[issybird]

I've got to break up your post, as I've got a lot to respond to. I essentially agree with your points, but I find these strengths, not weaknesses.

Originally Posted by Catlady

So I was taken aback by the anti-Catholic/anti-religious tone of the novel, the snobbery and lack of respect that dismissed faith as superstition and magic.

I think this is a fairly typical reaction by nonbelievers, so I thought it well expressed in the voice of Maurice. The reality of religious belief is that it covers a wide spectrum from believing in something because the Bible/Mom said so to those who choose to believe and have a highly nuanced understanding of dogma and doctrine. And yes, if you can't accept that initial axiom it's all chicanery, but those who believe are not uniformly stupid, either.

And then Greene goes and turns dead Sarah into a saint--a real, honest-to-goodness, miracle-performing saint! A soul worthy of veneration, based on ... what? Which isn't to say that she might have become saintly, but that's a far cry from performing miracles, even iffy ones.

Miracles in general are highly problematic and there it is: miracle or coincidence? If you have to allow for coincidence, you're essentially only going to have iffy miracles. I agree that the process was far too rushed. Sarah was barely cold before she was a candidate for canonization, or so it seemed.

I disliked every character in the novel. Henry was so noble and long-suffering that I wanted to smack him upside the head. Sarah ... what was her struggle really about? You want to be a Catholic, go be a Catholic; believe, don't believe; who cares, just stop dramatizing. Maurice was a petty, nasty little man and I wouldn't have been displeased to see another wall fall on him. (I'm just full of Christmas spirit today, as you see.)

I can understand belief that's resisted; I think Sarah's path foretold the one Maurice was on. I think the essential difference is that Sarah accepted the entire Christian mythos whereas Maurice accepted a divinity without a framework. Sarah seemed quite explicitly Augustinian to me, "Lord, make me holy, but not yet." She fell into belief, whereas Maurice was going to have to will it, make the jump. Maurice uses both words and they reflect a different experience of God, it seems to me.