In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph.
The introduction to the recent Time edition of The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene makes a familiar charge against the author. The editor, however, does not lend the repeated generalization its usual venomous twist; indeed, he praises Greene for the wrong reason. The charge is that Greene is a hater of the material, that he despises man\u27s body and loves the spiritual in man, that he has a neo-Augustine loathing of sexual union. This observation may be true of Greene\u27s other works. It certainly is not true of The Power and the Glory. In matters of sexuality, it is the abuse of this gift that Greene regrets. (And Greene would be the first to say that there are far worse sins than these: pride and greed, for example.
