Christianity: The View of Camus
By Drew Anderson
Albert Camus openly disagreed with many aspects of Christian doctrine, to the point of distancing himself from any affiliation with the Church. A lot of Camus scholars write him off as being an Atheist or Atheist-Existentialist, which he often appeared to be. However, such views fail to consider certain biographical details of Camus’s attitude toward Christianity, as well as the influence the religion had on his literary works, particularly The Stranger. Throughout the novel Camus alludes to numerous biblical stories. Many of the links between The Bible and The Stranger are overlooked by readers, because a lot of the connections are so obscure. Arthur Scherr wrote “At first glance, Meursault bears scant resemblance to Jesus for the average reader. Although Camus evidently conceived of him as a Jesus persona, not many scholars have tried to decipher Camus's meaning” (Scherr 187). By strategically embedding biblical stories and Christian references into The Stranger, Camus is able to display his vast knowledge and intrigue with the religion, along with some of his personal struggles with religion in general, which ultimately foreshadowed his major change of heart toward Christianity just before his death.
Although this paper is arguing the positive relationship between Camus and Christianity, the author can come off as an Atheist on the surface. Despite him proclaiming that he was absolutely not an atheist, many of his actions and quotes can be taken otherwise. Camus is quoted many times in numerous articles saying, “[this is] the story of a man who, without any heroics, agrees to die for the truth ... I had tried to draw in my character the only Christ we deserve” ("Preface 337). This statement from Camus strikes high discord with many Christians, and here’s why: as written in 1 Timothy 1:15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. So, all Christians believe that Jesus was sent to save the world from its sinful nature, and Camus’s infamous quote seems to have brushed Christ aside by trying to create a new savior in Meursault. This quote does not mean what it appears, however. Camus strongly opposed Christianity in one way- that an innocent man, Jesus, takes all the blame. Henri Peyre captured Camus’s attitude about this Christian doctrine as simply “an attempt to unburden man the weight of his own life. And Camus prefers to carry that burden himself” (Peyre 21). Peyre shows the reader why Camus was not accepting of Jesus’s gift, which is why he said “<Meursault> was the only Christ we deserved” (preface 337). So, Camus is proudly professing his opposition to one of the strongest messages Christianity has to offer, by saying we do not deserve Jesus Christ. All of this sounds very radical, and is often portrayed as strong atheist bouts. However, this is just one interpretation.
In the paragraph above Camus seems to have committed blasphemy, the only unforgivable sin in the Christian faith (Matthew 12: 31-32). However, he has actually done just the opposite. Camus goes on to explain that he “said this without any intention of blasphemy” (Preface 337). Since he disagreed to the death of an innocent man, he proclaimed Meursault the only “Christ” we deserve, and not need. This is an interesting situation because a lot of Christians feel as though they do not deserve Christ, and it is taught abroad that nobody does, so why would Camus continue to resist the religion? Well, as demonstrated in The Stranger, Meursault was questioned about his religious beliefs. While in jail the magistrate talks to Meursault and scholar English Showalter wrote “Meursault’s refusal to believe in God, or to claim to believe in God, leaves him in temporary confusion” (Showalter 53). The magistrate is highly confused with Meursault’s religious beliefs (at first), just as many readers are confused with Camus’s rejection of religion, considering a lot of his beliefs coincide with many of the Christian faith, with exceptions as previously mentioned. So, now it is easy to see how Camus could be considered an Atheist. However, through textual evidence from The Stranger, one will learn otherwise.
Camus wasted no time in putting aspects of himself in The Stranger. In the beginning of the book Meursault is informed of his mother’s death, and makes arrangements to go her residence. Upon arriving, Meursault is extremely shocked to learn that his mother had wished for a religious burial. (Camus 5) Meursault responds by saying, “So far as I knew, my mother, though not a professed atheist, had never given a thought to religion in her life” (Camus 5). In this instance, Meursault’s mother represents Camus, and some of his religious struggles. It is no coincidence that Meursault’s mother was not an atheist, and never really practiced religion, because Camus himself did the exact same thing. Although Camus was not an Atheist, he was not a Christian either. (Scherr 187). Also, it is believed that Camus had wished to be baptized before his unexpected death. (Mumma) Camus uses Meursault’s confusion to represent the feeling many people encounter when studying his (Camus’s) relationship with religion, and Meursault’s mother represents Camus, and him not being an atheist and eventually seeking religion.
