Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools

Miriam Zbíralová

Faith and Religion in Selected Novels by Iris Murdoch Master‟s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A.

2012

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author‟s signature

Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my supervisor, prof. Franková, for valuable advice and constant support during the whole process of writing the thesis. Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 5

1 Religion and Morality ...... 7

1.1 The Nature of Good and Morality ...... 7

1.2 God and Good ...... 17

1.3 Morality without Religion ...... 22

2 Religion, Morality and Art ...... 31

2.1 Art and Morality ...... 31

2.2 Art and Religion ...... 35

3 Selected Religions in Murdoch‟s Philosophy and Fiction ...... 41

3.1 Christianity ...... 41

3.2 Judaism ...... 51

3.3 Buddhism ...... 55

4 Demythologisation of Religion ...... 59

Conclusion ...... 64

List of Abbreviations ...... 67

Bibliography ...... 68

Résumé (English) ...... 71

Resumé (česky) ...... 72 Introduction

One of the things that make the fiction of Iris Murdoch special is that the author was at the same time a philosopher, and, although her novels are not philosophical as such, there is certainly some interplay of the two areas of Murdoch‟s interest, especially in that the novels often illustrate the theoretical ideas of her moral philosophy. Many questions posed by Iris Murdoch the philosopher are concerned with religion, such as the position of morality in a world where religion is in decline, the relationship of religion and morality, and the role of mysticism, and these questions were also echoed in Murdoch‟s novels.

The present thesis aims to analyse the role of religion, faith, and also, since it is in part connected to religion, morality in selected novels by Iris Murdoch, which span over around thirty years of Murdoch‟s writing, starting with The Time of the Angels

(TA) of the 60s, continuing with The Sea, the Sea (TSTS) of the late 70s, Nuns and

Soldiers (NS) and The Message to the Planet (MP) of the 80s, and concluding with The

Green Knight (GK) of the 90s. By analysing several novels, it is possible to trace some evolution of Murdoch‟s treatment of religion in time, and it is also valuable to compare the treatment of similar themes in more novels. The basis for the analysis will be provided to a great degree by Murdoch‟s philosophical works, and another aim of the thesis is, therefore, to compare the philosophy and the fiction, and to try to trace some of the philosophical ideas concerning religion and related topics in the novels. However, it is necessary to bear in mind that Murdoch by no means wanted to use her fiction as mere examples of her philosophical ideas. As she said in conversation with Brian

Magee, “I feel in myself such an absolute horror of putting theories or „philosophical ideas‟ as such into my novels. I might put in things about philosophy because I happen

5 to know about philosophy. If I knew about sailing ships I would put in sailing ships”

(Murdoch, EM 19-20). It is clear from this statement that literature is for her a separate area of interest. However, there certainly is some overlap in that the same topics might occur in both areas, although in a completely different manner. The present thesis will therefore concentrate on these overlaps, not with the purpose of trying to prove that the novels are in any way philosophical, but to trace the ways in which these overlaps may be helpful both for better understanding of Murdoch‟s philosophy, as well as her novels.

Since the basis for the thesis is Murdoch‟s philosophy, the chapters will follow relevant philosophical concepts and draw parallels to the novels. First of all, the focus will be on the relationship of religion and morality, in which the various overlaps as well as differences between these two areas will be outlined. Then, I will discuss the place of art in the framework of religion and moral philosophy, and after that I will focus more specifically on Murdoch‟s treatment of Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism.

Finally, a summary and extension of a concept of demythologisation of religion that is present throughout all Murdoch‟s concern with religion will be given.

6 1 Religion and Morality

Clearly, there is some relationship and some overlaps of the concepts of religion and morality. In Murdoch‟s view, “Morality has always been connected with religion and religion with mysticism” (SOG 74). For Murdoch it is important, however, even if religion is in decline, to retain the connection of morals to mysticism, because, as

Murdoch states, “the background to morals is properly some sort of mysticism, if by this is meant a non-dogmatic essentially unformulated faith in the reality of Good”

(SOG 74). It is therefore clear that for Murdoch the relationship of religion and morality is quite complex and some features that we usually associate with religion should in her view be retained in morality as well.

However, before focusing on the relationship of religion and morality (and of

God and Good), it is necessary to discuss the very conception of morality and Good, as seen by Iris Murdoch.

1.1 The Nature of Good and Morality

The concept of Good is a ubiquitous theme of Murdoch‟s philosophical works, and enters her novels as well. In her essay “Iris Murdoch and the Nature of Good,”

Elizabeth Burns offers a comprehensive summary of what Good means for Murdoch.

Primarily, “the Good exists objectively; it is not a creation of human mind”

(Burns 306). However, “Murdoch gives us no indication of how we are to recognise goodness; she merely assumes that everyone is able to do this” (Burns 310). This implies that although we cannot define Good, we know if our conduct is aiming towards it or not. We can see this idea quite well when looking at some characters of Murdoch‟s novels, especially in The Time of the Angels. Two of the characters, Muriel and

Elizabeth, “prided themselves on being theoretical immoralists” (TA 42), but, on the

7 other hand, “they lived indeed the strictly ordered life” (TA 42). Therefore, although they reject the idea of objective morality, they live according to some moral system anyway. Something similar can be seen with another immoralist of the novel, Leo, when he says, “I‟ve always imagined that I could just give up morals, but it‟s not so easy. I‟m not as free as I think” (136). Also, when Eugene loses his faith in God, and thus probably loses the feeling that morality is objective, he does not renounce good conduct, as can be seen when he thinks, “Did it matter now . . . , his unkindness to

Tanya, since there was no God? He felt that it mattered” (233). This idea is well described by another character of this novel, Norah, who says, “ordinary morality goes on and always will go on whatever the philosophers and theologians have to say” (195).

All these indications show that although none of the characters can define what is good, and some even want to go against it, it is impossible for them to abandon morality completely. This can be taken to imply some degree of objectivity of morality.

In other novels, we can see something similar from the fact that the conduct of some characters who adopt their own, subjective moral system has serious consequences. For example, in The Message to the Planet, Jack decides to live openly with both his wife and his mistress, which is in the end harmful to both women, and moreover, the seemingly well functioning relationship influences other characters, such as Geoffrey Toller, who says at one point, “He‟s got them both. They‟re all happy. Just look at them! The women love it, they love it” (368), and he starts to imagine the situation himself, when he thinks, “it would be very nice indeed. And why stop at two?”

(368). The private, subjective morality that Jack introduced thus turns out to be harmful to others. We can also find serious consequences of seemingly insignificant lies in the novels. Hartley in The Sea, the Sea did not even lie to her husband, but only did not tell him about her relationship with Charles. Subsequently, this brought about pathological

8 jealousy from the part of her husband. Similarly, in Nuns and Soldiers Tim does not tell

Gertrude about his former lover Daisy and this actually results in the couple splitting up.

It is also suggested in the novel that all lies are revealed in the end, as we can see when

Gertrude tells Tim, “the truth got hold of you at last” (444). It is thus once again suggested that morality cannot be escaped.

Another aspect of Good in Murdoch‟s philosophy, apart from its objectivity, is the impossibility to define it. She warns against the tendency to use other concepts to define Good, because “if we try to define Good as X we have to add that we mean of course a good X. If we say that Good is Reason we have to talk about good judgement.

If we say that Good is Love we have to explain that there are different kinds of love.

Even the concept of Truth has its ambiguities” (SOG 98). Good is therefore to be thought of as something absolute, which cannot be defined by concepts that are not absolute. Murdoch is here clearly influenced by Moore and Simone Weil. She focuses herself on Moore‟s distinction between two questions, “the question, what things are good? and the question, what does the word „good‟ mean?” (EM 59) and adds that

Moore also “claimed that „good‟ was undefinable” (EM 59). Similarly, Weil asserts that

“there are two goods of the same denomination but radically different from each other: one which is the opposite of evil and one which is absolute. The absolute has no opposite” (GG 144-145). It is important to bear in mind, therefore, that the Good which is the central concept of Murdoch‟s philosophy is the absolute concept.

However, both Murdoch‟s philosophy and her novels are concerned also with the relative concept of good as opposed to evil, and with good as a quality that can be assigned to something or someone. First, I will focus on the opposition of good and evil.

Murdoch is again probably influenced by Simone Weil, who claims that “good is essentially other than evil. Evil is multifarious and fragmentary, good is one, evil is

9 apparent, good is mysterious . . . There is no depth or transcendence in evil” (GG 63).

This idea is also present in the novels because of the fact that some truly evil characters in Murdoch‟s novels seem to be rather caricatures, such as Carel in The Time of the

Angels. However, another character who is generally depicted as evil, Lucas in The

Green Knight, is a little more complex, and it is even suggested by one of the characters of the novel that “Lucas can be – not like he seems” (421). On the other hand, characters that are good are much more complex and actually only few characters can be described as thoroughly and perfectly good.

Murdoch is also concerned with “the (charming aesthetic) notion of the love affair between good and evil” (MGM 490) and with “the account . . . of the self- contradictory nature of morality. Secretly good loves evil, because without evil it would not be good” (MGM 489). This concern is apparent in some novels as well. As Conradi points out, “it is a feature of Murdoch‟s monsters that everyone loves them despite, or rather masochistically for their monstrous egoism” (234). Most significantly, we can see this feature in The Time of the Angels and in The Green Knight. Carel in The Time of the

Angels is definitely in a way loved by Pattie, who is unable to leave him. Also, Muriel is attracted to Leo because of what “was precisely that moral, or rather immoral, friskiness, that cheerful willingness to behave badly” (TA 129). In The Green Knight, many characters love Lucas. Hilda D. Spear points out that “on several occasions

Bellamy describes Lucas as „anti-Christ‟ but he nevertheless loves him” (115).

Moreover, one of the characters, Aleph, who otherwise seemed perfectly good, leaves with Lucas in order to marry him. Spear interprets this event as an abduction (118), but

Murdoch definitely does not give any clear indication that the event should be interpreted like this, and Aleph may have as well left from her own will. Overall, the reason of good loving evil is never explained in the novels, also because the characters

10 themselves probably cannot do so. The idea that good loves evil in order to be good is merely one of the possible explanations. This view is suggested by Harvey in The Green

Knight when he says, “Beauty and the Beast. Women love Beasts” (421), but Murdoch does not give a definite answer. Another possible reason is suggested in Nuns and

Soldiers where Anne says that “We like to have a sinner whom we can cast out and drive away into wilderness. We pass our pain by thinking of other people as evil” (360).

She thus expresses the idea that worse people make us feel better, but thinking of the people as evil in this case may only be an illusion.

Another recurrent theme of both Murdoch‟s philosophy and her fiction is the discussion of who can be described as a good person. The point of departure is

Murdoch‟s assumption that “as the „inner life‟ is hazy, largely absent . . . it turns out to be logically impossible to take up an idle contemplative attitude to the good. Morality must be action” (SOG 15). A good person can thus only be characterized by doing what is good. This practical attitude towards morality is reflected when Murdoch says that

“one would also like to know whether, on the whole, Mary or Martha led a better life”

(332), and in Nuns and Soldiers, Gertrude actually compares herself to Mary, and Anne to Martha (384). The more practical goodness of Martha and Anne can thus be seen as more valuable for Murdoch rather than the “contemplative” goodness of Mary. In connection to this it is worth mentioning that for Murdoch ethics is above all about human relationships (Franková, BS 145), and it is in relationships that human goodness becomes apparent. James Laney takes Murdoch‟s concern with the need of ethics to be

“a convincing portrayal of moral life as we know it” (406) and points to “the inadequacy of any ethics which does not take feeling and emotion seriously, as it is embedded within and arises out of ordinary experience” (414). It is also important to note that “Murdoch reacted sharply against . . . effort to base morality on the will”

11 (Cupitt). It is thus emotion and human relationships that are a crucial part of Murdoch‟s moral philosophy, and this is also reflected in her characteristics of a good person.

In Murdoch‟s view, the crucial step in being a good person is “to defeat our

„natural‟ egoism” (Burns 303). When discussing this process, there is an important concept called “attention” by Simone Weil, which Murdoch borrows. This term is characterized by Miles in this way: “It is not the kind of concentrated mental effort normally suggested by the expression „paying attention‟, nor is it any particularly careful kind of scrutiny. It is rather a form of stepping back from all roles, including that of observer. It is a distancing of one‟s self not only from the thing observed, but from one‟s own faculties of observation” (8). It means, therefore, that attention is a crucial part of the process of unselfing that leads to impersonality, which “is only reached by the practice of a form of attention” (Miles 76). Murdoch adopts these terms and emphasizes that in being good, “the difficulty is to keep the attention fixed upon real situation and to prevent it from returning surreptitiously to the self with consolations of self-pity, resentment, fantasy and despair” (SOG 91), which implies that “attention for

Murdoch means unselfing, while attention to self in order to gain self-knowledge is indulging in a delusion” (Franková, HR 67). Two most important things about being good are thus not being selfish, and being aware of the reality and not indulging oneself in fantasies. As put by Murdoch herself, “„Good‟: „Real‟: „Love‟. These words are closely connected” (SOG 42). Here again, Weil‟s thoughts are resonated, because she, too, emphasized the value of love in renouncing egoism, because “when a human being is in any degree necessary to us, we cannot desire his good unless we cease to desire our own” (Miles 284).

