The Damnation of Theron Ware

In class today, Dr. Campbell asked an important question about the book: Do illumination and damnation go hand in hand?

As someone who places a high value on both education and on religion, I had a very difficult time grappling with this issue throughout the book and, in a larger sense, in my own life. While so many authors frequently allude to the Bible in their books, making at least a basic knowledge of the Bible necessary in almost any English class, it seems that (for the most part anyway) education and Christianity are incongruous. Like Theron, learning more about science, history, or even language (as in the case of the eponyms) force many people to question their faith at the very least.

However (and I may be a bit idealistic here), I would like to think that illumination and damnation do not have to go hand in hand. As we discussed in class today, Theron is too rash and impressionable at many points in the book, leading to his nearly immediate acceptance of everything he hears from other people or reads in books. It's as if he forgets that, while those people he talks to and the people who writes the books are likely more educated than he is, they are still humans, just like him. With so much doubt in himself and such intense hatred for his perceived ignorance, he suddenly puts himself on a level where he is not entitled to his own thoughts or his own opinions.

I would also like to think that education (or "illumination") can actually serve to strengthen faith. Blind faith essentially means nothing more than ignorance. An educated faith means that a person has come to understand many different perspectives and philosophies and then chooses to make an informed decision about what he or she believes to be true. Of course, doing so would require that a person could look at so many different perspectives and form their own opinion--a task that Theron's incredible naivete makes him rather incapable of accomplishing.