The Heretic. A Satirical Catholic Story (en Inglés)
Reseña del libro "The Heretic. A Satirical Catholic Story (en Inglés)"
Didactic satire in the form of a narrative where the author Jonas Batista dos Santos, has a clear objective: to defend Catholic orthodoxy against heresies resulting from a combination of ignorance, vanity and poor formation that leads to individual choices.
A type of "narrative catechesis" that uses humor and confrontation to correct theological deviations in Catholic circles.
The author knows the theology he defends. The corrections made by Ionas and Fr. Lemos are theologically sound and reflect the teaching of the Catechism and tradition.
The book can work as a fun warning and brings along with it the reason why certain issues are not within our competence and that they are not exposed to all people.
Miguel Janssen is the high point of the narrative, the heretic, he is a recognizable human type: the autodidact who confuses superficial reading with wisdom, who memorizes catchphrases, verses and who wants admiration without the work of study.
The dialogues, especially between Ionas and Miguel, are well constructed, agile, ironic and funny. The art of creating verbal clashes is effective in exposing the fallacy of heretical thinking.
Satire not only combats heresies, it also combats the "Catholic Pharisee" as the cause of more heresies and the credulous who gives more value to a supposed "revelation of others" than to the teaching of the Church. These criticisms are pertinent and well placed.
The character Ionas is the voice of reason, knowledge and orthodoxy. He has no doubts, no flaws, no false pastoral charity. His "Franciscan patience" does not last three heresies and adopts a combative posture.
The author seems to want the reader to also have fun with humiliation, there is high-level richness in trying to teach the virtue of humility through a character who could be driven by intellectual pride, but Ionas is driven by love of truth and love of charity. There is a tragic irony here: Ionas treats Michael with the same contempt that Michael treats others when he thinks he is "enlightened." The difference is that Ionas is right.
A reader who identifies with Miguel will not think: "I need to study more." He'll think, "I need to avoid people like Ionas," and that's the intention, to bring a little bit of self-recognition to the heretic.
The author does not believe in real redemptions through education. Michael's redemption was by subtle divine intervention and it is between the lines. It was not a conviction after good arguments, Jesus found it. The author does not encourage the humiliating response, the humiliation was a consequence and not the reason for the correction to exist.
Heretics do not convert after being exposed to good arguments, so the combative posture occurs among the brothers only in order to expose the truth of the phenomena addressed.
The author or the faith does not encourage humiliating Protestants or Catholic heretics and, nevertheless, in a non-idealized way, sarcastic humor is an individual characteristic, Jesus himself praised Nathanael by using sarcastic irony when questioning whether Nazareth could provide any good. The humour is closer to the humour of Our Lord, notwithstanding by sinful men.
As literary art, semantically, there is a public execution of a heretic in his ideas.
Fr. Lemos acts against Catholic Pharisaism that condemns everyone to hell. With pious speech, he makes it clear that certain questions such as who will descend or ascend to heaven is God's arbitrariness and that we have very diffuse notions about it. Inspired by the venerable Fulton John Sheen, he also tells sacristy jokes and delivers long theological speeches that can break the narrative rhythm for readers of this generation less apt to long readings, but it is an excellent class.
The Heretic is a book that fulfills its didactic function for a very specific audience, the Catholic reader who is truest and capable of recognizing his own limitations.