Having briefly discussed what being good involves in Murdoch‟s philosophy, the focus will now centre on the characteristics of the potentially good characters of the

12 novels. However, unlike some of the evil characters, such as Carel in The Time of the

Angels, saying that some characters are good is much more complicated. Nevertheless, comparing their characteristics with those delineated in Murdoch‟s philosophical work can at least give some clues.

One of the characteristics of a good person is being humble. As Murdoch states,

“The humble man, because he sees himself as nothing, can see other things as something . . . And although he is not by definition good man perhaps he is the kind of man who is most likely of all to become good” (SOG 104). Such humble characters are often not particularly memorable. An example of these can be Gildas from The Message to the Planet. He plays only a minor part in the plot, and only at the end of the book does he reveal to his friend Ludens that he has been having serious problems (560).

Similarly, Anne in Nuns and Soldiers is humble and never reveals her feelings for the

Count, with whom she is in love. Although her part in the plot is noticeably larger than that of Gildas, her role is that of helping the others and never pursuing her own goals.

This is partly because of the fact that she is an ex-nun, and the other characters do not seem to expect her to have her own, we could say selfish, aims and wishes. Her altruism becomes eventually a consolation for her in her personal unhappiness, when she thinks,

“At least . . . it is possible to help people, to make them happier and less anxious” (508).

However, not all altruistic figures are always depicted as thoroughly good. For example,

Tessa in The Green Knight, who engages in social work and thus helps people, is quite an ambiguous figure, “an anomaly, a misfit or enigma” (GK 52), liked by some characters and disliked by others. Also, later on in the book, Tessa‟s contacting doctor

Fonsett, is an ambiguous deed. On one hand, she does so in order to show the truth about Peter Mir, and on the other hand, Bellamy sees her deed as a betrayal (GK 351).

Spear also interprets her role in this passage as being “both the thirteenth – the bringer

13 of ill-luck – and the betraying Judas” (111). Thus, like many other aspects of this novel,

Tessa‟s character remains a riddle. It is also worth noting that although Charles in The

Sea, the Sea never succeeds in being altruistic, it is his aim “to repent of egoism”

(TSTS 3) and “to learn to be good” (TSTS 2) and at the end of the novel wonders whether he could “learn to love uselessly and unpossessively” (TSTS 460). He thus seems to know what to do to become good, but eventually does not fulfil this aim.

Goodness of the characters can also be apparent in the way they care not only for other people, but also for animals, or even inanimate objects, such as stones. An obvious example is Moy in The Green Knight, who “thinks everything in the world is alive” (GK 62) and it is taken to such an extreme that her sister Sefton once remarks that she “heard her say sorry to a piece of lemon peel” (229). However, this characteristic cannot be taken as a reliable indication of the characters‟ goodness, because even the

“theoretical immoralist” of The Time of The Angels, Muriel, tells Pattie at one moment,

“Mind that spider, Pattie. Rescue him, would you?” (7), and Charles in The Sea, the Sea engages in rescuing a spider as well (75). Similarly, although the fact that the three

Anderson sisters in The Green Knight are vegetarians may be interpreted as a sign of their caring for animals, and consequently of their goodness, we see that Carel from The

Time of the Angels is a vegetarian too, but far from being good. As suggested before, being good is a very complex matter which cannot be reduced to listing some characteristics, because it always depends on the particular situation, and, moreover,

Murdoch never reveals everything in her novels and the reader thus cannot know all the details about the characters.

Nevertheless, there is one more moral concept connected to characters‟ goodness which is worth discussing, and that is innocence. Murdoch points out, that

“the retention of innocence is an important and underrated idea in morals” (MGM 332),

14 and she illustrates the idea by stating that “the Prodigal Son is more attractive than his brother, but the latter, who in his dull way never abandoned his decent habits, might also be taken as a model” (MGM 332). In connection to retention of innocence, it is definitely worth discussing the character of Moy in The Green Knight. She desperately wants to keep her innocence and cannot accept the idea of losing it. She generally does not want things to change, which is apparent when she says, “how I wish we could all stay like this forever” (17), and she also insists that innocence can be retained forever

“if you just don’t do things” (18). Spear sees Moy‟s goodness as “Milton‟s „fugitive and cloistered virtue‟, a kind of naïve innocence which had not had to cope with temptation”

(113), which is similar to what Moy‟s sister Aleph expresses, saying “we are really lucky and sheltered and naive. We are awfully nice to people, but we don‟t go out into the violence and the chaos and help people” (18). However, by the end of the novel,

Moy loses much of her idealism and it actually gives the impression of her being better able to see the reality of the world. And thus, her possibly approaching loss of innocence does not have to be interpreted negatively.

Finally, it is worth focusing on three characters of different novels, who can be described as “white magicians,” because on one hand they have some characteristics of good people, and on the other hand they apparently exercise supernatural powers. These figures are James in The Sea, the Sea, Marcus in The Message to the Planet, and Peter

Mir in The Green Knight. The very connection of good and magic is a paradox, because in Murdoch‟s philosophy magic is a negative concept. This has the effect that the characters are to a certain degree ambiguous. Diane N. Capitani points to the fact that when reading The Sea, the Sea, “the reader is forced to consider whether James is a figure of true good or instead a „white magician‟” (104). However, out of the three,

James is probably closest to what can be described as a good man, because he is modest

15 about his powers and it is actually suggested that he is disgusted by “a spirituality which had somehow degenerated into magic” (TSTS 474). Marcus is, on the other hand, a really ambiguous figure, who is, like Tessa in The Green Knight, loved by some and hated by others. Also, he undergoes some changes as the story goes on. Only later in the novel does he realize that he should not have been so proud and he says, “I thought that

I could – somehow – establish holiness – make a place that is holy – even heal people – bring peace to minds of – But I was wrong, I was not worthy, I am not worthy” (383).

Yet another case is that of Peter Mir. He, too, is ambiguous in that he is loved by some and not trusted by others. However, there is a complete change in his character after he

“remembers God” and stops to desire revenge. He uses his possible supernatural powers to help people, but we do not see him as humble, like in the case of James. As Sikorska points out when comparing Peter Mir to the Green Knight, “the Green Knight in the medieval romance was neither an essentially good nor essentially evil figure but a synthesis of all such traits, and so is Peter Mir” (267). Overall, the “good magicians” are not to be equated to good people. As expressed in The Message to the Planet, “He wanted to be a good magician. But is there such a thing? What mortal can have such power and not be corrupted?” (497). Thus, although these characters may have a good influence on others and help them, they remain ambiguous as far as their goodness is concerned. It can be seen, therefore, that only rarely are there any characters who could be described as perfectly good in Murdoch‟s novels, and that the concept of being good is very complex.

The nature of Good and morality for Iris Murdoch, as expressed in her philosophy and fiction, can be summarized by saying that Good is absolute, objective and indefinable, and that being good involves caring for others and renouncing selfishness.

16 1.2 God and Good

Having discussed the general view of Iris Murdoch on morality and Good, I will now focus on the relationship of religion and morality, of God and Good, and on the overlaps of these concepts, as well as the differences as expressed by Murdoch in her philosophy and fiction.

First of all, it is necessary to say that “God” is definitely not a single, easily defined concept. There may be many interpretations of the word and many also appear in Murdoch‟s works. Moreover, as Robert J. Baker points out, “she has a simplified, almost cartoonish, view of the Christian conception of God” (293), because she “does not take Augustine, Aquinas, or Christian Platonism into her account” (293). However, one thing that is clear is that Murdoch is opposed to the idea of personal God. For

Murdoch “religion is above the gods” (EM 513), as expressed in one of her platonic dialogues. This idea is mentioned in some of her novels as well, such as in Nuns and

Soldiers where one of the characters says that personal God is “the most anti-religious idea you can imagine” (465). It is clear, therefore, that for Murdoch it is crucial to distinguish between religion and the faith in personal God. She eventually claims that “a

Christian who loses belief in God and resurrection and immortality, while remaining religious, is not necessarily making a radical change in his value world” (MGM 376).

The questions concerning the existence of personal God, the question whether there is a life after death and similar are thus irrelevant for religion.

As Capitani claims, “Murdoch creates her own definition of God” (100), whose basic characteristics are similar to those of Good: absolute, indefinable and transcendent. When we understand God in this way, it is clear that there are overlaps of the concepts of God and Good, and also, consequently, of religion and morality.

However, the terms should not be equated, because there are differences as well.

17 The most important link of the two concepts is summarized by Murdoch herself saying “I shall suggest that God was (or is) a single perfect transcendent non- representable and necessarily real object of attention; and I shall go on to suggest that moral philosophy should attempt to retain a central concept which has all these characteristics” (SOG 55). We can see the link between this God and Good in Peter

Mir‟s transformation in The Green Knight, in which he remembers God. It is this kind of transcendent God that he has in mind, because, as he explains himself, he “used the word [God] as a brief way of indicating a spiritual path” (298), that is, not in the sense of personal God. This transformation also, as will be discussed later, made him orientate towards goodness. In the quote by Murdoch included above, God was also defined as an

“object of attention” (SOG 55), and in this sense the concept of attention is similar to that of prayer. Once again, Murdoch is influenced by Weil, who actually claims that

“attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love” (GG 105), and “absolutely unmixed attention is prayer” (GG 106). Just like attention, prayer necessarily leads to Good (or God). As Weil puts it, “uninterrupted interior prayer is the only perfect criterion of good and evil. Everything which does not interrupt it is permitted, everything which interrupts it is forbidden” (GG 115). The crucial idea for Murdoch is that the prayer is constant, and that it does not regard the self, but on the contrary, like attention, moves one‟s thoughts away from the self. It “is properly not petition, but simply an attention to God which is a form of love” (SOG 55).

Also, Murdoch appreciates the mystical value of prayer when she says that prayer “is indeed a vital mediating concept, enabling the liberating discovery of the divine in one‟s own soul” (MGM 448). In this sense, prayer could probably be equated with meditation.

However, in Murdoch‟s view prayer “may be „misused‟ by the believer as a mere

18 instrument of consolation” (SOG 83), in which case the object of attention is the self.

Murdoch‟s fiction offers examples of various kinds of prayer.

In The Green Knight, Father Damien, “whose philosophy seems in many ways to accord with that of Murdoch herself” (Spear 111), writes in one of his letters to

Bellamy “Pray – pray every moment” (222). He thus suggests that prayer should be a constant state, rather than an activity. A similar idea is present also in Nuns and

Soldiers, where Anne “had lived a long time with the practice of prayer, not as a regular intermittent willed routine, but as a total mode of being” (NS 64). As stated by Murdoch in one of her platonic dialogues, “learning can be praying, breathing can be praying.

Prayer is keeping quiet and hoping for the light” (EM 518). However, despite Damien‟s advice, Bellamy is unable to engage in such prayer and overall is not satisfied with his prayers which he describes as “becoming fat” (265). This inability to engage in constant prayer can be seen as a reflection of his inability to keep attention focused on God (or

Good) and of his general selfishness, in spite of his resolution to be good. A completely different kind of prayer is practiced by characters who, although they may not believe in

God, pray in order to get something they desire. An example of this can be Charles in

The Sea, the Sea, who “prayed: let me find Hartley and let her be alone and let her love me and be made happy by me forever” (113). This prayer is far from what Murdoch proposes, as it is the “petition” and moreover a selfish one.

A great difference between the Good and the traditional God is that “personal

God could at least play a consoling role” (SOG 72), and that the Judaeo-Christian God is “a supreme love object . . . God sees us and seeks us, Good does not” (MGM 83).

However, it does not seem as a deficiency of the Good in comparison with personal

God, because what Murdoch emphasizes most in her philosophy is focusing on reality and keeping away from fantasies. Thus, a false consolation may have a negative effect

19 resulting in obscuring the vision of reality. It is clear that the transcendent, impersonal

God whom Murdoch proposes cannot play the consoling role of the personal God and is in this respect really close to the concept of Good. This is well illustrated in Nuns and

Soldiers and even more in The Green Knight. In both the novels the characters, Anne and Bellamy, decide to give up the world and become religious. In both cases they seek consolation, or rather a way to satisfy their conscience, and to repent of their conduct.

Anne thinks that “fugitive and cloistered virtue was better than none. She would regain her innocence and keep it under lock and key” (61). This resolution was only possible for her because “she took to a fervent belief in a personal God, a personal Saviour” (61).

Bellamy, although he never actually goes to the monastery, is seeking consolation in his belief in personal God as well. His idea is that “his heart . . . must break, and his consolation would be to brood upon his own pain” (GK 44). We can see here that his idea of consolation is linked to masochism as well. The fact that it is a personal God, in whom he seeks consolation, is apparent from his concern with Christ as a historical figure and with various other details from the Bible, which are of great importance for him in forming his belief. However, both of the characters eventually hurt their friends by making the resolution to go into a monastery (or a convent). In Nuns and Soldiers,

Anne hurts her best friend Gertrude, who has to cope on her own with the fact that

“Anne was gone, her Anne existed no more” (NS 49). Bellamy too, when he decided to give up the world, hurt his friends, and most of all his dog Anax whom he decided to give away too. Consequently, it is impossible for Bellamy to come to visit the Anderson family, who take care of Anax, because of the fact that he must not come near his dog not to make him suffer even more. Thus, like Gertrude in Nuns and Soldiers, Louise and her daughters lose contact with Bellamy, who used to be their good friend. Eventually,

20 it is when Anne and Bellamy cease to believe fervently in personal God, that they come back to their friends and back to contact with reality.

