Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-06-01T13:28:46.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

“Kneel, compañero:” Monsignor Quixote's Sacramental Adventure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Abstract

Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote illustrates an ecclesiology of friendship through the title character's relationship with Sancho. Quixote is depicted as a holy fool, who is able to bring his companero back to the faith by his open mutual mediation with him. Greene has not strayed from orthodoxy, but has developed his theology compared to his earlier novels

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 I offer humble and heart-felt thanks to Dr. Constance Rousseau of Providence College for inspiring and guiding my effort, and encouraging me to look at the holy fool. I am also appreciative of everything my anonymous readers did to make this a stronger essay.

2 A Google scholar search for “Monsignor Quixote” yield 670 results; the same search for “The Power and the Glory” yields 11,900 results.

3 Davis, Robert Murray, “Figures In Greene's Carpet: The Power and The Glory to Monsignor Quixote.” Graham Greene Studies 1, no. 1 (2017): 11Google Scholar. At 25.

4 Entwistle, William J., “Cervantes, the exemplary novelist.” Hispanic Review 9, no. 1 (1941): 103-109CrossRefGoogle Scholar. At 104.

5 Henry, Patrick, “Doubt and Certitude in” Monsignor Quixote“.” College Literature 12, no. 1 (1985): 68-79Google Scholar.

6 John F. Desmond, “The Heart of (the) Matter: The Mystery of the Real in” Monsignor Quixote“.” Religion & Literature (1990): 59-78.

7 Holderness, Graham, “‘KNIGHT-ERRANT OF FAITH’: “MONSIGNOR QUIXOTE” AS ‘CATHOLIC FICTION’.” Literature and Theology 7, no. 3 (1993): 259-283Google Scholar.

8 Mark Bosco, Graham Greene's Catholic Imagination New York: Oxford University Press, 2005Google Scholar.

9 Hancock, Brannon, “Pluralism and Sacrament: Eucharistic Possibility in a Post-Ecclesial World.” Literature and Theology 19, no. 3 (2005): 265-277CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Davis, Robert Murray, “Figures In Greene's Carpet: The Power and The Glory to Monsignor Quixote.” Graham Greene Studies 1, no. 1 (2017): 11Google Scholar.

11 See, e.g., Flynn, Gabriel, “A Renaissance in Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology.” Irish Theological Quarterly 76, no. 4 (2011): 323-338CrossRefGoogle Scholar. (Interestingly, Péguy had a profound influence on Greene. Cf., Grahame C. Jones, “Graham Greene and the Legend of Péguy” Comparative Literature (1969): 138-145.) This movement brought forth a Eucharistic ecclesiology that saw the celebration of the Eucharist as constitutive of the church. Boersma, Hans “Sacramental Ontology: Nature and the supernatural in the ecclesiology of Henri de Lubac.” New Blackfriars 88, no. 1015 (2007): 242-273CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Boersma, “Sacramental Ontology” p. 249.

13 Phan, Peter C., “The wisdom of holy fools in postmodernity,” Theological Studies 62, no. 4 (2001): 730-752. p. 751CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Ibid. p. 732.

15 Ibid. p. 738.

16 Ibid. p. 745.

17 Balthasar, Hans Urs von, The Glory of the Lord vol. V, San Francisco: Ignatius Press 1991, p. 135Google Scholar.

18 Ibid. p. 142.

19 Ibid. p. 143.

20 Ibid. p. 146.

21 Ibid. p. 103.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid. p. 107.

25 Dadosky, John, “The Official Church and the Church of Love in Balthasar's Reading of John: An Exploration in Post-Vatican II Ecclesiology.’.” Studia canonica 41, no. 2 (2007): 453 at p. 454Google Scholar.

26 Ibid. p. 456.

27 Ibid. p. 470.

28 Von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord p. 146.

29 Greene, Graham, Monsignor Quixote New York: Simon & Schuster 1982 p. 167Google Scholar.

30 Dadosky, “The Official Church” p. 470.

31 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 16.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid. p. 17.

34 Ibid. p. 18.

35 Ibid. p. 25.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Durán, Leopoldo, Graham Greene: an intimate portrait by his closest friend and confidant. San Francisco: Harper, 1994 p. 212Google Scholar.

39 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 206.

40 Ways of Escape p. 265.

41 Ibid. p. 266.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Unamuno, Miguel de (trans. Earle, Homer P.), The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho Spain: A.A. Knopf 1927 p. 1Google Scholar.

45 Ibid. p. 6.

46 Ibid. p. 13.

47 Ibid. p. 15.

48 Von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord p. 174.

49 Ibid. p. 180.

50 Unamuno, The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho p. 19.

51 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 28.

52 Ibid.

53 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 41.

54 Ibid. p. 84.

55 John F. Desmond, “The Heart of (the) Matter” p. 67.

56 Bosco, Mark, “Seeing the Glory: Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory through the Lens of Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 4, no. 1 (2001): 34-53 at p. 39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Ibid. p. 50.

58 Ibid. p. 51.

59 Ibid. p. 120.

60 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 121.

61 Ibid. p. 123.

62 Ibid. p. 73.

63 Duran, Graham Greene p. 100.

64 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 55 (ellipsis original).

65 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 67.

