Sex and the Single Canon – Glittering Images
Sex and religion make cozy bedfellows in the series of six Starbridge novels by Susan Howatch. The books are the perfect antidote to the literary legacy Bishop Benhase acknowledged and bewailed in his latest eCrozier Kill George Herbert? The problem our bishop notes is the ideal of a priest as “omni-present, omni-competent, and omni-affirming.”
Following a 1980 move to live in the shadow of Salisbury Cathedral, Susan Howatch experienced a spiritual epiphany. This lead to her writing the series of novels which are set in the fictional Diocese of Starbridge and begin in the 1930s. In each novel, the theological struggles of the times are viewed through the lives of very real, and therefore flawed, priests and bishops who seek to follow God’s leading. Unlike the writings of George Herbert with an idealized priesthood of visiting parishioners every morning and settling in to write metaphysical poetry each afternoon, the priests and bishops of Howatch’s imagination struggle with the shadow side of their God-given gifts and human frailties.
Lest my headline be hyperbole, Glittering Images does feature the carnal struggles of a widowed cathedral canon who fights his inner demons while trying to burnish the image he presents to the world. And yet, even as the characters’ flaws have some tragic consequences through the series, they never lose site of the ideal. For example, in wondering whether a woman he is deeply attracted to is suitable, Canon Ashworth thinks, “No matter how strongly I felt that Lyle was right for me I would have no choice but to accept that she was wrong if I had uncovered evidence that she was not devout. How could one live in the closest intimacy unless she was able to understand the fundamemtal force in one’s life. An attraction of spiritual opposites was a disaster for any clergyman.”
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Looking for model clergy in fiction? Ditch Father Tim and his idyllic Mitford for the Strarbridge series. I love these books (Glittering Images, Glamorous Powers, Ultimate Prizes, Scandalous Risks, Mystical Paths and Absolute Truths) and not just because the canon can be sexy, but because a Rule of Life is taken seriously, spiritual direction is viewed as critical and even in crisis the flawed clergy continually turn to scripture and prayer and the sacraments and through these means, God breaks in with healing and redemption.
Howatch deals with the real inner turmoil behind the glittering images and glamorous powers that might help a promising young man (remember the time period) rise in the ranks of clergy. The solution in the novels, as in life, is to drop the mask and live the authentic life to which God has called you. This is true whether that calling is as a firefighter, sailor or teacher as much as for a priest. We are never called to be omnipresent or omni-competant and rathering than omni-affirming, sometimes God comes not with a pat on the back, but with a tough word and difficult consequences for our choices. Yet these novels reveal that God can redeem our faults. We are not to achieve perfection, but to be real and faithful and when we fall short, to repent and return to the Lord.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
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