SIGNIFICANCE - FAITH Michelle C., Kim D., Alika N., Cathlyn T.

What is faith? By definition, faith is belief without question. Faith is an intangible element that can be experienced with

or without proof or evidence present.

Faith in A Prayer for Owen Meany

Throughout the novel, multiple characters were involved in a religious struggle to find their true faith.

Owen, unlike the others, was already sure of his own faith and relationship with God.

“In both classes, Pastor Merrill preached his doubt-is-the-essence-of-and-not-the-opposite-of-faith philosophy; it was a point of view that interested Owen more than it had once interested him. The apparent secret was ‘belief without miracle’; a faith that needed a miracle was not faith at all. Don’t ask for proof—that was Mr. Merrill’s routine message. ‘BUT EVERYONE NEEDS A LITTLE PROOF,’ said Owen Meany. ‘Faith itself is a miracle, Owen,’ said Pastor Merrill. ‘The first miracle that I believe in is my own faith itself.’”

-p.309

“ ‘…earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,’ Pastor Merrill was saying, and I was thinking that my father was quite a fake; after all, he had met the miracle of Owen Meany, face to face, and still hadn’t believed in him—and now he believed everything, not because of Owen Meany but because I had tricked him. I had fooled him with the dressmaker’s dummy; Owen Meany had been the real miracle, but my father’s faith was restored by an encounter with a dummy, which the poor fool had believe was my mother—reaching out to him from beyond her grave.”

-p.568

The Dressmaker’s Dummy

The Voice of Owen Throughout the book John was continuously struggling with

his faith. We believe that the struggle to find his father was also his struggle to find his faith. Owen was John’s proof to believe.

“You can’t see her, but you know she’s there, right?”

This is describing Owen’s relationship with God. There are a few people in this world who

Virgin Birth

Angel of Death

Little Lord Jesus, Owen Meany

A Christmas Carol

“YESTERDAY I WAS KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL. LAST NIGHT I HAD A DREAM. NOW I KNOW FOUR THINGS. I KNOW THAT MY VOICE DOESN’T CHANGE—BUT I STILL DON’T KNOW WHY. I KNOW THAT I’M GOD’S INSTRUMENT. I KNOW WHEN I’M GOING TO DIE—AND NOW A DREAM HAS SHOWN ME HOW I’M GOING TO DIE. I’M GOING TO BE A HERO! I TRUST THAT GOD WILL HELP ME, BECAUSE WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO LOOKS VERY HARD.”

-p.416

Sky Harbor, Owen’s Death Even after Owen’s death, he was still assisting John. This

relates back to John’s dependence on Owen; by depending and believing in Owen, John in turn believed in God. Owen was John’s “little bit of proof” that he needed to have belief without question.

Contrary to Merrill’s belief that faith should happen without miracle, it is hard for mankind to believe something without much evidence.

Owen, on the other hand, was so sure of himself and what he believed in that he did not need proof.

“When we held Owen Meany above our heads, when we passed him back and forth—so effortlessly—we believed that Owen weighed nothing at all. We did not realize that there were forces beyond our play. Now I know they were the forces that contributed to our illusion of Owen’s weightlessness; they were the forces we didn’t have the faith to feel, they were the forces we failed to believe in—and they were also lifting up Owen Meany, taking him out of our hands. O God—please give him back! I shall keep asking You.”

-p.616 - 617

“What made Mr. Merrill infinitely more attractive was that he was full of doubt; he expressed our doubt in the most eloquent and sympathetic ways. In his completely lucid and convincing view, the Bible is a book with a troubling plot, but a plot that can be understood: God creates us out of love, but we don’t want God, or we don’t believe in Him, or we pay very poor attention to Him. Never the less, God continues to love us—at least He continues to try to get our attention. Pastor Merrill made religion seem reasonable, and the trick of having faith, he said, was that it was necessary to believe in God without any great or even remotely reassuring evidence that we don’t inhabit a godless universe.”

-p.111

So What?