THE NAME OF THE ROSE AND RELIGION 2

2. Introduction to “The Name of the Rose”

a. The Author

The biggest Italian name to break into the contemporary English literary scene, Umberto Eco could boast of multitudinous achievements. He was a polymath, a man of expansive erudition. He excelled in the world of writing, philosophy and linguistics. As an academician, he would be most remembered in the field of semiotics, the area in which he wrote most of his scholarly contributions. (cf. Cook, 2013).

Born to middle class parents on January 5, 1932 in the Piedmontese town of Alessandria in Italy, he quickly felt the allure of books, reading, and writing through the subtle influence of some members of his family. (cf. Zanganeh, 2008).

As an adolescent Eco tried his hand in comic books and fantasy stories set in some imaginary place in Asia and Africa.  He also dabbled in poetry, which later on he abandoned. Describing his poetic opera, he said: “My poetry had the same functional origin and the same formal configuration as teenage acne.” (Zanganeh, 2008).

While a university student in Turin, Eco’s Catholic upbringing led him to a fascination with medieval studies and the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. This passion has stayed with him all throughout his life, even as he admits his forays into the state of unbelief.  While his faith in God has faded, the writer continued to affirm the gift of religion and its beneficial contribution to humanity.

Speaking of his attraction to the Middle Ages, Eco believed in the richness of this period as the catalyst for the eventual appearance of the Renaissance. It was “a period of chaotic and effervescent transition—the birth of the modern city, of the banking system, of the university, of our modern idea of Europe, with its languages, nations, and cultures.” (Zanganeh, 2008).

Eco experienced career shifts, moving from journalism for an Italian television network, writing literary criticism with a special focus on James Joyce, and teaching in the University of Bologna, Europe’s oldest university, as an expert of semiotics.

Semiotics is the science of signs. A semiotician “studies words, pictures, gestures, objects, symbolic and verbal languages, ideas, and ideologies insofar as they may serve as signs - that is, vehicles of meaning.” (Rubin, 1983). In a world full of meaning, semiotics is concerned less with what people mean than how people mean. This science is therefore the process of communicating meaning through signs around us.

As a columnist for the Italian magazine L’Espresso, Eco has championed a new philosophical path that may be called “neo-enlightenment” in which he prefers “methological doubting versus dogmatism, and the use of parody and irony against sectarian thought; his idea of culture is that it is mainly a channel of interdisciplinary exchange rather than a provider of certainties or a chapel for hermetic and initiatory rites.”  (Ferrucci, 1983).

In reaching his 48^th year, Eco penned his first novel, “The Name of the Rose,” which became one of the international publishing sensations of the last century. The book was translated into as many as 47 languages and was morphed into a full-length film, heightening the author’s fame both within and outside of his native country. Critics spoke highly of the intellectual and literary calibre of the emerging novelist.

“Eco is a writer who can be spoken of in the same breath as James Joyce or even Shakespeare. Reading an Eco novel is a feat. He challenges his readers with universes that rarely make sense. The religious faith of his characters is challenged at every turn— but it is never vanquished. Eco is a never agnostic. Whether in “The Name of the Rose” or “Foucault’s Pendulum,” room is always left for faith to be on the right side of history.” (Cromwell and Marcus, 2016).

From professor, the writer has passed to a widely acclaimed literary star, awarded the Italian “Premio Straga” in 1981. (Cane, n.d.). He was also bestowed the “Prix Médicis Étranger Award” the most important French literary citation. (Ferrucci, 1983). This first novel that catapulted Eco’s fame has become the subject of various levels of study due to the rich layers of meaning it has opened up to the reading public.

“You could read The Name of the Rose simply for the solution to the murders. A more religious minded reader could read it strictly for the discussions on God. Not to mention the countless academic interpretations the novel allows. But perhaps such metatextuality, such endless possibility brings as many negative results as it does positive ones.” (Rossmeier, 2005)

After his death in February 16, 2016 at 84, Umberto Eco’s name continued to retain its lustre as a foremost figure in the noble fields he specialized in, not least in the novels that continue to educate and entertain the readers and to mesmerize and confound the critics. The Name of the Rose, more than 30 years after it was written and first translated, has entered into the literary canon of masterfully written novels and has served as an example of postmodern literature at its best. (cf. Gioia, n.d.)