In the above mentioned cases it was selfishness that caused the harm to others. It is one of the greatest dangers that “any religion or ideology can be degraded by the substitution of the self, usually in some disguise, for the true object of veneration”

(Murdoch, SOG 101). The substitution of self in the place of God is even more explicit for example in The Time of the Angels, where Carel literally thinks of himself as God, as he admits when saying, “when I celebrate mass I am God” (174) and he even imposes this idea on Pattie, who, too, thinks of him as “the Lord God” (208). Similarly,

Charles in The Sea, the Sea assumes a position similar to that of God when he says, “I wonder if you know what it‟s like when you have to guard somebody, to guard them in your heart against all damage and all darkness, and to sort of renew them as if you were

God” (361). Charles, like Carel, exercises power over Hartley when keeping her in his house, and moreover, he thinks of it as his duty and is sure that he is doing the right thing.

I have so far emphasized the practical value of morality, that is being altruistic and helping the others. However, Murdoch repeatedly emphasized also mysticism as an inseparable part of morality. This is connected to the notion that metaphysics and morals somehow overlap, and so do metaphysics and religion, as put by Michael

Hirsley, who claims that “Murdoch sees metaphysics and religion converging in the belief that there is absolute good and absolute evil.” Mysticism is thus without question another point at which morality and religion overlap in Murdoch‟s thought. She even defines true morality as “a sort of unesoteric mysticism, having its source in an austere and unconsoled love of the Good” (SOG 92). As far as the link between religion and morality is concerned, she proposes with regard to mysticism to speak “in terms of a

21 move from religion into morality, that is a rediscovery of religious modes of thought deep inside morals” (MGM 304). This means that even in a secular society, the value of mysticism should not be underestimated. In connection to this Murdoch emphasizes the need of “a theology which can continue without God” (MGM 511) and comes with a proposition: “Why not call such a reflection a form of moral philosophy?” (MGM 511-

512). This is related to the notion of faith in the transcendent Good or God, discussed above.

In some of the novels, we can see that the characters sometimes, although they do not belong to any religion, take up religious rituals. This can be caused by the need of some mysticism and the inability to find it elsewhere than in the religion. For example, it is stated in The Green Knight that Moy “used to go to church sometimes”

(10) and that “she thinks it‟s magic” (10). However, religion should not be taken as the only way of encountering mysticism. It is precisely the concept of Good that Murdoch proposes in exchange for God, because “Good represents the reality of which God is the dream” (MGM 496), and in the case of Good in comparison to the traditional personal

God there are no such pitfalls such as seeking false consolation. As Capitani puts it,

“God becomes a powerful source of energy, but one can receive moral energy by focusing on things other than God” (100). Goodness is thus definitely possible without religion, even though Murdoch retains many of the aspects of religion in her moral philosophy. The main idea is, overall, that “an ultimate religious „belief‟ must be that even if all „religions‟ were to blow away like mist, the necessity of virtue and the reality of good would remain” (MGM 428).

1.3 Morality without Religion

Out of the novels that I am discussing in the present thesis, the question of morality without religion and of Good without God is discussed predominantly in The

22 Time of the Angels, which “is concerned with the unrealized implications, psychological, moral, behavioural, of the concepts at work in the „demythologizing‟ of the church, and the new „death of God‟ theology” (Byatt, DOF 252). According to

Spear, the novels of the period of the late 60s in general include “thoughts about God, about Good and Evil, about Reality and about the quality of Love” (71). Later novels of the late 70s and 80s, however, although they “are concerned to some extent with God or with religion” (Spear 89), are not concerned specifically “with the question of Good without God” (Spear 89). But, as we shall see, they might show some possible outcomes of the situation of morality without religion.

The concern of The Time of the Angels with the question of morality without religion is quite straightforward, because one of the characters, Carel‟s brother Marcus, is writing a philosophical treatise concerned with this very question, called Morality in a World without God, and the questions posed by Marcus in many ways echo those of

Iris Murdoch. He, like Murdoch, calls himself a Platonist (TA 71) and one of his concerns is “a morality without Good, which was the really serious danger” (71-72).

Moreover, Marcus, too, emphasizes that his intention is “to rescue the idea of an

Absolute in morals” (72). As Spear puts it, “he is willing to dispense with God but he is made anxious by the thought of a system of a „morality without Good‟” (61).

Overall, the condition of “the death of God” is taken for granted in The Time of the Angels, and the concern is how to deal with the situation. Even characters such as

Norah, who by no means “mind its disappearing from the scene” (TA 19), are made uncomfortable by the breakdown of Christianity, because the situation of “twilight-of- the-gods atmosphere will drive enough people mad” (TA 19). This reflects, as Byatt points out, Murdoch‟s awareness “of the importance for our cultural life of the decay of believed Christianity, the loss of a sense of central authority, believed in or opposed”

23 (IM 28). In fact, Marcus finds himself in a peculiar position, because although “he did not believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, . . . he wanted other people to believe. He wanted the old structure to continue beside him” (TA 94). Byatt also suggests that Marcus is “unaware of [his] true dependence on the power of the vanished religion to sustain [his] hierarchies of value and discrimination” (IM 31). We find a similar attitude towards religion also in The Sea, the Sea where Charles admitts that “I am of course not a churchgoer, but I was glad to find that there are services, though only once a month” (13). In Nuns and Soldiers, too, the Count is in a similar position. He wishes that he “had had a religious upbringing” (232) and feels that “religious people do something for us” (232). Also, even though he is not a Christian, he feels sincere joy when he hears that the new Pope, like him, is Polish (468). It is therefore clear that the structures of religion and the concept of God are rooted deeply in people‟s minds and, despite being empty, they cannot be dispensed with easily. This very concern is discussed by Murdoch in one of her platonic dialogues, in which the character of

Acastos says, “I feel that if we lose traditional religion now we may lose all religion because – it can‟t use the old language and concepts – and it can‟t make new ones in time – and many people find it empty and senseless – and then when the priests change the old-fashioned language into modern words it sounds so ugly and awkward, it loses its spiritual force” (EM 507). In The Message to the Planet, Daniel Most, the rabbi, expresses a related proposition about the concept of God. He says, “if it is empty it is there. Nothing could be more important to this planet than preserving the name of God, we must not abandon it, it is entrusted to us in this age, to carry it onward through darkness” (417). Murdoch in a way argues for something similar when she proposes, while speaking about religious and moral education, that “children with disparate (or no) religious instruction can be taught morality with reference to very general religious

24 images. Formal religion provided ritual and imagery, presenting it as something ordinary and usual” (MGM 337). She also retains the concepts herself in her philosophy, as we can see from her discussing her own definition of God and from her concern with prayer. She apparently took the old familiar concepts and partially redefined them, so that they were sustainable in the world, in which the concept of personal God is, in her view, impossible.

There are naturally many different reactions of the characters of Murdoch‟s novels to the situation of the world without God and the place of morality within. Carel in The Time of the Angels is a priest, but he does not believe in God. However, as Spear asserts, “he is not free of God; rather, he is obsessed by the „God-myth‟. When he talks of the death of God he does not appear to view God as non-existent from eternity to eternity; he sees him in some way as having existed and existing no more” (57). As discussed earlier, he eventually puts his self in the place of God, which is one of the greatest dangers in Murdoch‟s view. As summarized in one of Murdoch‟s platonic dialogues, “there can’t be gods, but that doesn‟t mean it‟s anything we happen to think, it doesn‟t mean we’re the gods, that‟s just the opposite” (EM 513-514). Carel is also “a

Nietzschean sage, like his prototype maddened and destroyed by the power he evokes.

He is called, without irony, a deeply religious man” (Byatt, DOF 256). “Deeply religious” in this sense can be linked to what Spear referred to as the “obsession with the God-myth” and it is clear that being religious in this sense by no means implies being good, because we can see from the way in which Carel exercises power over

Pattie, and also from his incestuous relationship with his daughter Elizabeth, that he follows no moral principles, and thus takes the death of God as the death of morality as well. However, there are completely different ways of coping with the situation expressed in the novel. For example Norah, an otherwise quite marginal character, is

25 thinking in very practical terms and sees no point in brooding upon the philosophical question of morality without God. She says, “goodness is good conduct and we all know what it is” (94). This opinion can be linked both to Murdoch‟s definition of morality as an action, and to her view that we all know instinctively what is good.

However, Norah does not seem to appreciate the mystical value of religion and morality as Murdoch does. As another character of the novel, the Bishop, remarks, “our need of

God is something which transcends morality” (94). This view definitely should not be equated with Murdoch‟s, but it is similar to the idea that there is a natural need of mysticism and that “man is a spiritual creature willy-nilly” (Conradi 134).

The other novels that I am discussing here do not deal with the question of the characters coping with the situation of morality without God as explicitly as The Time of the Angels. At this point we may use the distinction that Murdoch makes between the existentialist and mystical novel. The Time of the Angels fits rather into the category of existentialist novel, which usually “shows us freedom and virtue as assertion of will”

(Murdoch, EM 223). It also stays out of the definition of a mystical novel, because mystical novel “keeps in being, by one means or another, the conception of God”

(EM 225) and The Time of the Angels, as stated before, is a novel which is concerned with the “death of God.” However, the other novels that I am discussing are closer to mystical novels. Naturally, they contain both existentialist and mystical heroes, as we can see for example from Byatt‟s analysis of Nuns and Soldiers in which she asserts that

“Gertrude and Tim are (naturally) cheerful egoists and existentialists whilst Anne and the Count are (naturally) self-diminishing masochists” (DOF 290). This is linked to

Murdoch‟s distinction of the chief temptations of the existentialist and mystical hero, where “the chief temptation of the former is egoism, of the latter masochism” (EM 227).

In the later novels that I am discussing, the question of the existence of God and of the

26 position of morality in the world without God is addressed quite rarely. However, there are personal accounts of some characters dealing with the situation of losing faith in

God, which I will now discuss.

In Nuns and Soldiers we encounter Anne‟s personal account of coping with the loss of faith in the Christian God. She used to be a nun, but she has left the convent, and

“whether I‟ve left Christianity, the Church, doesn‟t matter, I mean, I don‟t know and it doesn‟t matter” (54). This shows, that whether she is a Christian or not is irrelevant for her and it does not affect much her conduct. She actually retains some kind of private faith. At one point in the novel, she thought, “there was no God, but Christ lived, at any rate her Christ lived” (507). This suggests that in her system of belief she has the figure of Christ as her private object of faith, but this Christ can be completely different from that presented by the Church. This might be interpreted as a case of retaining a concept but redefining it. The role of Anne, however, remains in some ways similar even after leaving the convent. As Byatt states, “Anne is a nun for no God (as Iris Murdoch once said, we must learn to be „good for nothing‟ since there is no God)” (DOF 289). Anne also says at one point, “I am in a sense still a nun” (477) and Gertrude reacts by saying,

“Yes, but you are our nun. We need you –” (477). We can thus see that although she has left the convent everybody still sees her as a nun and her role has thus not changed completely, although she might want it to change. Anne is an altruistic figure, but in a way she suffers, because the others do not think that she might have her own “egoistic” wishes and needs. This is probably the outcome of the fact that she is still a nun in the eyes of her friends. However, as far as her coping with losing faith in God is concerned, she gradually finds a way by keeping her private faith and orienting herself towards goodness, and finds satisfaction in it.

27 A similar, although not the same, situation is that of Gildas in The Message to the Planet. He left priesthood, but not solely by his own incentive. It was Marcus to

“harp upon the doubts which the poor priest already possessed” (MP 15) by saying that

“Gildas, as an intelligent rational man, could not believe in the old personal God or the divinity of Christ” (15). Again, the fact that it is the Christian personal God is emphasized here, because the transcendent God who is proposed by Iris Murdoch does not contradict rational thinking. Marcus thus gave Gildas the immediate incentive to leave priesthood, but the decision would probably come anyway. As Ludens at one point says, “You‟d have lost your faith, or whatever it was that happened, in any case”

(2). Nevertheless, it was a hard blow for Gildas, and “since parting company with priesthood he could almost be said to have been demoralised” (MP 4). Like Anne, he has to cope with the sense of void and try to fill in the space where God used to be.

However, as Gildas is rather a marginal character in the novel, we do not receive much information on the way in which he copes with the problem. It is clear, however, that although he left priesthood the Christian concepts are deeply rooted in his way of thinking. For example, he continues to refer to Christ and call him “Our Lord” (42).