66 Ibid. (ellipsis original).

67 Ibid. p. 69.

68 Bosco, p. 150.

69 Ibid. p. 180.

70 Ibid. p. 99.

71 Patrick Henry, “Doubt and Certitude” p. 69.

72 Graham Holderness, “‘KNIGHT-ERRANT OF FAITH’:” p. 276.

73 Von Balthasar, p. 133.

74 Ibid. p. 134.

75 Duran, Graham Greene p. 218 (ellipsis original).

76 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 155.

77 Ibid. p. 158.

78 Jimenez, Beatriz Valverde, “If you are afraid, go away and say your prayers”: Monsignor Quixote as a Thematic Transposition of Don Quixote.” Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America 38, no. 2 (2018): 81-99 at p. 90Google Scholar.

79 Ibid. p. 96.

80 Durán, Leopoldo, Graham Greene: an intimate portrait by his closest friend and confidant. San Francisco: Harper 1994 p. 158Google Scholar.

81 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 189.

82 Ibid. p. 195.

83 Ibid. p. 198.

84 Ibid. p. 462.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid. p. 200.

87 Yves Congar, At the Heart of Christian Worship: Liturgical Essays of Yves Congar. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2010 p. 5Google Scholar.

88 Healy, Nicholas J. Jr, “Christ's Eucharist and the Nature of Love: The Contribution of Hans Urs von Balthasar.” The Saint Anselm Journal 10, no. 2 (2015): 1-17 at p. 3Google Scholar.

89 Ibid. p. 7.

90 Boersma, Hans, “Sacramental Ontology: Nature and the Supernatural in the ecclesiology of Henri de Lubac” New Blackfriars 88, no. 1015 (2007) 242 – 273, p. 268CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

91 Komonchak, Joseph A., “Theology and Culture at Mid-century: the example of Henri de Lubac.” Theological Studies 51, no. 4 (1990): 579-602, p. 592CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

92 Lubac, Henri De, SJ The Splendour of the Church New York: Sheed & Ward 1956 p. 111Google Scholar.

93 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 17.

94 Ibid. p. 16.

95 Davis, “Figures” p. 26.

96 Duran, Graham Greene p. 219.

97 Ibid. p. 111.

98 Ibid. p. 112.

99 Query, Patrick, “God in the Guts: Graham Greene's Hard-Boiled Sacramentalism.”�Lonely Without God: Graham Greene's Quixotic Journey of Faith: Bethesda: Academica Press 2008 p.173-186Google Scholar at 177.

100 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 141.

101 Duran, Graham Greene p. 96.

102 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 215.

103 Ibid.

104 Desmond, “The Heart of the Matter” p. 67.

105 Ibid.

106 Ibid. p. 68.

107 Ibid. p. 74.

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid. p. 76.

110 Duran, Graham Greene p. 218.

111 Holderness, “‘Knight-Errant of Faith’ at p. 263.

112 Ibid.

113 Ibid. p. 264.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid. p. 271.

116 Ziolkowski, Eric, The sanctification of Don Quixote: from hidalgo to priest. University Park: Penn State Press, 2008 p. 235Google Scholar.

117 Ibid.

118 Brannon Hancock, “Pluralism and Sacrament” p. 266.

119 Ibid.

120 Ibid. Emphasis original.

121 Ibid.

122 Ibid. p. 268.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid.

125 Ibid. p. 271.

126 Ibid. p. 272.

127 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 123.

128 De Lubac, Splendour p. 92.

129 Ibid. p. 93.

130 Komonchak, Joseph A., “Theology and Culture at Mid-century: the example of Henri de Lubac.” Theological Studies 51, no. 4 (1990): 579-602CrossRefGoogle Scholar at p. 592.

131 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 220.

132 Bosco, Graham Greene's Catholic Imagination p. 152.

133 Ibid.

134 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 227.

135 Bosco, Catholic Imagination p. 152.

136 Yves Congar, At the Heart of Christian Worship p. 62 (emphasis mine).

137 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 219.

138 Ibid. p. 220.

139 Ibid.

140 Grant, Gerard G., “The Elevation of the Host: A Reaction to Twelfth Century Heresy.” Theological Studies 1, no. 3 (1940): 228-250CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

141 See, e.g., Doyle, Dennis M., “Journet, Congar, and the roots of communion ecclesiology.” Theological Studies 58, no. 3 (1997): 461-479CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Henri de Lubac and the roots of communion ecclesiology.” Theological Studies 60, no. 2 (1999): 209-227CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

142 John Dadosky, p. 457.

143 Ibid.

144 Dadosky, John D., “TOWARDS A FUNDAMENTAL THEOLOGICAL RE-INTERPRETATION OF VATICAN II.” The Heythrop Journal 49, no. 5 (2008): 742-763 at p. 752CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

145 Greene, The Power and the Glory p. 96.

146 Ibid. p. 97.

147 Ibid.

148 Ibid.

149 Ibid.

150 Ibid.

151 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 217.

152 Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul New York: Pocket Book 1974 p. 128.

153 Ibid.

154 Bosco, Catholic Imagination p. 114.

155 Dadosky, “Church of Love” p. 457.

156 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 196.

157 Ibid. p. 214.

158 Ibid.

159 Bosco, Catholic Imagination p. 152.

160 Greene, Monsignor Quixote p. 217.

161 Ibid.

162 Bosco, Catholic Imagination p. 152.

163 Ibid.