THE NAME OF THE ROSE AND RELIGION

The Face of Religion in Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose”

1. The Presence of Religious Themes in Mystery Novels

Mystery novels accord a special place to the realm of the religious, whether this is found in a character, a setting, or a plot, and in some cases, in all three. While it has not always been like this from the start, a good number of successful mystery novels have their share of a religious figure, background, or underlying question that touches on matters of God, faith or belief.

Publishers release a fresh stock of mystery novels and thrillers by the thousands each year. It is remarkable that a good percentage of these new additions to the reading library do have a tinge of the religious theme. Joseph Bottum provides an informal estimate that may help get the proper perspective on the matter.

“At a guess (exact figures are impossible to find; another peculiar feature of contemporary publishing), perhaps three thousand mysteries and thrillers are printed in English every year. And by my rough survey of Amazon results, nearly a tenth of them touch on religion in some clearly recognizable way. All of which means that, even by a conservative count, mystery readers were confronted with more than two hundred new volumes of religious fiction in 2010. And in 2009. And in 2008 … The genre of God and the Detectives has grown to encompass more than anyone can actually read.” (Bottum, 2011).

This is not to say that a mere superficial use of religious motifs qualify a material as religious mystery fiction. “Something of a religious theme, something of a theological insight, has to be present as well. Something of God must be woven into the literary fabric, not just embroidered on as decoration.” (Bottum, 2011).

Thus, it is not necessary that there is a presence of a minister, priest or nun or that the surroundings refer to a parish, convent or mission. Religion may not even be thematically or directly explored. In many cases, the Christian worldview is considered a given. The institutional religion is just perceived as ever present, interwoven in the story without a tinge of self-consciousness. (cf. Bottum, 2011).

What accounts for the seeming harmony between religion and the mystery novel?  Of the few who have spent time reflecting on this question, a major clue is provided by the English prolific writer G. K. Chesterton, a former Anglican convert to Catholicism, the first writer to employ the term “mystery story.” (cf. Morlan and Raubicheck, 2013, xv). Chesterton perceived a cogent connection in the concern of religion and of daily life about matters pertaining to morality.

a. Morality

First, mystery novels exhibit the tendency to reflect on the question of morality in the world. Chesterton’s famous underdog detective character Father Brown, first popularized in his series of short stories, always appears as a reminder of what is good.

“Chesterton saw an increasing tendency in detective fiction to reflect the morality of the modern world, or rather the lack of morality. When there is no code of morals, ‘anybody may murder anybody because anybody may marry anybody’.” (Morlan and Raubicheck, 2013, xiv.)

As the main character in Chesterton’s hands, Father Brown elucidates people not only on what is good but also on what is rational. As a Catholic priest, Fr. Brown takes it upon himself to defend the good and in doing so, to uphold both faith and reason, which to Catholic sensibility are always joined and not opposed.

Otto Penzler opines that with the decline of the influence of the church in the life of its adherents, there came about the surge in mystery or detective stories. He believes that this reading preference compensates for the need to find a solution to the restoration of society’s moral order without invoking the power or influence of the divine.

“There is a theory (brilliantly advanced by me in the introduction to my anthology, The Best American Mystery Stories of the 19th Century—and, oh, yes, by dozens of scholars before me) that the detective story was able to achieve success only when people gave up their absolute adherence to religion, a phenomenon that occurred in the 19th century. The notion is that we all have a sense of guilt impressed upon us at a young age and that it can only be relieved by a higher power: to wit, God, or one of his lieutenants. When the extraordinary power of religious devotion diminished, the door opened for a different agency to lessen our guilt and this took the form of a detective.” (Penzler, 2014).

