The real issues in the damnation of Theron ware are not issues of religion, but rather cultural issues. Although the book is outwardly a novel about religion, the question becomes not whether god exists, but how we should live. Theron becomes damned in the novel because of what he is. Theron cannot be anymore than what he is, a simple Methodist minister, yet when he is shown another way of life, he wants to enter. The problems that Theron is having in the novel reflect questions that people were having on religious issues at the time. There is at this point, a conflict between traditional beliefs, such as Methodism, and new ideas. Each of the old beliefs and new ideas take form in this novel through on of the characters, and it is through character development, especially Theron's, that we see the conflict being argued out and solved.
             Though Theron is the minister, throughout the book he is shown as wanting something more. Even in the first scene in which we meet him, he is wishing that he had received a better position in the church, perhaps a better appointment in a city, rather than a rural town. It appears to me that the conflict within Theron is a conflict of the old ways verses a modern life. The city symbolizes the new and the free, while the rural town, in which Theron is stuck, symbolizes the traditional beliefs. Just as, for most of the novel, Theron is stuck in the rural town, he is also stuck within his beliefs. Though he wants more, it is impossible. Theron tries to enter another way of life, which is shown to him by Celia, father Forbes, and dr. Ledsmar, but when he attempts to enter this world that they exist in, he is considered a "bore." In other words, Theron would appear to be in a no-win situation. Just as Theron is stuck in this no-win situation, it would appear that the Methodist church is stuck in it, as well. It is apparent that some of the younger members of the ch...