Much Less Ministry

           

          Harold Frederic presents Theron Ware as a typical, young minister, who is fresh into the field that he supposedly dedicated his life to. As one choice leads to another, this man is eventually damned and led out of the ministry. This is the result from him trying to change who he is for the sake of pleasing others. He is a shallow and hollow man at heart; he is lucky to have his wife with him at the end of the story. Frederic presents Theron in such a way that it would appear that his circumstances are what damns him, but this is not true. Theron damns himself through and through, with one of the main reasons being his mistrust of his wife and his intellectual infatuation with Celia Madden. She partially damned him, but it is his own fault for fantasizing about her and raising her to the level of a goddess in his mind. This craven man has no substance to call his own, and he is so worried about what others may think about him that it eventually tears him to pieces.

            It is easy to see why Theron cannot make it in the ministry, but why did Frederic put him there in the first place? Theron has so much potential to be a great minister, but he gets swept away by the world and his own desires before he can fully realize his position as a minister. Theron later claims that he is not built for the ministry, but the real issue is that the ministry is not built for him. He begins as a down to earth man who trusts his supportive wife; they live on little, and that is enough for them. But after he sees the luxury of Father Forbes, he begins falling morally. This fall is climaxed during his evening near the piano of Celia and then even further at the two separate church meetings in the woods, where he sees Catholics drinking alcohol and then wanders off with Celia. Theron does not know how to guard his heart against fleshly desires; a weak-hearted man like him can never thrive as a minister, who is supposed to lead his flock by example. Frederic permits Theron to fall in order to show the reader that innocence can be easily lost when a person succumbs to the pressures of the world. Though one could argue that Theron was never innocent to begin with, but merely playing the part of the innocent Christian man. The poor cretin might have made it as a pastor if he just relied on God and his wife more, rather than being so heavily influenced by others. One could also say that he does not honor his marriage as a Christian man should, and this is the reason that he damned himself. Either way, Frederic permits Theron to fall because he succumbs to the desires of his flesh and betrays his position as a minister. He is an example of the world getting the best of a weak Christian, and this is why Frederic puts him in a position to have his faith tested.