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January 6, 2005 2:43 PM

What with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the point of being vanquished by plain old Doubt (not that it was much of a contest in Rowan Williams's case) I was reminded of a drama I once read as a book and later saw as a TV screenplay. An abbot of a particular monastery has secretly lost his faith, and so does not wish to lead the brothers in prayer; he always gets someone else to do this, to avoid a personal spiritual crisis caused by having to pray publicly to, as he sees it, nothing. The Catholic hierarchy of that future time, unbeknownst to him, has become entirely atheist. An agent of the curia is sent to force the abbot to the point of a self-destroying confrontation with his unbelief. The agent achieves this by manipulating him into a situation where he can't avoid being the one to lead the assembled brothers in a public prayer.

Can anyone tell me what this thing is that I remember? Title and author are entirely gone. Thanks!
posted by jfuller to Religion & Philosophy (4 answers total)

Sounds like A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wmiller.htm
posted by Man O' Straw at 2:57 PM on January 6, 2005

Hrm, I definitely wouldn't say it sounds like A Canticle for Leibowitz, however, I do highly recommend the book nonetheless.

Alas, other than that I'm no help here.
posted by Swifty at 5:46 PM on January 6, 2005

Hmm... yeah. On closer inspection, I guess Swifty's probably right. Should have said elements of it triggered a vague recollection of A Canticle for Leibowitz. But it's been a while, I've read too many books, and my memory's about shot. Can't find any record of it ever being televised, either, so that probably rules it out for good. Good book, though, as stated.

Guess I'm inadvertently living up to my nic.
posted by Man O' Straw at 11:02 PM on January 6, 2005

Sounds quite like Brian Moore's Catholics, which was later made into a film.

Sidenote: the Telegraph headline you mention ('Archbishop of Canterbury: This has made me question God's existence') was a blatant misrepresentation of what the ABC actually said: report and comment here. Since many people are only too willing to believe that Rowan Williams is a secret atheist (presumably on the grounds that such an intelligent man could not possibly be an orthodox believer) it is worth setting the record straight.
posted by verstegan at 4:09 AM on January 8, 2005