Later, Gildas fills the void with belief in Marcus, who eventually becomes a religious, almost Christ-like, figure. Gildas says that “Marcus has become something extraordinary” (347) and “whatever it is, I believe in it” (347). Although this renewed faith helps him, it is only temporary. It has already been repeatedly stated that in

Murdoch‟s view no man should take place of God, and Marcus himself later regrets trying to do so. In the end, Gildas considers returning to priesthood in the Anglican

Church, but only after “the theologians have dismantled it all a bit more” (561). It is clear from this example that it is possible, after losing faith in the “old personal God,” to return to religion, but without the figure of personal God. As far as morality is

28 concerned, the loss of faith had virtually no effect on Gildas‟s conduct and his awareness of goodness, like in the case of Anne. They both had to live through a period of crisis, but one that was not impossible to overcome. The effect of the loss of faith was thus predominantly psychological, because the characters missed the consolation once offered by the faith in personal God. Nevertheless, their moral thinking remained virtually unaffected.

In The Green Knight, the question of morality without religion is not addressed much, and definitely not explicitly. This novel can be put without question into the category of mystical novels discussed above, and, as Spear notes, Murdoch‟s “position as „Christian fellow traveller‟ would seem to represent the religious stance she takes in

The Green Knight, where Christian morality prevails without God” (120). Many of the characters are deeply conscious of morality, but are not religious, such as the Anderson girls. This novel thus offers a possible outcome of the situation of morality without

God, which is optimistic and shows, that no decline of morality is necessary because of the decline of religion. However, the world described in The Green Knight is no paradise. If we take for example the character of Lucas, his attitude to religion is clear.

He is very rational and sees the decline of religion as clearing of vision. He says, “now that God is dead, we are at last presented with the truth” (254). However, Lucas is not only an atheist, but also “lives absolutely outside ordinary conventions . . . Including ordinary morality” (GK 171). We have seen before that ordinary morality guided by common sense is highly valued by Murdoch. Lucas, however, rejects anything transcendent, and therefore also the absolute Good. This is probably one of the reasons why he is generally interpreted as an evil character. Like in Nuns and Soldiers and The

Message to the Planet, there is a character losing his faith in God in The Green Knight, and this is Father Damien. However, as he ceases to write to Bellamy once he leaves the

29 order, there is not much the reader can know about his motivation and his coping with the situation. What we know is that his loss of faith is once again specified as losing the faith in personal God. Damien writes in his last letter: “I can no longer believe in the

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or indeed in any personal God or supernatural (I use this word advisedly) divinity, or in the divinity of Christ or in eternal life” (265). We may thus assume that his life might not be affected to a great degree by this change.

However, Murdoch lets readers make all the assumptions about Damien on their own and makes the matter even more obscure by the fact that the character of Damien is presented only through his letters to Bellamy and the readers therefore do not know very much about him. As far as Bellamy is concerned, it may seem that he started to lead a better life after he had abandoned the idea of going to a monastery, because only then did he start to care for the others. However, this would be simplifying, because his

“faith” was rather a fantasy and a means of seeking consolation, and getting rid of this fantasy naturally helped him to see clearly the reality and, therefore, to be able to lead a better life. However, the place occupied by religion in Bellamy‟s case could be taken by any other fantasy with the same effect. What we can see here should therefore not imply any negative effects of religion as such on moral life.

It has been shown that in Murdoch‟s view, as apparent both from her philosophy and her novels, morality is definitely possible without religion. However, she appreciates especially the mystical value of religion and faith in something absolute

(which may be called either God or Good). Otherwise, one might be tempted by the idea of subjective morality, since one cannot see anything absolute and objective. Overall, loss of religion might bring about a crisis, both on the level of individuals and on the level of society, and it may affect morality as well. However, as Murdoch‟s novels show, the crisis is not impossible to overcome.

30 2 Religion, Morality and Art

The role of art is quite important in Murdoch‟s philosophy. Unlike Plato, whose philosophy otherwise considerably inspired her, Murdoch appreciates art and eventually makes a connection between ethics and aesthetics. She is concerned with the concept of

Beauty and how this relates to the concept of Good. Also, she acknowledges the crucial role of art in religion, especially in Christianity. In this chapter, I will first focus on the connections between art and morality, and later more specifically on the relationship of art and religion.

2.1 Art and Morality

For Murdoch, “goodness and beauty are not to be contrasted, but are largely part of the same structure” (SOG 41). She also claims even more explicitly that “art and morals are, with certain provisos . . . , one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both is love” (EM 215). This suggests that art, or, as Murdoch would specify, good art has the power to turn our attention to something outside of us, and thus to reduce egoism. As Capitani summarizes the matter, “Murdoch‟s theory is that through art we lose ourselves and that in unselfish love the same thing happens. In seeking to achieve the Good, we should lose ourselves as well” (101-102). However, it is important to note that Murdoch emphasizes that “to say that the essence of art is love is not to say, is nothing to do with saying, that art is didactic or educational. It is of course a fact that if art is love then art improves us morally, but this is, as it were, accidental” (EM 218). It is therefore not a duty of an artist to make a work of art in order to improve people‟s conduct, but it is a quality of any good art and it is there automatically. The idea that

Beauty, although not specifically a work of art, can transform people is present in some novels by Murdoch as well. In Nuns and Soldiers the beauty of the landscape of

31 southern France makes Gertrude and Tim fall in love. As Tim says, “it‟s just something to do with here, with this place, this landscape” (193). Roberta S. White describes this event saying, “Sacred places in the warm south, in this case natural features of the

French countryside, have the power to redeem, to transform, and to make a space for love.” Another overlap of ethics and aesthetics that is worth mentioning is that for

Murdoch both Good and Beauty are objective. This implies that it can be decided what is good art and what not. And to know it, it is once again some kind of common sense or intuition that we need. As she proposes, “let us start by saying that Shakespeare is the greatest of all artists, and let our aesthetics grow to be philosophical justification of this judgement. We may note a similar method can, and in my view should, be used in moral philosophy” (EM 205). The proposition that Shakespeare is the greatest artist is for

Murdoch an objective truth, but not to be defended by any kind of reasoning, just something that we all know. This is similar to the notion that all people instinctively know what things are good, although they cannot define the Good.

As far as the connection of an artist and a good person is concerned, it is not so clear as in the case of good art and the Good. As Murdoch describes the relation, “the good artist is a sort of image of the good man, the great artist is a sort of image of the saint. He is only a sort of image, since in his whole person he may be a dreadful egoist”

(MGM 428). We may see this well if we take the artist characters of Murdoch‟s novels.

It should be said first, however, that none of them could probably be described as a great artist, and it is a question whether they could even be described as good artists.

They are usually in the position of seeking inspiration, being unsure about their work and generally far from being confident. Moreover, their works are usually discussed only marginally in the novels. However, we can see that some of the artist figures are egoists, or even “dreadful egoists,” for example Charles from The Sea, the Sea. He may

32 be described as an ex-artist, because at the time in which the novel takes place he is no longer involved with the theatre. His egoism presents itself in the fact that he kidnaps

Hartley and keeps her in his house against her will. He is blinded by the idea that

Hartley is unhappy with her husband, and that he is actually helping her. Similarly, Jack in The Message to the Planet, who is a painter, displays a degree of egoism and lack of understanding both towards his wife and his mistress. He is blinded by a fantasy of a happy “ménage à trois” and is unable to see that both of the women are suffering. Tim in Nuns and Soldiers, who is a painter too, is far from being a moral example as well.

His lies and their consequences have already been discussed earlier. Out of the novels that I am discussing here, the only fairly good person and an artist at the same time is

Moy from The Green Knight. As has already been mentioned, she is altruistic and cares for everybody – people, animals, and even inanimate objects. However, she is never satisfied, although “every day she rescued the snail or slug or worm from pavement . . . , the spider from the bath . . . , the tiniest almost invisible creatures who were in some wrong place where they might starve or be crushed” (GK 109). She is preoccupied with the question “How did she know what little living creatures, and even things, wanted her to do?” (GK 109). It is therefore clear that her conduct is not motivated by seeking self-satisfaction, but purely by her caring for others. However,

Moy may be taken as a little ambiguous figure, because in some aspects she resembles

Murdoch‟s “white magicians.” She is repeatedly described by the other characters as a witch and she has even “developed a curious power, that of making small objects move simply by looking at them with a certain concentration” (GK 109-110). However, she does not abuse her power, and is in a way afraid of it. Later in the novel, Moy eventually loses the power, and also she realizes that she has to cope with the fact that she cannot save everyone. However, this change has no effect on her altogether

33 altruistic and modest way of thinking, as clear from her saying “I can‟t save you, I‟m too small, I‟m too little” (462). It may be hard to guess what changes may still be awaiting Moy, but throughout the novel she is definitely a specimen of a good person.

However, it is difficult to say, whether this fact is somehow related to her being an artist. I think it may be said that her remarkable attentiveness to the world around was one of the reasons for her inclination to art in the first place and at the same time resulted in her altruistic behaviour, so there may be some connection. But, as Murdoch emphasized, and as it is clear from the examples taken from the other novels that I mentioned, being a good artist and being a good person cannot be equated.

A special case of the relationship of morality and art is that of morality and literature. D. D. Raphael proposes four possible relationships of moral philosophy and literature, “(1) A work of moral philosophy can also be a work of literature. (2) A work of literature can also be a work of moral philosophy. (3) Moral philosophy can feed literature. (4) Literature can feed moral philosophy” (Raphael 1), and suggests that proposition three describes the fact that “some of Iris Murdoch‟s novels feed on her views as moral philosopher in that they exemplify in imagined individuals her abstract ideas about good and evil” (Raphael 2). This relationship is actually the one that makes it possible to compare, with certain level of generalization, her fiction and her philosophical works. Murdoch herself suggests that there is some common ground of literature and philosophy, in that they “are both truth-seeking and truth-revealing activities” (EM 11). It is also worth noting that in Murdoch‟s view art should, too, not be egoistic. She says, “I do not want to be obviously present in my work” (EM 9), and, as Bran Nicol claims, according to Murdoch “a novelist should engage in the literary equivalent of ascesis, peeling away the egoistical layers of self which cling to her work to leave the representation of pure „reality‟ – or as close as one can get to it in art – in all

34 its contingent glory” (148). This is not to contradict, however, the above mentioned relationship of Murdoch‟s philosophy and fiction, because she admits that “one cannot avoid value judgements. Values show, and show clearly, in literature” (EM 21).

Overall, it is clear that according to Murdoch there are many things common to morality and art, because both have the same concepts at their centre (for example love, altruism, and reality), and moreover, good art is one of the ways that may lead towards the Good.

2.2 Art and Religion

In this chapter, I will focus predominantly on the role of art in Christianity, because this religion is significantly different from other religions as far as its treatment of art and images in general is concerned. When comparing the role of art in eastern and western religions, Murdoch states that “although art in the East is even more generally

(loosely) connected with religion than it is in the West, the imagery is usually, though significant, less highly specialised, less rationally clarified, less relentlessly literary”

(EM 448). And as far as the difference of the treatment of religious images between

Christianity and Judaism is concerned, the most important is that the Second

Commandment “has been observed by Judaism . . . but not by Christianity” (MGM 81), and, therefore, unlike Judaism, there are images of God (in various forms) in Christian art. This fact has eventually facilitated a complex interplay of Christianity and art which has various effects on the evolution of the religion, as well as on the understanding of faith by the believers. I will discuss these effects in this chapter, as described by

Murdoch in her philosophical works and illustrated in her novels.

First of all, Murdoch acknowledges the value of great religious works of art in forming Christianity. She says, “the Judaeo-Christian God owes a considerable dept to art” (MGM 7). It is partly because of the abundance of religious imagery, that “although

35 it is true that many young people now grow up entirely outside religion, the idea of God remains familiar, intuitively comprehensible, and religious institutions continue to function and have influence” (MGM 80). What is problematic for Murdoch is that the rich imagery makes the religion, and even God, more concrete, and supports the concept of personal God (or Christ), rather than mystical. As Murdoch remarks, “Western art, so solid and so clear, has helped us to believe, not only in Christ and the Trinity, but in the

Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, innumerable saints and a whole cast of famous and well-loved scenes and persons” (MGM 82). And moreover, “Christian images tend to be taken „for real‟. Art contributes, in a perhaps misleadingly „spiritual‟ way, the material gear of religion; and what should be a mediating agency may become in effect a full- stop barrier” (Murdoch, EM 447). The ever-present problem of Christianity thus arises when the image is taken not as a means of getting towards God, but as God himself.

This is then very close to idolatry, which is otherwise condemned by Christianity, but at the same time very tempting. However, there may be nothing wrong with the imagery, if we acknowledge that “theological mythology, stories about gods, creation myths and so on, belong to the realm of image making and are at lower level than reality and ultimate religious truth, a view continuously held in the east, and also in the western mysticism: beyond the last image we fall into the abyss of God” (MGM 318). The rich imagery may therefore have both positive and negative effects on religion. It can help people to fix attention on something outside themselves, and therefore “lose themselves” and be closer to God (or Good). This is the effect which all good art in

Murdoch‟s view possesses, as was discussed in the previous subchapter.

