Memoirs and Confessions
The title Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner takes its reference from a theological belief, particularly the central reformation doctrine of "justification by faith". It concerns a strangely tormented character, Robert Wringhim, who believes he is one of the elect, but eventually murders his brother and finally takes his own life. To say that this novel has a multiplicity of interpretations is a literary commonplace. For the purposes of this paper I wish to suggest that it may be read as a warning not against intolerance, but against excessive rationalism.The novel is written in three parts. The Editor's narrative is written by a member of the Edinburgh Enlightenment literati and suggests to be the objective, rational account of Robert Wringhim and the strange events of his life. The Sinner's Confessions are Robert Wringhim's own subjective, irrational account of these same events. Robert, being an 'elect and justified person', believes that he cannot lose his Christian id
Hogg's novel has been constructed to show the limits of rational endeavor. He demonstrates this in his work by forcing the reader to experience the crippling of their own rational powers by a text, which thwarts intellectual endeavor. Hogg's theological narratives have an air of finality, assurance and confidence in their theoretical position. Actions that seem inexplicable in the Editor's narrative, when told from the Sinner's point of view may be understood either as madness or occult possession. Such an intense intellectual atmosphere which makes serious demands on the will - for what is apprehended intellectually must be lived out practically - seems to have had more perilous implications for the emotions and the imagination. Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, written in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, clearly shows how deeply Christianity informed the intellectual and imaginative processes of James Hogg. In the third part, there is a weighing up of the two claims, with new evidence on both sides, which significantly comes to no final resolution of both or decision for either. This novel confronts issues concerning politics, statecraft, history, philosophy and religion, which are all discussed with reference to Christianity. Strictly speaking, therefore, the novel is not so much about justification as its theological but heretical double - antinomianism. It is apparent that Wringhim is a deeply troubled individual and describes in himself what the reader may recognize as the symptoms of schizophrenia. The Shorter Catechism, for example, proceeds by question and answer. The answers are categorical and definite. Less obviously, however, the novel may also warn against the common but miserable emotional reaction to the rationalism of Reformed Christianity - spiritually unhealthy habits of morbidity and introspection which lead to self-obsession and self-absorption - habits which disrupt, worry and unsettle the processes of grace and faith in the life of the believer. But Hogg is never categorical about what can be known.
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Acceptance Essays