One of the first and most recurring instances of a similarity to Christianity was Meursault’s demeanor. Upon reading this novel, Meursault’s actions raise a lot of questions for the readers. In numerous points throughout the book, the reader becomes confused by Meursault’s reaction, or lack of, to seemingly emotionally stimulating situations. For example, when Marie mentions love and the idea of marriage to Meursault, his answer is blasé and nonchalant, which coincides how he goes about his life. (Camus 28) And this attitude stays constant until the end of the book (which represents the end of Meursault’s life). This is significant because the attitude of Christ never fluctuated, except at the end of his life as well. Camus was precise in drawing this connection because he wanted Meursault to be as “Christ-like” as he could. Camus knew that Christ was the perfect example of how to live, which is why Meursault is largely modeled after him.
Meursault also never, ever condemns anybody throughout the course of the story. This is significant because he had multiple chances to question the morals and judgement of other characters in the book, especially his neighbor, Raymond. Meursault knows what Raymond does for a living, and he never brings it up, and he does not let this alter his image of Raymond. How is this relevant to Christianity one could ask? Well, Jesus also never gave a thought to condemnation. As quoted in John 3:17, Jesus says, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. This is another example of Camus’s attempt to give his character a “Christ-like” aura, but it is also an example of a Christian belief that sat well with Camus. As the reader gathers information from scholars such as Peyre, Scherr, and Thomas Hanna, they can conclude that Camus believed we should not judge others, and we should love humans, just as stated in Mark 12:31 “… ’You should love thy neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these”.This proves another highly-correlated area between The Stranger and The Bible, Camus’s personal beliefs, and explains why Meursault was always cordial to Raymond.
Another key similarity between The Stranger and The Bible is Meursault’s dinner at Raymond’s house. This symbolized Meursault’s last period of freedom, which is highly comparable to the Last Supper of Jesus in The Bible. Jesus knew what lay ahead of him after this gathering, and celebrated with his disciples. They ate and drank in remembrance of him (Jesus), knowing the next day he would be crucified. (Matthew 26) In The Stranger, Camus made Meursault’s dinner with Raymond his last liberal gathering signified in the book. They drank wine and ate “black pudding” (which is translated as blood sausage in some texts), which is similar to the wine and bread eaten by the disciples, but in contrast to Jesus, Meursault did not know what was going to lie ahead. The reason this dinner sealed Meursault’s fate was because of the “conciliatory letter” Meursault wrote per Raymond’s request (Scherr 192). Unlike Jesus, Meursault committed a malicious act, which was one of the key pieces of evidence brought against him in court. Camus allowing Meursault to write this letter can be interpreted as a test for Meursault. Camus put Meursault in a situation where he was tempted, and he gave in. This is nothing more than Camus’s attempt to humanize Meursault and praise Christ by modeling this dinner after a famous biblical story.
One strong parallel that Camus drew between Meursault and Jesus was how they reacted under stressful situations, particularly associated with their deaths. They both have a pretty unwavering demeanor as mentioned earlier, but then each suffer a breaking point. While Meursault was thinking about his persecution, he was interrupted by the priest and loses his temper. Meursault said “Then, I don’t know how it was, but something seemed to break inside me, and I started yelling at the top of my voice” (Camus 74). Meursault had been calm the whole book, even when he committed his crime, but he yelled and let all of his frustration out on the innocent priest, when all he was doing was trying to save his soul. Similarly, throughout Jesus’ crucifixion, he remained calm and collected. However, while dying on the cross, Jesus also has a breaking point and yells at God “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Camus was very clever to establish this resemblance because some readers will want to condemn Meursault for his outburst, but Camus tries to deter this by modeling his fit after a similar outburst from Christ. Camus wanted to take some scrutiny off of Meursault by using the outburst of Jesus as a more acceptable template for the situation Meursault was in.
One could say that Meursault snapped due to the stress of thinking about the death penalty he received, but no one knows. However, it is true that receiving capital punishment for the crime Meursault committed was almost nonexistent during the given time period. Scherr says “Meursault's crime and its anomalous capital punishment, which was hardly ever the penalty in Algeria when a pied-noir killed an Arab” (Scherr 196). The fact Meursault received the death penalty for an almost typical crime for the time should be confusing, but, this too is directly related to Christianity. Jesus was a Jew, and during his time period, Jewish laws prohibited capital punishment. Scherr wrote “This is similar to Jesus' fate, in that the Jews, whose laws prohibited capital punishment (John 18:31-32), delivered him to Pontius Pilate, expecting him to be executed according to Roman law” (Scherr 198). Jesus and Meursault both received punishments that were uncanny given their respective time periods, however, they both served a purpose. Camus let Meursault take the fall in order to reveal the hidden evils of society, just as Jesus died for the sins of the world. Camus paralleled the death sentences as an effort to show how wrongly punished both men were, and how he believes that Jesus should not have been crucified, just as he felt Meursault went down for the wrong reasons.