A special case of relationship between art and religion is the Bible. It may be taken either as a more or less truthful historical account, or a work of art that is to be interpreted rather symbolically. Again, taking the scenes from the Bible for historical

36 reality may result in a very concrete conception of religion. Murdoch shows, however, that such interpretation of the biblical accounts is erroneous, because even Christ is depicted differently at different places in the Bible. She states, that St. Paul‟s “Christ seems more like a personal creation and a work of art than does the calmer figure of the

Gospels” (MGM 82), and adds one more simile saying that “St Paul is Eros, and the

Gospels are the world of forms” (MGM 346). The Christ depicted in the Gospels is thus more concrete than that of St. Paul. The discrepancy within the Bible in the presentation of the figure of Christ therefore suggests that taking the Bible too literally, or as a true historical account, is a mistake, and it should be interpreted more symbolically.

As far as Murdoch‟s fiction is concerned, the characters, and especially those who are Christian or particularly affected by Christianity, also show some impacts of art on their belief. For example Eugene in The Time of the Angels possesses an old icon, which is “supposed to be a miraculous icon” (TA 57). Even though Eugene has, as he says, lost his faith, he is strongly emotionally bound to the icon. It may be either because it is a reminder of his homeland, Russia, and of his past life, but also a reminder of God, in whom he used to believe. It also makes him retain some religious rituals. He says, “I burn incense for it. It‟s like feeding it” (57). This can suggest that he has not lost his faith altogether and it is also because he has the reminder of his faith in the icon.

In some other novels, we may see how the religious images can affect the believer‟s conception of the religion. In Nuns and Soldiers the particular attitude of

Christianity towards suffering is at one point discussed. It is said that “Christianity is so soft, it‟s sentimental and magical, it denies death. It changes death into suffering, and suffering is always so interesting” (NS 71). This fascination with suffering can be a result of the fact that “Christianity is a religion of suffering, its central image is of a man in torment” (MGM 81). The suffering of Christ has been a theme of works of art by

37 many excellent painters and sculptors and the image is present in every church. This may be why the image of suffering is omnipresent in the believers‟ minds as well, and there is a danger that it may result in a desire for suffering, which is a form of masochism that we see in the case of Bellamy in The Green Knight, which I will discuss in a greater detail in the following chapter. In Nuns and Soldiers, there is one more noteworthy scene in connection to art, in which the apparition of Jesus Christ visits

Anne. One peculiar thing about this scene is that this particular figure of Jesus does not look like the usual images expressed in art, because “he was beardless, with wispy blond hair, not very long, and he was thin and of medium height, dressed in shapeless yellowish-white trousers and a shirt of similar colour, open at neck, with rolled up sleeves” (NS 295). The very fact that the appearance of Jesus seems strange to the reader is an indicator of how deeply the images of Christ provided by art are rooted in people‟s minds. However, by showing such an alternative image of Christ, Murdoch once again points to the absurdity of taking the images for real.

In The Green Knight, Bellamy is almost obsessed with religious images and they preoccupy him a lot. For example, he recalls “a very moving picture of a scene (by whom – a disciple of Rembrandt?) entitled „Christ in Limbo‟” (GK 43) and relates the scene from the picture to the biblical account of Jesus descending to Hell before rising from the dead. Thinking of the scene brings him unease, because first he is confused, because “surely Limbo was not Hell? Hell was where wicked people went, Limbo was where innocent unbaptised babies went. (He could not recall any babies in the picture)”

(GK 43), and also, he cannot help asking himself the question “Why didn‟t He save them all and take them away with Him?” (47). It is clear, therefore, that Bellamy is preoccupied with the “historical facts” of Christianity and not much with mysticism, and that his understanding of the religious imagery is far too literal. As Father Damien

38 points out to him, “the „descent to into hell‟ signifies the universal nature of Christ‟s love and mercy” (95) and is thus to be interpreted symbolically, rather than literally.

Apart from this, Bellamy is also influenced by art in his conception of Christ. He says,

“I also love and venerate those old Byzantine images of beardless Christ holding a sword and looking so wonderfully like a young soldier” (96-97). Again, Damien discourages Bellamy of imagining Christ like this, saying, “may I further urge you not to picture Our Lord as a soldier. This sort of „dramatisation‟ of what is holy is, in your case, a form of egoism” (113) and proposes to Bellamy to see in Christ instead

“poverty, humility, service, love” (113). Similarly, Bellamy is fascinated by the image of Michael Archangel, and says, “I know he is rather ferocious, but are not his military characteristics meant for us as a spiritual lesson?” (96), and generally Bellamy is concerned with the concept of angels and asks, “if one is thinking of „mediators‟ other than Christ (and Our Lady) may not [angels] be invoked to aid our stumbling steps?”

(96). The vivid images of angels that we find in the paintings by great artists may play an important role here, because the angels and archangels are depicted as having a physical existence and believers may thus be tempted towards idolatry. This is also at the heart of Damien‟s reaction to Bellamy‟s question, when he says, “I would also advise you not to proceed with what appears to be your cult of archangels! The worship of angels is idolatry against which we are cautioned” (113). Overall, in Bellamy‟s case we can see most of the dangers that the religious images expressed in works of art may produce. However, this is not to say that art has a generally negative impact on religion.

It may produce temptations towards idolatry and towards a conception of religion that is far from mystical, but such temptations can be resisted, and it was said before that art can have positive effects as well.

39 Generally, it can be said that the relationship of art towards religion is that of a good servant, but a bad master, and we can see from Murdoch‟s novels that it is up to the believers to conceive of the true, mediating function of religious imagery, and thus to avoid idolatry and have their minds open to the possibility of purely mystical conception of God.

40 3 Selected Religions in Murdoch’s Philosophy and Fiction

In this chapter, I will summarize Murdoch‟s view on some specific religions as expressed in her philosophy, and try to trace the ideas in her fiction as well. I have chosen to focus on her views on Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism, because these three are discussed to the greatest degree both in her philosophy and her fiction.

3.1 Christianity

As far as Murdoch‟s view on Christianity is concerned, many of the ideas have already been discussed in the previous chapters, such as the problems posed by the concept of personal God, the concept of prayer, and the relationship between art and

Christianity. I will therefore not deal with these any more, and focus instead on other aspects of Christianity that were of interest for Iris Murdoch.

One of the most important characteristics of Christianity is its historical nature.

It has already been suggested that the events described in the Bible may either be interpreted as historical facts, or rather as symbols, and if the events (and the characters) are taken too literally, it creates problems. As expressed in Murdoch‟s novel The Time of the Angels by the character of the Bishop, “the particular historical nature of

Christianity poses intellectual problems which are also spiritual problems. Much of the symbolism of theology which was an aid to understanding in earlier and simpler times is, in this scientific age, simply a barrier to belief” (93). Thus, it is the discrepancy between the scientific knowledge of today and the events described in the Bible that might be an obstacle to the belief. Within the problem of the historical character of

Christianity there is another important issue: that of Christ as a historical figure.

Murdoch states that, “the figure of Jesus mediates God into humanity and thus into semblance of empirical being which is difficult to remove from believers‟ minds

41 without removing the whole substance of belief” (MGM 451). She therefore acknowledges that it is hard to renounce the idea of Jesus as a man who once lived in the world. Bellamy in The Green Knight has certain preoccupations connected to this matter. He acknowledges that “faith in Christ need not be shaken by historical evidence” (41), but cannot avoid asking himself questions such as “Is a mystical Christ

„good enough‟? Could there be Christ if that man never existed at all?” (41). The preoccupations with the “historical facts,” however, bring about similar problems as the preoccupations with religious images discussed earlier – they make the religion more concrete and less transcendent. Murdoch therefore proposes a belief in purely mystical

Christ. She says, “we are also able to evoke mystical Buddhas and mystical Christs who as historical figures were imperfect men, together with innumerable other images and tokens of perfect spiritual ideas” (MGM 478). It is completely irrelevant, therefore, what kind of person the historical Christ was, and it is the faith that is crucial. Also, it is important to point out that the representation of Christ in the Bible may not be historically truthful, as apparent from the previously discussed fact that St. Paul‟s Jesus is different from that of the Gospels. Also, as expressed in Nuns and Soldiers, “what do we really know about him? He had the luck to be celebrated by five literary geniuses”

(74). In The Message to the Planet, a related idea is expressed in asserting that “people misunderstood Jesus too” (372), and therefore the seeming “historical facts” presented in the Bible may only be interpretations by some people, and not objective reality. This should make it even clearer that the issues concerned with Christ‟s existence are in

Murdoch‟s view irrelevant for faith. As Anne in Nuns and Soldiers says, “what does it matter whether Jesus Christ redeemed the world or not, it doesn‟t matter” (112). The problems brought about by the historical nature of Christianity can thus in Murdoch‟s view be overcome by disregarding the historical facts, or interpreting them rather

42 symbolically, and focusing on the faith itself, and this aim can be fulfilled in the process of demythologisation of religion, which will be discussed in a greater detail later on.

The problematic nature of the historical Christ is reflected in Murdoch‟s novels in some characters that might be called “Christ-figures.” They are the same characters as the “good magicians” discussed earlier, that is, James from The Sea, the Sea, Marcus from The Message to the Planet and Peter from The Green Knight. Like Christ, they all have some powers, which are interpreted by others as supernatural, but it is never sure whether they really are. James manages to save Charles from drowning in an extremely dangerous whirlpool in the sea. Marcus revives Patrick, but nobody ever knows whether he was really dead or only very sick. And Peter himself rises from the dead, but he might as well have only woken up from a coma. This could suggest that even Christ‟s powers, as described in the Bible, might have been exaggerated, or misunderstood.

James‟s powers in The Sea, the Sea are not widely discussed, so I will now focus in a greater detail on those of Marcus and Peter. Marcus himself believes he has special powers and sees himself as a kind of Messiah. As Ludens says at one point, “He imagines he‟s some sort of sage . . . He‟s going to save the world” (104). He is at first sure that he has raised Patrick from the dead, and so is Patrick. When the news about the potential miracle is spread, people start coming to him and want to worship him.

Eventually, some happenings took place in which Marcus “was wearing a white robe.

He stood quite still at the top of the steps gazing down the garden at the row of onlookers” (313). People even started to call him Master and they were kneeling in front of him and praying to him. It is therefore clear that he was seen by other characters as somebody like Christ and he saw himself like that as well. Later, however, Marcus admits he does not believe to have raised Patrick from the dead (341) and Patrick, too, says “I suppose I wasn‟t dead, only God knows if I was” (400). In the end, therefore,

43 Marcus begins to have doubts concerning whether he has ever had any supernatural powers.

When looking at the last Christ figure, that is Peter Mir from The Green Knight, it is important to say that although the novel is largely symbolic and the characters or events from the novel can be seen as echoing a different character or event, they never do so completely, because they are, as the figure of Clement says, “somehow jumbled up and all the wrong way round” (GK 431). As Spear puts it, “The not-completely-

Green Knight, the inchoate Christ-figure, the fey Moy with her Rapunzel pigtail, the evil magician Lucas, the failed Holy Man Bellamy are pieces of separate jigsaw puzzles which have all been thrown together” (118). Therefore, all the references and possible analogies present in the novel have to be approached with caution, because they often overlap only partly, and this is true about the parallel between Peter and Christ as well.

Unlike Marcus, Peter is never worshiped, although he does some things that are interpreted by other characters as miracles, such as finding the dog Anax (193, 226) and healing Harvey‟s foot by touching it (338). Spear summarizes some of the similarities between Peter and Christ saying, “like Christ, he is a Jew and his physical characteristics are Jewish; like Christ, he is unmarried; more significantly, however, it is constantly emphasised that he dies to save Clement . . . He suffers physical pain before his death; he is resurrected and he seems to offer a possibility of redemption” (110). It is also suggested that after his death, he was in Limbo (GK 254). However, unlike Marcus, he does not claim to have any special mission and does not acknowledge having any supernatural powers. We can see that the parallel with Christ is far from complete also from the fact that he underwent a complete change in his character in the course of the novel. Also, all three of the characters have another possibly supernatural power, which does not evoke Jesus Christ completely, and that is that they seem to die from their own

44 will. In The Sea, the Sea we can read that “I have written for cause of death on the certificate „heart failure‟, but it was not so. There are some who can freely choose their moment of death and without violence to the body can by simple will power die” (473).

Similarly, in The Message to the Planet, Marcus dies and writes a note that “I die by my own will” (471) and although it looks first that it was a suicide and Marcus had gassed himself, this possibility is rejected by the doctor, and in the end, on the death certificate it is written “heart attack” (496), although the circumstances seem more mysterious. As one of the characters says, “I think he enacted a psychological experience that killed him” (496). And finally in the case of Peter Mir in The Green Knight, doctor Fonsett asserts that “he was kept alive by his courageous will to accomplish certain ends . . . and, these accomplished, he relaxed into calm submission to an inevitable death” (415). Thus, although it can be said, with some level of generalisation, that

Christ died from his own will too, his death was, unlike that of Murdoch‟s Christ- figures, violent.

