Reading Groups

Belief and Doubt: The Novels of Graham Greene with Dennis Krieger

Clear

5 sessions Wednesdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:30 pm EDT October 22, 2025 to February 18, 2026

Online via Zoom

featured-images.reading-groups.162-17613

The ‘With Books’ option includes the titles required for this group at an additional 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Meeting Dates:
10/22, 11/19, 12/17, 1/21, 2/18
Online via Zoom

In five of Graham Greene’s most celebrated novels, Greene traverses the polarities between which his characters exist and struggle: Belief and Doubt; Sin and Redemption; and Loyalty and Betrayal. Central to these novels is Greene’s exploration of the manifestations, applications, and outcomes of “faith” as a force that acts upon the lives and souls of his characters and, in turn, can enable, liberate, paralyze, or defeat them in their efforts toward fulfillment.

In The Power and the Glory (1940), thought by many to be Greene’s masterpiece, in a region of Mexico where religion has been abolished by the State and priests are hunted down and executed, the unnamed “whiskey priest”, tortured by his moral lapses and loss of faith, and pursued by the Lieutenant who is obsessed with eradicating God from the land, takes flight through dystopian surroundings and, perhaps, reacquires his humanity.

In The Heart of the Matter (1948), Greene examines how “pity” becomes the contributing cause of the personal and professional failures of Scobie, a British policeman serving in West Africa. Driven by this “pity”, Scobie seeks to honorably reconcile his love for a woman with the demands of his faith and, hopelessly conflicted, descends into unpardonable sin.

In The End of the Affair (1951), the parties to an adulterous relationship engage in a powerful, intense emotional and spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict between passionate love and promises made to God result in expressions of hatred toward God from one party and unexpected beatitude for the other.

In The Quiet American (1956), Greene displays how fervent and misplaced secular faith can lead to the same tragic, devastating consequences as those provoked by religious crises of faith.

In The Human Factor (1978), a novel thought to be influenced by Greene’s friendship with his former boss at MI6, Kim Philby, the most notorious of the Cambridge Spies. British Cold War espionage is dissected and Greene addresses whether even the betrayal of one’s country can contain elements of honor.

This course will provide participants the opportunity to experience what Greene identifies as the “moral ambiguities” that exist in religion, politics, passion, and betrayal, from novels written over a nearly forty-year period.

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read The Power and the Glory before the first meeting.

What to expect from this reading group: This will be a discussion-based course with a brief introduction of each work by the instructors.

Reading List:

Please note: All virtual classes are recorded. Please click here for information about our recording policy.

Led by

Dennis Krieger

Dennis Krieger

Dennis Krieger is a Manhattan attorney with a lifetime of involvement in literature. During college and law school at Berkeley, Dennis was a Teaching Assistant in various literature courses. He later co-authored Skiing the Best, a Guide to Skiing in North America (Vintage), which became a bestseller and a Book of the Month selection (Quality Book Club). Dennis is an avid reader of Graham Greene as well as British fiction between the wars. A Proustian, Dennis has spent the last decade participating in groups on the author at The Center and other institutions.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

Groups+Workshops

More Groups+Workshops

Groups+Workshops