The book “The keys of the Kingdom” was written by a great Scottish novelist and essayist Archibald Joseph Cronin. One of his works “The Citadel” represented all injustice of the medical system of Great Britain. A. J. Cronin was not only a writer of non-fiction, novelist, essayist, and dramatist but a Scottish physician. I believe his profession as a medic predetermined the creation of “The Citadel”. Cronin is one of the physician writers; the medical doctors who write in spheres outside their medical practice. But he was writing the book “The Citadel” not outside the theme of medicine but about it.
His most known works are “Hatter’s Castle”, “The Stars Look Down”, “The Green Years” and “The Keys of the Kingdom”. The latter was written after a four-year pause. This book was a long-expected one; and as the contemporary newspapers were writing before the official appearance of the book: “All signs indicate that “The Keys of the Kingdom”, which depicts with such dramatic force one man’s struggle to live the good life, will be the most popular novel of the season” (“The Keys” 3).
The action of the book takes place in China; the lifespan of the story is about six decades. It tells the reader about a Catholic priest of Scottish origin who tries to establish a mission in China. Many years earlier the priest Chisholm was assigned to the Chinese province, where he fulfils his destination as a missionary, suffering from plague, starvation and war actions. He is directed by indulgence and compassion, thereby other Chinese clergies respect him for his pleasant, noble, and brave ways.
Englishmen did not understand and did not care that the Chinese people were happy with the customs, traditions and gods of their country and did not want strangers to spread alien religion. Father Chisholm expects that his congregation would be prosperous and assiduous, but instead of thriving meeting his wishes become broken because of the wall of hatred. Two first people who changed their religion and followed the Catholic priest are Joseph (Fong), a man of local society who helps Chisholm learn the local traditions and Anna (Shoo-Hoo), a little girl. Father Chisholm heals one of the inhabitants of the town.
The priest uses some medical techniques to make that little boy recover. Thus the boy’s father becomes a friend of the priest and helps him to become a part of the people’s life; his church becomes a part of the community. After the beginning of the war the church of Father Chisholm was the basic spirit for those people who believe. The Catholic priest is the ground that holds the people and his faith helps people to believe it too.
For many years Father Chisholm wanted to become a priest of the other segregation, and when his wish is fulfilled he does not want to leave the family where he spent the half-of-century life. The book tells about the life of a Catholic priest; the story is full of religious images and figures. It is impossible to tell about the life of faithful people without mentioning the religious aspects.
The Catholicism is a religion that consists of a great number of different symbols, images and figures. The priest has to tell the people about the religion, its basic rules and dogmata. Christianity involves many images which possess symbolic meanings, such as a relic of the blood of Christ represents a distinct symbol of interrelations with the image of Christ.
Thus it is natural that the image of Christ is represented in the book. With the help of the image of Christ the author can achieve certain results; he “calls on biblical authority to support his argument, reminds his readers that the living human being (especially Christ), made in God’s image, is the authentic object of worship, and identifies the Cross as exempt from his strictures” (Brown 309).
The image of Christ in the book “The Keys of the Kingdom” reveals the symbolic meaning of the power of belief, the brave attempts to spread the religion, the hardships of being alone among the strangers, among people of an alien religion. In moments of confusion and despair the image of Christ is aimed at exploding different doubts.
When Father Chisholm was delivering a homily “Hell is only for those who spit in the face of God” (Cronin 13), he did not tell that God is good or bad, he told of ignorance and of the absence of respect to God. Other cases of mentioning the image of Christ appear when the priest tries to preach Christ to the Chinese people who have their own gods, religion, and traditions. Also Father Chisholm compares the actions of Christ with the actions of a doctor: “Dr. Tulloch didn’t live like that. And he died helping others like Christ himself” (Cronin 290).
The priest mentions the image of Christ and his actions, and tries to follow the example of those actions, “The great Christ would have given that beggar his coat. Why shouldn’t I?” (Cronin 330). Sometimes the mention of Christ is made very passionately and terrifies a bit: “Christ preached everlasting love. He preached the brotherhood of man. He did not climb the mountain and shout” about the necessity of killing each other (Cronin 344).
When Father Chisholm preached, it was impossible to sit quietly; his prayer was full of passion and love to God. And the mentions of Christ were very necessary and reasonable: “Father Chisholm said in a quiet voice: “I shall render an account of my life to God”. The younger man dropped his eyelids with an unhappy sense of indiscretion” (Cronin 15). The boy dared to ask the priest about his deeds, whereas the priest was eager to reveal his secrets only to God.
The book “The keys of the Kingdom” was written by a great Scottish novelist and essayist Archibald Joseph Cronin. It tells the story of a Catholic priest who spent his whole life in an attempt to spread Christian religion over non-Christian Chinese people. This man was dreaming about his segregation of faithful and pious parishioners. The book describes all difficulties and obstacles on the way of a priest. Finally Father Chisholm was given a segregation which was the object of his dreams from the years of youth, but now it was very painful for him to leave people who had become his friends. Also, he was old to start new segregation, to struggle for new purposes.
The image is a material subject that is called upon for representing the spiritual reality of life. Thus the image of Christ describes the spiritual side of the book; it reveals religious beliefs and calls for believing in God, in good things, striving for a good life and good deeds. “Yet I must record this inescapable sense of belonging to God, which strikes at me the darkness, the deep conviction” (Cronin 83).
The image is not important when we are talking about the matter of religion, of all religions in all kinds of displays. The only thing that matters is faith. The people do not have to go to church or chapel, pray or mention the name of God in every talk. When people believe, the image of Christ becomes an unnecessary part of their lives, especially when the religion they belong to is not Christianity.
Works Cited
Brown, Peter. A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c.1350-c.1500. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007.
Cronin, Archibald Joseph. The Keys of the Kingdom. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2006.
“The Keys to the Kingdom” by Dr. A. J. Cronin” Life Magazine, 1941: 88.