It has been shown that some characteristics of these Christ-figures seem supernatural, but it is important to bear in mind that this is never confirmed for sure. It is also possible that, as Spear puts it, “the belief in the essence of the magician creates the magician himself” (106) and it is therefore only by people believing they have supernatural powers that they may, at least in the eyes of the people, acquire them. This can be compared to Christ in that he, as a historical figure, might have not really possessed any supernatural powers. As the apparition of Christ in Nuns and Soldiers says, “I am not a magician, I never was” (297). In connection to this, Burns points to the

“imperfection of Christ in Nuns and Soldiers and of Christ-figures in other Murdoch‟s novels” (307), which may suggest that historical Christ was imperfect as well. Overall, by questioning the “known facts” about Jesus Christ and about the events in the Bible,

45 Murdoch emphasizes the irrelevance of these facts for faith, and shows the ways in which the historical nature of Christianity might be harmful in that it makes religion enter the world of the empirical knowledge, which can menace the mystical value of religion that Murdoch appreciates.

Apart from the historical nature of Christianity, Murdoch sees potential danger in that religion can degenerate to magic. This is not to suggest, however, that all religion should be condemned. As Murdoch says, “the religious life and the imperfect institutions thereof should continue to represent the all-importance of goodness. At a lower level lies the arcane power-seeking and magic (including spiritualism, scientology, and other forms of gnosticism) toward which human activities tend to fall”

(MGM 460). The degeneration of religion into magic is repeatedly mentioned in

Murdoch‟s fiction, too. James in The Sea, the Sea, although he is one of the magician- figures, is opposed to magic. He says, “White magic is black magic . . . Demons used for good can hang around and make mischief afterwards” (TSTS 445), suggesting that magic can never be thoroughly good. He also points out that “all spirituality tends to degenerate into magic” (445). James also relates magic to superstition and states that the aim is “the absolute surrender of magic itself, the end of what you call superstition”

(445). The very concept of superstition is clearly connected to fantasy and to something outside reality, which is one of the things Murdoch generally disapproves of. She suggests that “we must beware of such instinctive paths which lead us through the comforts of religion toward superstition and illusion” (MGM 446). These paths are even more tempting if the believers tend to seek consolation in religion. Besides The Sea, the

Sea, the negative connotation of magic is reinforced in other novels, too. In The

Message to the Planet Gildas describes Marcus as “sunk in magic into which religion degenerates, what he wants is spiritual power which is nothing to do with goodness”

46 (45). In The Green Knight Damien warns Bellamy that “religion is but too easily degraded into magic” (39) and therefore “the practice of „visualising‟ is indeed not to be considered” (39). The concreteness of the religion in visualising it is thus seen as a way in which the temptation of magic may present itself. Damien later states clearly that

“magic . . . is the enemy of religion” (154). However, Murdoch offers an idea of how to overcome magic saying that “religion is always menaced by magic, and yet faith can redeem and transform magic” (MGM 337). Faith has in this respect the power to return the religion towards mysticism. This is connected to the notion that holiness is acquired by faith. Murdoch uses a Tibetan story about a tooth which was mistakenly believed to be a relic and worshipped, and which eventually became holy (MGM 337-338), to illustrate the matter.

Another way in which Christianity may be degenerated is by a form of masochism. This is particularly tempting because, as quoted before, “Christianity is a religion of suffering, its central image is of a man in torment” (MGM 81) and people may thus find consolation, or even pleasure in suffering. This danger is serious, because

“a chief enemy to . . . clarity of vision, whether in art or morals, is the system to which the technical name of sado-masochism has been given. It is the peculiar subtlety of this system that, while constantly leading attention and energy back into the self, it can produce . . . plausible imitations of good” (SOG 68). It is stated clearly, therefore, that it has a negative effect on morals. As far as the reasons for indulging oneself in suffering are concerned, “the ideas of guilt and punishment can be the most subtle tool of the ingenious self” (SOG 68). We can see in Nuns and Soldiers, as well as in The Green

Knight that it was the feeling of guilt and desire to suffer that led Anne and Bellamy to take up religion in the first place. As suggested by Guy to Anne, “Suffering has the shifting unreality of human mind. A desire to suffer probably led you into that convent”

47 (NS 71). In Bellamy‟s case, similarly, “the monastery is to be for him an escape from reality” (Spear 111). Murdoch acknowledges that “religion provides a well-known well- tried procedure of rescue. Particularly in relation to guilt and remorse or the obsessions which can be bred from these, the mystery of religion (respected, intuited) is a source of spiritual energy” (MGM 487). This does not need to have the negative effect yet, but the border with self-indulgence and sado-masochism is only thin, especially in Christianity with its particular attitude towards suffering. In The Green Knight, Damien tells

Bellamy, “you should abstain from brooding emotionally over early sins. An excessive cultivation of guilt may become a neurotic, even erotic, indulgence” (39), and adds that as far as sins are concerned, “the false god punishes, the true God slays” (95), which is exactly what Murdoch states, saying, “as Simone Weil puts it, exposure to God condemns evil in ourselves not to suffering but to death” (MGM 506). In connection to the image of Christ‟s suffering, Murdoch offers again an alternative view on the matter in her novel Nuns and Soldiers, in which the apparition of Jesus states that his “wounds are imaginary” (296) and emphasizes that suffering is not the point, “though it has proved so interesting to you all” (296). It can be suggested then that the mystical Christ proposed by Murdoch should not lead to the temptations of sado-masochism, because in this case the question of whether Christ suffered and what was the point of the suffering is again irrelevant.

Murdoch discussed to a certain degree also the Christian concept of sin, and especially the original sin. She asserts that “Christian theology . . . represented goodness as almost impossibly difficult, and sin as almost insuperable and certainly as a universal condition” (SOG 50-51), exactly because of the concept of the original sin. This idea may have the negative effect of placing goodness too far from people and thus making it seem impossible to be good. However, although Burns claims that “Murdoch accepts

48 the traditional Christian view that sin is universal and almost impossible to avoid”

(303), she does not accept the idea that it is impossible to be good, as apparent from what has been discussed so far. She states that the concept of original sin should not be taken too literally, because “the concept of original sin, the crime of existence itself, may be seen as reasonable generalisation about the natural sinfulness of humans. No one is without sin” (MGM 103). She finds justifications for the view that being good is possible in Christian theology itself, because “Christianity, in its true, places original sin after some postulated free existence” (MGM 69) and also “humanity is represented as having been seduced into evil, and hence as being not basically corrupt but capable of improvement” (MGM 447). The concept of original sin is also discussed at one point in

The Green Knight by Aleph, Sefton and Moy. Moy, the youngest of the girls, does not want to lose her innocence and says, “I want to stay as I am now” (GK 18). However,

Aleph replies that “Innocence can‟t go on and on” (18) and Sefton adds that “Being human, we are already sinners, we aren‟t innocent, no one is because of the Fall, because of Original Sin” (18). Sefton thus, although she is not a Christian, accepts the idea of original sin and of people being born sinful. However, although she acknowledges that all people are sinful, it does not make her abandon good conduct.

And as for Moy, she seems throughout the novel to be able to retain her innocence. In this respect, and bearing in mind that The Green Knight is full of possible symbolism,

Moy can be compared to the Virgin Mary, who, according to Christian theology, was the only human to be born without the burden of the original sin. There is also an alternative view on the reason of human sinfulness in The Green Knight expressed by

Father Damien, who tells Bellamy, “you must realise that you are deeply stained by the world” (39), which suggests that being sinful is not inherent to human nature, but originates from the interaction with the world. Overall, it can be said that what is crucial

49 for Murdoch is acknowledging the possibility of being good, whatever the origin, or reason for the sins is. We can once again see in this her practical attitude towards morality.

Another aspect of Christianity that is partly addressed by Iris Murdoch in The

Green Knight is the attitude to sex. Murdoch observes that “Christian western puritanism instinctively envisages as sinful aspects of carnal love which eastern religion has more freely spiritualised” (MGM 16). The attitude towards sex as morally wrong is expressed by Moy in the novel when she says, “I don‟t want men and sex and all that roughness and disorder” (18) and clearly relates sex to losing innocence. However, the spiritual aspect of sex is present as well in the case of Harvey and Sefton. They think of it as something holy, or even religious. Sefton urges Harvey to wait because “this is holy, we must be worthy of it, tomorrow let us be quiet, and rest, let us be like – in penitence, in prayer” (384). It seems that for Sefton sex almost resembles a sacrament.

It is also suggested that sex has the power to change people. Harvey says, “you have made me into an angel” (389), and later “we have been changed into divine beings”

(390). It is therefore clear, that sex has something spiritual to it in this case, and is definitely not connected to any moral failure. It may be suggested, therefore, that in this particular scene in The Green Knight Murdoch questions the traditional Christian attitude towards sex.

In this chapter, I have focused on Christianity in its traditional form, discussing the issues approached by Murdoch‟s philosophy or presented in her fiction. A further discussion of the modified, “demythologised” Christianity that Murdoch proposes, will be offered later, and before that I will summarize Murdoch‟s thoughts on Judaism and

Buddhism.

50 3.2 Judaism

As far as Murdoch‟s thoughts on Judaism are concerned, she claims that in some respects there are fewer problems to be encountered in comparison to Christianity. She suggests that “the Jewish religion lacks, or is not burdened by, the attractive figure of

Christ who appears in Christianity as a mediator, but might in some strict sense be regarded as an idol or barrier” (MGM 419-420), and also “Judaism and Islam, who have avoided the path of image-making, and have revered the name of [God], avoid many of the problems which now beset Christianity” (MGM 487). These differences thus result in Judaism avoiding the problems connected to Christ as a historical figure and to religious images discussed earlier. A similar idea is expressed in The Green Knight, where a character, who had converted to Judaism, remarked “what a relief it was to marry a Jew, and how sensible Judaism was without any bother about the divinity of

Christ and life after death” (342). Also, Simone Weil asserts that “the God of Christians

. . . is a supernatural God, whereas Jehovah is a natural God” (GG 10). A parallel to this thought may be found in Nuns and Soldiers, where it is said that “Judaism is a sober religion” (71). This aspect of Judaism, although not addressed much by Murdoch herself, can be taken to suggest that Judaism, because it is not “supernatural,” does not clash so much with the modern rational and empirical mode of thinking.

However, there are certain problems of Judaism which are not present in

Christianity. First of all, it is good to distinguish Judaism from Jewishness. We often find characters in Murdoch‟s novels who are atheists, but of Jewish origin. Their

Jewishness cannot be denied, partly because of their physical characteristics which are typically Jewish. In The Green Knight, Peter Mir suggests that Lucas is Jewish, although Lucas himself, as an adopted child, does not know anything about his origin.

Peter tells Lucas, “You are Jewish. You look Jewish. You think Jewish. I know you are

51 Jewish” (249). Similarly, another character correctly guesses that Peter, too, is Jewish, saying “He looks Jewish. I believe he is” (331). In The Message to the Planet, in which two of the central characters, Marcus and Ludens, are Jewish by origin, we find something similar. Ludens asks the rabbi at one point, “What makes you think I‟m

Jewish?” (362), and the rabbi replies, “A number of things, your face for instance”

(362). These examples suggest that one remains Jewish, although one may have no interest in Judaism as a religion. Another aspect of Jewishness is the trauma of

Holocaust, which some of the characters display, although they may have no direct experience of it. As David J. Gordon asserts, “Nazi horror specifically is often pictured in [Murdoch‟s] novels and treatises as having created some sort of culturally unassimilable trauma or radical displacement, producing, for example . . . the central figure – and indeed the central action – of . . . The Message to the Planet” (116). The central figure that Gordon is talking about here is definitely Marcus. As Franková claims, “Marcus je Žid, i když jen původem a nikoliv vyznáním, a přestože, nebo spíš protože, neprožil Holocaust, ani neměl přímou zkušenost s utrpením Židů během války, zlo Holocaustu na něj stále doléhá” (BS 154). The trauma can be one of the reasons for

Marcus‟s belief that Jews have some sort of mission. He expresses this conviction by saying, “It may be . . . that the Jews are once more called to make and utterance to mankind, to manifest, for a new age, a holiness and a new divinity” (MP 166).

However, Ludens is opposed to this idea and says, “Everyone suffers, not just the Jews, to think we have a special mission to the world is just megalomania” (380). Generally, it is clear that Marcus is almost obsessed with his Jewishness, which can be seen also when he expresses a wish that his daughter Irina should marry a Jew (169). She, like

Ludens, does not understand her father‟s obsession with Jewishness, and asks, “Why can‟t one be Jewish without announcing it all the time?” (228). Also, because of the

52 history of the Jews, it is suggested in the same novel in Ludens‟s thoughts that “Jews were always prone to irrational guilt; and perhaps especially now. If the Jewish destiny, and the message thereof, concerned suffering, then it must be the duty of every comfortable Jew to fix up some for himself” (194). This is related to the idea that there is something like “Jewish masochism” (MP 139). As far as suffering and masochism are concerned, it is thus suggested that Jews are inclined to it, like Christians, although from different reasons, and these reasons are rather connected with Jewishness, and not

Judaism as religion.