The enigma of life that was once perceived in terms of religious imagery and language was transported to the fictional page featuring the intrepid adventures of the detective. Reading this development in a novel substitutes for the reliance once given to religion as problem solver of the world.

“The analogy of religion and the detective story goes like this: There is a sin (murder), a victim, a high priest (the criminal) who must be destroyed by a higher power—the alternative to God—the detective. Individuals identify with the light and dark sides of themselves—the detective and the criminal—and seek absolution and redemption. Thus, the denouement of the mystery is the Day of Judgment when all is made clear, the soul is cleansed—and the criminal, through the omnipotent power of the detective, is caught and punished.” (Penzler, 2014).

b. Surprise

Second, the mystery novel succeeds in fascinating readers because of its element of surprise. People read not because they already know but because they are ready to know something that goes beyond their suspicion. The element of surprise is a thrilling expectation. Chesterton writes:

“The true object of an intelligent detective story is not to baffle the reader, but to enlighten the reader; but to enlighten him in such a manner that each successive portion of the truth comes as a surprise. In this, as in much nobler types of mystery, the object of the true mystic is not merely to mystify, but to illuminate. The object is not darkness, but light; but light in the form of lightning.” (Morlan and Raubicheck, 2013, xv.)

Religion, whether it is supernatural or natural, thrives through revelation or discovery, an explosion of astonishing truths, realizations and conclusions. Almost all religions serve to propose something that comes across as new or fresh. It may be something the believer already knows but needs a confirmation as to veracity or validity. Perceiving life through the prism of faith opens one to surprises.

As Chesterton affirms, even mysticism is not an exercise of spiritual self-aggrandizement through accumulation of deep private encounters with the divine. The true mystic reveals and shares the light to others. For those who do not attain the heights of mystical absorption, the ordinary becomes a locus of surprise. Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast, encouraging a spiritual reflectiveness on all things, writes:

“No matter how dull or intellectually trapped we are, surprise is close at hand. Even when our life lacks the surprise of the extraordinary, the ordinary always wants to surprise us afresh.” (Steindl-Rast, 1984, 21).

Both religious experiences and mystery novels provide people with the opportunity to become child-like, always open for something amazing. Religion gives people the capacity to know surprise that leads to gratitude to the divine. Reading enables people to feel the wonder of surprise that leads to humility, for not discovering the truth right before their eyes for although it was too ordinary, it was not too obvious.

c. Ongoing Mystery

Third, both religion and mystery fiction are preoccupied with finding a solution to the puzzles of life and to the great puzzle that is life itself. Both also expect that a resolution will possibly emerge.

The novel focuses on the daily mysteries of human existence, the temporary mystery which when finally solved gives fleeting satisfaction. Religion gazes on the ultimate mystery of all, the permanent mystery that is an ongoing or endless process. It is never fully solved but even the attempt to do so already gives endless satisfaction. (cf. Morlan and Raubicheck, 2013, xv).

Mystery stories see the world through a religious slant, and sometimes specifically through Christian eyes. Bottum sees the novel as imitating the human situation of fallenness and brokenness, themes that are valuable to Christian theology and spirituality. This may explain the attraction of mystery plots to churches, religious figures, and settings.

“Mystery stories, in other words, see reality in a Christian way—or, better, in a partially Christian way. It's what the Christian worldview would be without Christ: sin without redemption; the Fall without the Resurrection; justice, sometimes, but never mercy.” (Bottum, 2011).

However the story does not stop there. Just as in religion, grace interrupts the process of decay and regression in order to give new hope, redemption also happens in a mystery story. And this is the crucial element. “A detective story is religious if it superadds an awareness of redemption to the fallen world assumed by all mysteries. If it sees the chance of God's grace down in a universe of sin.” (Bottum, 2011).

Both the detective and the ordinary Christian face tremendous battles in their lives. However the detective can only solve a crime and bring about justice. His role is thus limited. The religious or Christian element extends some kind of comfort and restores not only the moral order but supplies a sense of meaning to the situation marred by wrongdoing. (cf. Morlan and Raubicheck, 2013, xvii-xviii).