Toward the end of the book, while Meursault was pondering what his execution would be like, he said something that appeared to be rather strange. He said “For all to be accomplished (In some translations “For all to be consummated), for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration” (Camus 76). Basically Camus wrote this as a way to show how Meursault was ready to die, and to portray how truly evil society was. Well, Jesus was also met by a large crowd who screamed and cursed him at his crucifixion, showing how evil the world was. Similarly, Jesus was also ready to die, and his last words were “Consummatum est” which directly translates to ‘it is finished’ (John 19:30). Camus used the last words of Jesus to send Meursault off with, to signify how highly he thought of Jesus, and how closely related Meursault and Jesus were in his eyes.
Now, why are all of these examples of similarities between The Stanger and The Bible relevant? Well, through Camus’s writing he learned more about Christianity and was able to work through some of the “kinks” he had with the religion. He was able to construct The Stranger in such a way that made him gradually move toward Christianity. He built Meursault as a “Christ-like” character, almost as an effort to create his own, ideal religion. However one chooses to look at it, The Stranger served as a platform for Camus to warm up to Christianity, and led to his supposed desire to accept the religion at the end of his life.
Howard Mumma is the author of Albert Camus and the Minister. In this book Mumma provides us with a conversation he had with Camus while he was a guest preacher at the American Church in Paris. Mumma accounts that while they were casually sitting and enjoying coffee, Camus inquired “Howard, do you perform baptisms?” (Mumma). Mumma said he was stunned and happy at the same time. However, as they kept talking, Camus informed him that he “cannot belong to any church” because of his independent thinking and the hypocrisy of other members of the Church. Mumma took this into consideration and convinced Camus that maybe he was not quite ready to commit to Christianity (considering Camus’s attitude toward the church members). So, they did not proceed with the baptism, and Camus died shortly after in a car accident.
Although some Camus scholars try to discredit Mumma’s story like Giovanni Gaetani who said Mumma’s book is “a big and badly made fraud”, one thing is for certain: Camus had an ongoing, love/hate type relationship with Christianity, and it largely affected his works and his personal life (Gaetani). Through all of the similarities between The Bible and The Stranger, we are invited to look into the true religious views of Camus, which is that he never truly settled down into a religion, but he let Christian morals and values guide him. And through Camus’s character Meursault, the reader is able to see how highly Camus thought of Jesus, which ultimately carried over to Camus and his personal way of life.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Stranger; Translated From the French by Stuart Gilbert. Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. Pp. 76. Print.
Gaetani, Giovanni, and Jim S. "Camus and Christianity." Agent Intellect. Blogspot, 7 Nov. 2014. Web. 19 May 2015.
Hanna, Thomas. "Albert Camus and the Christian Faith." The Journal of Religion 36.4 (1956): 224-33. Print.
Mumma, Howard E. Albert Camus and the Minister. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete, 2000. Print.
Peyre, Henri. Camus the Pagan, Yale French Studies, No. 25, Albert Camus (1960), pp. 20-25. Print.
Rapids, Mich. "Matthew, John, 1 Timothy." The Holy Bible: New International Version. Large Print ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005. Print.
Scherr, Arthur. "Meursault's Dinner with Raymond: A Christian Theme in Albert Camus's L'Etranger." Christianity and Literature 58.2: 187-210.
Showalter, English. The Stranger: Humanity and the Absurd. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1989. 53. Print.
Although this paper is arguing the positive relationship between Camus and Christianity, the author can come off as an Atheist on the surface. Despite him proclaiming that he was absolutely not an atheist, many of his actions and quotes can be taken otherwise. Camus is quoted many times in numerous articles saying, “[this is] the story of a man who, without any heroics, agrees to die for the truth ... I had tried to draw in my character the only Christ we deserve” ("Preface 337). This statement from Camus strikes high discord with many Christians, and here’s why: as written in 1 Timothy 1:15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. So, all Christians believe that Jesus was sent to save the world from its sinful nature, and Camus’s infamous quote seems to have brushed Christ aside by trying to create a new savior in Meursault. This quote does not mean what it appears, however. Camus strongly opposed Christianity in one way- that an innocent man, Jesus, takes all the blame. Henri Peyre captured Camus’s attitude about this Christian doctrine as simply “an attempt to unburden man the weight of his own life. And Camus prefers to carry that burden himself” (Peyre 21). Peyre shows the reader why Camus was not accepting of Jesus’s gift, which is why he said “<Meursault> was the only Christ we deserved” (preface 337). So, Camus is proudly professing his opposition to one of the strongest messages Christianity has to offer, by saying we do not deserve Jesus Christ. All of this sounds very radical, and is often portrayed as strong atheist bouts. However, this is just one interpretation.