Another aspect of Judaism that is discussed by Murdoch is Jewish morals, as expressed in the Old Testament. Key concepts connected to this that are discussed in

Murdoch‟s novels, and predominantly in The Green Knight, are those of justice, mercy and forgiveness. N. E. Simmonds concentrates specifically on these terms and poses a question, “Should Christianity be understood as fundamentally juridical religion? Or is

Christianity founded on the rejection of Jewish legalism, and on the assertion of values transcending or even opposing those of law” (52), and also points to a paradox, that

“mercy is seen as a free act of grace, love, or compassion, transcending the bounds of right and justice. At the same time, justice without mercy is thought of as deficient and morally inadequate” (53), which actually implies that “mercy seems to require a departure from justice, and therefore to require injustice” (53). The concept of “Jewish legalism” is echoed in Murdoch‟s novels in some of the Jewish characters who reject the idea of mercy and forgiveness. In Nuns and Soldiers, Guy Openshaw clearly states that “there can‟t be mercy” (72). Most importantly, however, Peter Mir in The Green

Knight at first wants to take revenge on Lucas, and equates justice with restitution

(104), referring to justice as “a respectable and ancient concept, expressed in my book, if I may put it so, as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (122). He later illustrates

53 this view by saying, “with the innocent I shall be innocent, and with the devilish, a devil” (220). We can see from this that there is no place for mercy and forgiveness in his understanding of justice. As Arnell summarizes the matter, “Mir‟s appropriation of the “return blow” motif becomes a mythical expression of his commitment to a religious law of retributive justice” (74). Only after his transformation, in which he remembers being also a Buddhist, does he accept the idea of forgiveness and ceases to seek revenge. It is also worth noting that another potentially Jewish character of the novel,

Lucas, is unable of forgiveness too. He says, “I am not concerned with the sickening concept of forgiveness” (124). And although he eventually forgives Clement “for all the suffering which you caused me when we were children” (322), it seems inadequate and insincere, because he adds exactly afterwards, “Now clear off” (322). However, in contrast to Peter Mir, he never draws on religious teachings to illustrate his point.

Before the transformation, Peter Mir is generally interpreted as quite a negative figure, exactly because of his desire of vengeance and his inability to forgive. As Arnell suggests, “Murdoch draws upon the negative associations of the wild man to illustrate the extent to which Peter Mir is governed by natural instinct, the amoral forces of desire, in his quest to take vengeance on Lucas” (75). Spear relates Peter‟s transformation to transition from Jewish and Christian morals in that it “brings about the change from the Old Testament Dispensation of justice – an eye for an eye – to the New

Testament Dispensation of mercy and love” (111). It is therefore quite clear, that

Murdoch values mercy and forgiveness, as can be suggested also by the fact pointed out by White that in the novel “Successive chapter titles – „Justice,‟ „Mercy,‟ and „Eros‟ – suggest an upward moral progression.” The novel thus expresses an opposition against the concept of retributive justice.

54 Overall, Murdoch appreciates some aspects of Judaism and is clearly interested in comparing it to Christianity in some respects, which may suggest some possible inspiration for Christianity to be drawn from Judaism, but apart from that also acknowledges that Judaism has its own pitfalls, such as the inclination to masochism and the concept of retributive justice.

3.3 Buddhism

As far as Buddhism is concerned, Murdoch displays some personal interest in this religion and, as will be shown, is inspired by it in many respects. Again, as with

Judaism, Murdoch discusses certain areas, in which Buddhism is, in her view, better than Christianity, and thus suggests some points at which Christianity might be inspired by Buddhism. First of all, “Buddhism and Hinduism have avoided the awkward unique figure of the Judaeo-Christian God as Individual Person” (MGM 249), and thus have also avoided the problems connected to it. Murdoch points to what can be seen as a paradox, that “if there are many gods or icons or godlike beings (the „polytheism‟ shuddered at by the west) it may be easier to perceive, or come to perceive, these as source of spiritual energy, and not as literal-historical supernatural people” (MGM 249).

“Polytheist” religions can therefore be more open to mysticism than “monotheist” ones.

Also, as far as the use of art and religious images is concerned, the eastern religions exhibit advantages in respect to Christianity. According to Murdoch, “mythical pictures should be kept and used, not as literal factual information, or as magic, but as enlivening spiritual images” (MGM 403), which is true in Buddhism (MGM 403). Also, in contrast to western art, “Eastern art has not been so „thingy‟ or concerned with complex completeness; and eastern philosophy and religion are more evidently mystical” (MGM 7), and therefore the eastern religious art does not support the concreteness of religious figures.

55 The positive attitude towards Buddhism and eastern religions in general is echoed in Murdoch‟s novels as well. In The Sea, the Sea, James, who is a Buddhist, is generally depicted as a good person. As Spear suggests, “In The Sea, The Sea religious thought centres on James; though the actual discussion of his Buddhist beliefs occupies only a few pages, we are throughout aware of his essential goodness” (89). A. S. Byatt claims something similar by saying, “set against Charles is James, who has the antithetical virtues of soldier (unselfish obedience to rules), aspiring saint (meditation, vision of empty „clear light‟), truthfulness and in his case genuine magical powers, or what he calls „tricks‟” (DOF 284). His referring to his possibly supernatural powers as tricks suggests his humbleness, and is also in accord with Buddhist teaching, in which

“one of its cardinal sins is to claim super-normal powers” (Danto 88). In The Green

Knight, it is Peter‟s transformation, in which he remembers that he is also a Buddhist, that is the point of his total rebirth into a good man, who does not desire revenge any more and on the contrary tries to help people around him. As Arnell puts it, “this striking anamnesis . . . enables him to reorient to the truthfulness and goodness” (81).

As expressed by Peter himself in the novel, “I had lost my moral consciousness – and have now regained it. I was filled with hatred and desire for revenge” (306).

The inclination to eastern religions and eastern culture in general is expressed also by Simone Weil, who says that “the most brilliant periods of the Middle Ages were those in which Europe was . . . fertilized by eastern culture” (SE 204), and that “it seems that Europe periodically requires genuine contacts with the East, in order to remain spiritually alive” (SE 205). On the other hand, “there have also been moments in history when certain Oriental influences were agents of decay, [but] the influence was a pseudo-Oriental one, fabricated by and for snobs; it was not a contact with the authentic civilizations of the East” (Weil, SE 204). The danger of misunderstanding the religion is

56 expressed in Murdoch‟s novels, too. It is said in The Green Knight that “Buddhism is a deep matter and one which cannot be quickly mastered” (356). Father Damien in the same novel also warns Bellamy, saying “I fear that you retain much of your early, and if

I may say so half-baked, attachment to eastern cults!” (39). Something similar is illustrated in The Message to the Planet, where there is a group of young people “of the

New Age” (309), and it is suggested at one point that “you can‟t call that a religion, it was just a game” (322). This could imply that Murdoch does not suggest adopting

Buddhism completely. A parallel could be drawn in connection to this matter from

Danto‟s book Mysticism and Morality, where he claims that “we cannot take over the moral beliefs of the East without accepting a certain number of factual beliefs . . . But the relevant factual beliefs cannot easily be assimilated to the system of beliefs that define the world for us” (9). To adopt an eastern religion or philosophy is thus extremely difficult, because it does not fit in many ways to the western culture.

This may be one of the reasons why Murdoch, instead of suggesting adopting

Buddhism, suggests some kind of amalgamation of different religions, or some inspiration to be drawn and adapted to Christianity which is closest to the western culture. This is echoed in the novels in certain figures or events. In The Time of the

Angels Anthea Barlow says, “I‟m not even a proper Christian any more I‟m afraid. I suppose I‟m a sort of Buddhist now really” (229). In The Message to the Planet, similarly, one of the characters sees no contradiction in being a member of the New Age movement and a Christian at the same time (328). Another character in the same novel claims that “I may even end up as a Buddhist-style Anglican priest” (487). In The Green

Knight the connection of different religions is the most apparent, because Peter Mir is at the same time Jewish and Buddhist and sees no contradiction in it. He says, “In fact

Buddhist teaching is not at all remote from the asceticism of mystical Judaism or

57 Christianity” (314). Moreover, Christianity is echoed as well in his character, because he can be described as a Christ-figure. Also, the parallel of the novel with the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the connection of the figure of the Green

Knight and Peter Mir suggest even greater amalgamation of different religions. As

Franková claims, “Murdoch extends the Christian moral of the poem to notions of what unites Buddhism, Judaism . . . and Christianity” (GKGM 80). Moreover, the poem itself combined pagan and Christian religion in “the mysterious double figure of the pagan/Christian Green Knight/Bertilak” (Franková, GKGM 79). The multiple religious symbolism of the novel which suggests merging of various religions is observed by

Spear in the scene where Peter marks Lucas with a knife. Spear claims, “We might observe that the two stories – that of Gawain and that of Christian redemption are again brought together here; the symbolic retributive wound in a significant aspect of justice in the Gawain legend whilst the wound given to Lucas is, like that of Christ in the

Crucifixion, in the side, a connection made for us by Lucas himself when he equates

Clement to doubting Thomas” (115). Thus, the novel takes almost to an extreme the possibility to combine various religions and philosophies, and to draw inspiration from them.

Buddhism is thus for Murdoch one of the chief sources of inspiration, especially in the mystical understanding of Buddha. However, she is aware of the problems for western people to adopt the religion completely, and does not do so herself, but rather she proposes various points at which inspiration can be drawn from Buddhism to enrich the demythologised Christianity.

58 4 Demythologisation of Religion

Murdoch‟s philosophy is largely concerned with the process of demythologisation of religion. As may be apparent from the discussion so far, Murdoch asserts that “„demythologisation‟ of religion is something absolutely necessary in this age” (MGM 460). This fact was already illustrated by her insistence that too concrete understanding of God and religious figures, which is in Christianity supported by art and its historical nature, is harmful to the concept of religion, and also often in conflict with the rational thinking of today‟s people. However, the demythologisation has to be done right, because there is a danger of “losing too much while asserting too little”

(MGM 460). In connection to this matter, Murdoch points out that “T. S. Eliot said that

Christianity has always been changing itself into something which can be generally believed” (MGM 126), but “there may be a limit to this process, where a demythologised religion becomes intolerable . . . A denuded „existentialist‟ faith may lose its identity in the mind of the believer and become more like an unadorned high moral asceticism” (MGM 126-127). It may thus have an effect that the whole concept of religion disappears, and this is not what Murdoch proposes, taken into account the positive aspect of religion discussed earlier. As she claims, “demythologisation is not a single road, nor need it imply or mean a disappearance of myths and icons, or some profound „rectification‟ of ordinary language. The modern scene includes (I hope) an enlargement of our concept of religion through our greater tolerance and knowledge of other religions” (MGM 454). Also, “the mythology of religion does not necessarily vanish but finds a new and different place as religion is newly understood” (MGM 510).

We can clearly see the fact that Murdoch is not completely opposed to mythology if we look at her novel The Green Knight. As Arnell states in connection to this novel, “like

59 Plato, Iris Murdoch is suspicious of human myth-making and encourages the characters to leave behind false fictions (mythoi) in turning towards the light of truth. At the same time, though, it is through myth that Murdoch, like Plato, illuminates characters‟ quest for the good” (82). Mythology in the novel has thus a symbolic value, and it shows that although Murdoch generally advocates demythologisation, it does not mean that myths should disappear. Moreover, the fact that in The Green Knight “myth and reality are so closely intertwined” (Spear 15) has the effect that “the readers find themselves sucked into a world in which mystic events seem to be inseparable from those of the natural world” (Spear 15). It is therefore by using mythological symbolism that it is possible to conceive of mysticism as an integral part of individuals‟ lives. The role of mythology in religion, like the role of art, should thus be rather symbolic, and if it is so, its effects are rather positive.

As far as Murdoch‟s view on the possible demythologised Christianity is concerned, an important concept here is the ontological proof of God‟s existence. The basis for this proof lies in asserting that there are two “closely related „attributes‟: perfection (absolute good) and necessary existence. These attributes are indeed so closely connected that from some points of view they are the same” (SOG 61). Thus, if we assert that God is perfect, he must necessarily exist. However, it is not proving the existence of God that Murdoch appreciates here, because we have seen that the question of God‟s and Christ‟s existence is virtually irrelevant for her. She states that the ontological proof “must now take on an increased importance in theology as a result of the recent „de-mythologizing‟” (SOG 63), and this is because “the ontological proof is seen to be not exactly a proof but rather a clear assertion of faith” (SOG 63). God thus necessarily exists if he is believed in. We have already seen in discussing some of

Murdoch‟s novels that in the end it is usually characters‟ faith that counts, as for

60 example in the case of Anne in Nuns and Soldiers, who was sure that “at any rate her

Christ lived” (507). Similarly Gildas in The Message to the Planet “is able to . . . express the belief that his own faith can make God live for him” (Spear 91), as clear from his dialogue with Ludens at the end of the novel when Ludens asks, “You think you can make God be?” (561), and Gildas replies, “My dear, there is no other way” (561). In connection to the ontological proof, Murdoch also points to a paradox that “No existing thing could be what we have meant by God. Any existing God would be less than a God” (MGM 508), and therefore “God does not and cannot exist”

(MGM 508). The ontological proof thus leads both to asserting God‟s necessary existence and necessary non-existence. This again shows the futility of trying to work out whether God exists or not, and emphasizes the value of faith.

