central characters’selfhood. Key questions for investigation include: Does the priest embrace death before he dies as a martyr? Does a life unto death (despair) or a pilgrimage into life (faith) ultimately define this sinful priest’s selfhood and martyrdom? Being a“saint-like”and self-made“martyr,”does the lieutenant, self-sufficient and“selfless”as he is, have a self for sacrifice at all? Whose martyrdom, the priest’s or the lieutenant’s, possibly promises salvation even to the“martyr”himself?
To further this Kierkegaardian interpretation by seeking to grasp the novel’s title, Greene’s declaration of his intent to contrast the“indestructible”Church and the“temporal”Government deserves serious consideration. Moreover, with light gained from St. Paul’s confession of faith, the study reaches the conclusion that“the power and the glory”of salvation ultimately pertain to“that which remains,”rather than politics or religion.