Notable Quote: Logical and Coherency by James Joyce

James Joyce in his Bildungsroman (a novel of the development of a protagonist), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, has the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, go from a devout kid growing up in Catholic Dublin to an atheist.  It’s been a while since I read the novel, but this always comes to mind every time I discuss religion with a Protestant.  Steven, who is really Joyce’s persona, fields questions from his intellectual friends about his leaving the faith.  Obviously I think Joyce through Steven was wrong about atheism, but he has this remarkable comeback to his friend asking if he is really converting to Protestantism.  Cranly is Steven’s friend probing his thoughts.

 —Then, said Cranly, you do not intend to become a protestant?

—I said that I had lost the faith, Stephen answered, but not that I had lost self-respect. What kind of liberation would that be to forsake an absurdity which is logical and coherent and to embrace one which is illogical and incoherent?”

-James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Catholicism is logical and coherent; Protestantism is illogical and incoherent.  Perhaps I’m biased here, but that is so true.