BOOK REVIEW - Honoré De Balzac’s The Atheist’s Mass – 1838 Penguin Classics.
Beautifully written satirical but poignant little parable in
a convenient short story presentation. Balzac was an atheist himself, who often
proved highly critical of religious sensibilities. In the Atheist’s Mass the
hero, Desplain, a wealthy French Surgeon and a socially notorious outspoken
atheist is spotted sneaking into a church every now and then by his inquisitive
valet, who sees him actually saying what to all intents and purposes look like
prayers. Suspecting hypocrisy and deception on the grand scale, the servant
follows his master, and eventually confronts his master and discovers the
truth. Desplain has not abandoned his principles at all. Though he remained an
ardent practicing atheist, and true to his Humanism, he was going to mass as a
promise to his ailing father who had lived ‘the simple faith of a charcoal
burner’. The father had never criticised or condemned Despain’s atheism, but
Desplain had made sure that his Father did have a mass said for him every day,
knowing that the simple man took comfort in a faith Desplain despaired of. Upon
his father’s death, Desplain realised how indebted he was to his only
benefactor, his father. He decided to reward the good man the only way he would
probably accept it, by having a mass said for him specially four times a year,
at his favourite church. It would take a supreme act of Humanism to say prayers
and attend masses in a faith you don’t believe, and here it is done from love
of a good father. The story shows that non-believers are as capable of goodness
and moral decision making as anyone who has a strong religious foundation for
their sense of right and wrong. Wonderful stuff. Various e-book versions of the
full text are available online. http://www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/rants/0520b-almanac.htm
Arthur Chappell
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