Book Club Guide

The Power and the Glory

by Graham Greene · 1940 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Grace reaching the most unlikely vessel
The revolutionary state and the church it cannot destroy
Guilt, failure and the persistence of faith

About this book

In a Mexican state where Catholicism has been outlawed, a whisky priest — the last in the region — is hunted by a pursuing lieutenant as he moves from village to village. Greene's novel is a profound examination of guilt, faith and human fallibility: the priest knows he is a bad man, but continues to administer the sacraments anyway.

Published in 1940, The Power and the Glory is set in Mexico in the 1930s during the government persecution of the Catholic Church. Greene visited Mexico specifically to research the novel. It is his most admired religious work.

Discussion questions

The whisky priest is objectively a bad man — alcoholic, he has fathered a child, he fears death. Yet the novel presents his ministry as genuine and perhaps holy. How does Greene make this case?
The lieutenant who hunts the priest is earnest, incorruptible and genuinely believes in the revolution's promise to the poor. How does Greene avoid making him a simple villain?
The priest's relationship with his daughter — whom he loves and who makes him ashamed — is the novel's most personal strand. What does it add to the theological argument?
The novel ends with another priest arriving. What does this continuation say about the Catholic argument Greene is making — about the institution rather than the individual?
Greene has been criticised for the romanticism of his Catholicism. Does The Power and the Glory feel like a genuine engagement with faith — or a literary deployment of theological drama?