M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin
by Marilyn Green Faulkner

A.J. Cronin lived a long and interesting life, with two brilliant careers, first as a doctor and then as one of the most successful authors of the twentieth century. Cronin was born in a small town in Scotland in 1896. His father’s early death plunged the family into poverty, and the Cronins were forced to rely on the charity of relatives who despised them for their Catholicism. (His Protestant mother had converted against her family’s wishes.) It was in this harsh environment that Archibald formed the two priorities that guided his life, a need for independence and a dream of tolerance between all men.

In that day the only choices available to a poor boy that wanted to rise in the world were the clergy or medicine. Choosing what he termed “the lesser of two evils,” Cronin worked his way through medical school and began his practice in the mining towns of Northern England. After nine years he had a lucrative practice in the west end of London, a wife and two sons, but he was unhappy with his life. He had always loved to write and felt that if he only had the time he could write a novel based on his unique experiences. He sold his practice and moved his family into a cottage in Scotland, and in three months had completed a novel, Hatter’s Way, which became an immediate best seller. Cronin went on to write more than a dozen novels that sold in the millions of copies. Several of his books were made into films, and he wrote one of the most successful television series ever to air on British television.

One of the keys to the popularity of Cronin’s work was its timing. In a day when the modern novel was full of cynicism and despair, Cronin told old-fashioned stories of love and loss, stories that reaffirmed belief in the triumph of the individual in an evil world. With the world at war and Hitler’s atrocities in the papers, readers welcomed his reassuring tone and the underlying religious faith so rare in modern works of fiction. The Keys of the Kingdom was published in 1941, and Cronin’s story of a faithful priest who models his life after the Savior reached number one on the bestseller list the week it was published.

Though Cronin lacks the subtle artistry of Forster or the linguistic mastery of Dickens, he has the instinctive ability to tell a good story in a way that pulls the reader along. He’s a realist as well, treating with candor such subjects as incest, abuse, and religious bigotry without sacrificing his hopeful tone. His deep ambivalence about organized religion is balanced by his faith in the gospel of Christ and his interest in the individual. Father Chisholm expresses the feelings of his creator when he says:

“If we have the fundamentals – love for God and for our neighbor – surely we’re all right? And isn’t it time for the religions of the world to cease hating one another, and unite? The world is one living, breathing body, dependent for its health on the billions of cells which comprise it… and each tiny cell is the heart of a man.” (294)

The Keys of the Kingdom is a simple tale, but Francis Chisolm will work his magic in your heart as he does in the hearts of his parishioners. Cronin’s greatest novel will, I’m sure, become a favorite of yours as it is of mine. Write and share your thoughts with all of us and I’ll post them the last week of the month.

Write and share your thoughts about doubt, faith, true Christianity, even Catholicism! There is much to talk about here.

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