It has already been said that Murdoch appreciates the mystical value of religion.

One of the modifications of Christianity that she proposes is a belief in mystical Christ.

She suggests that, “Christianity can continue without a personal God or a risen Christ, without beliefs in supernatural places and happenings . . . , but retaining the mystical figure of Christ occupying a place analogous to that of Buddha: a Christ who can console and save, but who is to be found as a living force within each human soul and not in some supernatural elsewhere” (MGM 419). It is worth noting, that while suggesting some Buddhist-style Christianity, Murdoch is aware that it may not be easy.

She admits that “the transformation of Christianity into a religion like Buddhism, with no God and no literally divine Christ, but with a mystical Christ, may be, if possible at all, a long task” (MGM 458), also because “the historical Buddha became the mystical

Buddha-nature; but this process developed during pre-scientific pre-rationalistic age”

(MGM 137), and we also have to take into account the cultural differences between the

East and the West. However, on the whole, although the task may not be easy, it is the

61 way which Christianity should take up in Murdoch‟s view. She eventually describes herself as “a neo-Christian or Buddhist Christian or Christian fellow traveller”

(MGM 419).

We can see the idea of mystical Christ and the exemplification of Murdoch‟s demythologised Christianity in general in her fiction as well. Some of the examples have already been discussed elsewhere, so I will only briefly focus on the role of mysticism in The Green Knight. As described by Freeman, “At the heart of the novel . . . is a much deeper and much more subtle idea, summed up by the oft-repeated quote from Meister Eckhart: „Do not seek God outside your own soul.‟” This quote is discussed in the correspondence of Damien and Bellamy, and it is one piece of the advice that Damien gives to Bellamy to help him get rid of the excessively concretised conception of religion. The quote is also connected to the ontological proof discussed earlier, because it implies that God exists in the soul by the power of the believer‟s faith. When discussing The Green Knight, Freeman goes on to claim that “every character in the novel must eventually take this advice to heart, and it is the soul- searching so brilliantly rendered by Murdoch‟s dialogue and her examination of the inner psychology of everyone involved . . . that gives the novel its depth,” which suggests that the idea is present also implicitly in all that happens in the novel. In this sense, the God in the soul may be equated with Good, which is sought in different ways by several characters, and does not need to be really connected to religion. However, as the novel is largely enigmatic and Murdoch leaves many questions unanswered, it is difficult to claim which characters eventually find the God in their souls, and which do not even aspire to it.

Overall, demythologisation of religion for Murdoch consists in the symbolic understanding of religious myths and images, and in the mystical understanding of God,

62 who is present in one‟s own soul. The mystical, transcendent God is one that is similar to Murdoch‟s concept of Good, although not completely. The demythologised

Christianity also retains the familiar religious concepts, although to a high degree redefined.

63 Conclusion

The discussion of the attitude of Iris Murdoch towards religion, faith and morality as expressed in her philosophy and fiction has shown that the most important ideas and concepts related to this area are recurrent both in the theoretical works and in the novels. Some themes are recurrent to such a degree that the same idea may be expressed in more novels, even if there is a significant temporal gap between these, and this implies the importance of such themes for Iris Murdoch. I will here sum up the key ideas and concepts present in the five novels by Murdoch discussed in this thesis, compared to their theoretical counterparts expressed in her philosophical works.

As far as Murdoch‟s thoughts concerning morality as such are concerned, she emphasizes the need to retain Absolute in morals, which she calls Good. This Good is transcendent and objective, but impossible to define. Good conduct is thus aiming towards the absolute Good, and we instinctively know what it means to be good. It was also shown that Murdoch‟s attitude to morality is quite practical and includes altruism and modesty. However, she also wants to retain mysticism as a part of morality, and this is the point at which her moral philosophy is inspired by religion, because she proposes some aspects of religion to enter morality as well, such as the faith in the Absolute and the practice of attention, which is similar to prayer. The retention of something absolute in the world where religion is in decline was one of the main themes in The Time of the

Angels. In the later novels, however, rather than talking about the “death of God,”

Murdoch prefers to redefine the concept of God, not as an individual person, but as God in the soul, that is a transcendent, absolute and objective concept similar to Good. In this redefined concept of God, the most important thing is, as illustrated in most of the novels discussed here, the faith, and not the questions of God‟s existence, life after

64 death and similar. Murdoch is also apparently open to the idea that God exists in one‟s soul precisely by the force of faith.

A particular place within Murdoch‟s philosophical system is occupied by art, and it has been shown that it is related to morality, as well as religion. To sum up, art for Murdoch shares many characteristics with morality, as Murdoch is against egoism in morals as well as in art. Moreover, good art may lead the attention towards Good. In her philosophy, she also asserted that it can be known objectively what is good art, and as with good conduct, we know instinctively what it is. This is one point of Murdoch‟s philosophy which is prone to be questioned, because the assertion that Shakespeare is the greatest artist, which Murdoch takes for sure, has been questioned as well. However, the fact that Murdoch does not try to base this assertion on rational thinking or some sort of analysis, but rather on intuition and common sense is in accord with her own system, in which not everything has to be based on reason. However, the novels analysed here show that, although Murdoch values art highly, it does not mean that a good artist is automatically a good person. However, since she proposes that artists should be humble and not put their selves into the work of art, modesty may be a key both to being a good artist and a good person, and this is what Murdoch is trying to do herself in her novels. As for the relationship of art and religion, it was discussed that religious images, especially in Christianity may concretise too much the religion, and support the idea of personal God, to which Murdoch is opposed. However, if religious art is taken rather symbolically, it may have a positive effect, because, as has been said already, in Murdoch‟s view good art leads people towards Good.

It has been discussed that Murdoch is interested also in other religions than

Christianity, mainly Judaism and Buddhism, and proposes some inspiration to be drawn from these, especially in connection to the figure of Christ, who should in her view be

65 understood mystically, like Buddha. However, as both the novels and the philosophical works show, she does not idealise any specific religion and sees possible problems of trying to adopt Buddhism completely. She therefore suggests, and this is exemplified mainly in The Green Knight, that inspiration can be drawn from different religions, and thus many of the concepts that she sees as problematic in Christian theology can be avoided. The most problematic aspects of Christianity, as presented in the novels discussed here and in her philosophy, are the historical nature of Christianity and the religious art, which support the idea of personal God, and also the inclination to indulge oneself in false fantasies, or even masochism, because suffering plays a key role in

Christianity. What is therefore proposed by Murdoch is some kind of demythologised

Christianity, in which myths and art are interpreted symbolically, and the place of Christ as a real historical figure is taken by a mystical Christ who can be paralleled to God in one‟s soul, and shares some characteristics with the absolute Good. The later novels discussed here, unlike The Time of the Angels, tend to retain the concept of God, although redefined, because Murdoch acknowledges that the religious concepts are familiar, and thus adopted more easily than something completely new. Her overall attitude to religion is, although she is not Christian, or a member of any other religion, quite positive and her position of a “Christian fellow traveller” may be attractive for many people nowadays, and may even describe the stance many people actually take, that is retaining some private faith, possibly inspired by Christianity, but not completely.

66 List of Abbreviations

BS Britské spisovatelky na konci tisíciletí

DOF Degrees of Freedom

EM Existentialists and Mystics

GG Gravity and Grace

GK The Green Knight

GKGM “The Green Knight and the Myth of the Green Man”

HR Human Relationships in the Novels of Iris Murdoch

IM Iris Murdoch

MGM Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals

MP The Message to the Planet

NS Nuns and Soldiers

SE Selected Essays

SOG The Sovereignty of Good

TA The Time of the Angels

TSTS The Sea, the Sea

67 Bibliography

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Murdoch, Iris. The Green Knight. Harmondworth: Penguin Books, 1994. Print.

---. The Message to the Planet. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1989. Print.

---. Nuns and Soldiers. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1980. Print.

---. The Sea, the Sea. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1978. Print.

---. The Time of the Angels. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966. Print.

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Romance in Iris Murdoch‟s Green Knight.” Mythlore 92 (2004): 72-86.

Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.

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Iris Murdoch‟s Moral Depth.” Christianity and Literature 57.2 (2008): 281-294.

Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Apr. 2011.

Burns, Elizabeth. “Iris Murdoch and the Nature of Good.” Religious Studies 33 (1997):

303-313. Cambridge Journals. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

Byatt, A. S. Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch. London: Vintage,

1994. Print.

---. Iris Murdoch. Harlow: Longman Group, 1976. Print.

Capitani, Diane N. “Ideas of the Good: Iris Murdoch‟s The Sea, The Sea.” Christianity

and Literature 53.1 (2003): 99-108. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Oct.

2011.

68 Conradi, Peter J. Iris Murdoch: The Saint and the Artist. London: Macmillan Press,

1986. Print.

Cupitt, Don. “Face to Faith: Iris and the Death of God.” The Guardian 23 Mar. 2002.

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1999. Print.

---. “The Green Knight and the Myth of the Green Man.” Brno Studies in English 21.1

(1995): 77-83. Print.

---. Human Relationships in the Novels of Iris Murdoch. Brno: Masarykova univerzita,

1995. Print.

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Angeles Times 20 Feb. 1994. ProQuest Central. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

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55.4 (1975): 405-414. JSTOR. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.

Miles, Siân, ed. Simone Weil: An Anthology. London: Virago, 1986. Print.

Murdoch, Iris. Existentialists and Mystics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1999.

Print.

---. Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1993. Print.

---. The Sovereignty of Good. London: Ark Paperbacks, 1985. Print.

69 Nicol, Bran. “Iris Murdoch‟s Aesthetics of Masochism.” Journal of Modern Literature

29.2 (2006): 148-165. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

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70 Résumé (English)

The present thesis provides an analysis of the treatment of religion and faith in selected novels by Iris Murdoch, namely The Time of the Angels, The Sea, the Sea, Nuns and Soldiers, The Message to the Planet, and The Green Knight. The presentation of religion in these novels is then compared to relevant Murdoch‟s ideas discussed in her philosophical works, showing some possible overlaps of these two areas.

The main themes discussed in the thesis are the relationship of religion and morality, the place of art within Murdoch‟s moral system and its relationship to religion,

Murdoch‟s views on some specific religions, namely Christianity, Judaism and

Buddhism, and finally a summary of Murdoch‟s view on the possible demythologised religion. The main idea as far as Murdoch‟s attitude to religion is concerned is that faith in personal God and life after death is impossible in modern world, because it contradicts rational thinking of today. However, Murdoch appreciates some aspects of religion, such as mysticism and faith in the Absolute, and therefore wants to retain some aspects of religion, which can result in forming a demythologised religion that does not contradict rational thinking, but retains the positive aspects of religion.

Murdoch‟s ideas concerning religion are expressed theoretically in her philosophy, and illustrated in her fiction. The novels thus provide examples of possible dangers which are connected to religion, such as its degeneration to magic or indulgence in suffering, as well as possible outcomes of demythologisation of religion, where the mystical value of religion is emphasized and the myths serve only as symbols. Therefore, despite not being philosophical, the novels provide a concrete illustration of Murdoch‟s theoretical ideas and can thus lead to their better understanding.

71 Resumé (česky)

Tato diplomová práce obsahuje analýzu náboženství a víry, jak jsou prezentovány ve vybraných románech Iris Murdochové, konkrétně The Time of the

Angels, The Sea, the Sea, Nuns and Soldiers, The Message to the Planet a The Green

Knight. Znázornění náboženství v těchto románech je pak porovnané s relevantními názory Murdochové vyjádřenými v jejích filozofických dílech a je poukázáno na možnou shodnost témat těchto dvou oblastí zájmu Murdochové.

Hlavní témata, kterými se práce zaobírá, jsou vztah náboženství a etiky, pozice umění v systému morální filosofie Murdochové a vztah umění k náboženství, dále autorčiny názory na některá konkrétní náboženství, jmenovitě křesťanství, judaismus a buddhismus, a nakonec shrnutí pohledu Murdochové na demytologizované náboženství.

Co se týče autorčina názoru na náboženství, hlavní myšlenkou je, že víra v osobního

Boha a v život po smrti je v moderním světě nemožná, protože odporuje dnešnímu racionálnímu smýšlení. Murdochová nicméně oceňuje některé aspekty náboženství, jako je mysticismus a víra v absolutno, a je tudíž nakloněna zachování některých aspektů náboženství, čímž je vytvořeno demytologizované náboženství, které neodporuje racionálnímu smýšlení, ale zachovává pozitivní aspekty náboženství.

Názory Murdochové týkající se náboženství jsou prezentovány jak teoreticky v jejích filozofických dílech, tak názorně v jejích románech. Romány tedy vyobrazují například možná nebezpečí spojená s náboženstvím, jako je jeho degenerace v magii nebo záliba v utrpení, stejně jako možná vyústění demytologizovaného náboženství, ve kterém je zdůrazňován mysticismus a mýty slouží pouze jako symboly. Ačkoliv tedy romány Murdochové nejsou striktně filozofické, poskytují prostor pro znázornění autorčiných teoretických názorů a slouží tak k jejich lepšímu pochopení.

72