In the paragraph above Camus seems to have committed blasphemy, the only unforgivable sin in the Christian faith (Matthew 12: 31-32). However, he has actually done just the opposite. Camus goes on to explain that he “said this without any intention of blasphemy” (Preface 337). Since he disagreed to the death of an innocent man, he proclaimed Meursault the only “Christ” we deserve, and not need. This is an interesting situation because a lot of Christians feel as though they do not deserve Christ, and it is taught abroad that nobody does, so why would Camus continue to resist the religion? Well, as demonstrated in The Stranger, Meursault was questioned about his religious beliefs. While in jail the magistrate talks to Meursault and scholar English Showalter wrote “Meursault’s refusal to believe in God, or to claim to believe in God, leaves him in temporary confusion” (Showalter 53). The magistrate is highly confused with Meursault’s religious beliefs (at first), just as many readers are confused with Camus’s rejection of religion, considering a lot of his beliefs coincide with many of the Christian faith, with exceptions as previously mentioned. So, now it is easy to see how Camus could be considered an Atheist. However, through textual evidence from The Stranger, one will learn otherwise.
Camus wasted no time in putting aspects of himself in The Stranger. In the beginning of the book Meursault is informed of his mother’s death, and makes arrangements to go her residence. Upon arriving, Meursault is extremely shocked to learn that his mother had wished for a religious burial. (Camus 5) Meursault responds by saying, “So far as I knew, my mother, though not a professed atheist, had never given a thought to religion in her life” (Camus 5). In this instance, Meursault’s mother represents Camus, and some of his religious struggles. It is no coincidence that Meursault’s mother was not an atheist, and never really practiced religion, because Camus himself did the exact same thing. Although Camus was not an Atheist, he was not a Christian either. (Scherr 187). Also, it is believed that Camus had wished to be baptized before his unexpected death. (Mumma) Camus uses Meursault’s confusion to represent the feeling many people encounter when studying his (Camus’s) relationship with religion, and Meursault’s mother represents Camus, and him not being an atheist and eventually seeking religion.
One of the first and most recurring instances of a similarity to Christianity was Meursault’s demeanor. Upon reading this novel, Meursault’s actions raise a lot of questions for the readers. In numerous points throughout the book, the reader becomes confused by Meursault’s reaction, or lack of, to seemingly emotionally stimulating situations. For example, when Marie mentions love and the idea of marriage to Meursault, his answer is blasé and nonchalant, which coincides how he goes about his life. (Camus 28) And this attitude stays constant until the end of the book (which represents the end of Meursault’s life). This is significant because the attitude of Christ never fluctuated, except at the end of his life as well. Camus was precise in drawing this connection because he wanted Meursault to be as “Christ-like” as he could. Camus knew that Christ was the perfect example of how to live, which is why Meursault is largely modeled after him.
Meursault also never, ever condemns anybody throughout the course of the story. This is significant because he had multiple chances to question the morals and judgement of other characters in the book, especially his neighbor, Raymond. Meursault knows what Raymond does for a living, and he never brings it up, and he does not let this alter his image of Raymond. How is this relevant to Christianity one could ask? Well, Jesus also never gave a thought to condemnation. As quoted in John 3:17, Jesus says, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. This is another example of Camus’s attempt to give his character a “Christ-like” aura, but it is also an example of a Christian belief that sat well with Camus. As the reader gathers information from scholars such as Peyre, Scherr, and Thomas Hanna, they can conclude that Camus believed we should not judge others, and we should love humans, just as stated in Mark 12:31 “… ’You should love thy neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these”.This proves another highly-correlated area between The Stranger and The Bible, Camus’s personal beliefs, and explains why Meursault was always cordial to Raymond.
Another key similarity between The Stranger and The Bible is Meursault’s dinner at Raymond’s house. This symbolized Meursault’s last period of freedom, which is highly comparable to the Last Supper of Jesus in The Bible. Jesus knew what lay ahead of him after this gathering, and celebrated with his disciples. They ate and drank in remembrance of him (Jesus), knowing the next day he would be crucified. (Matthew 26) In The Stranger, Camus made Meursault’s dinner with Raymond his last liberal gathering signified in the book. They drank wine and ate “black pudding” (which is translated as blood sausage in some texts), which is similar to the wine and bread eaten by the disciples, but in contrast to Jesus, Meursault did not know what was going to lie ahead. The reason this dinner sealed Meursault’s fate was because of the “conciliatory letter” Meursault wrote per Raymond’s request (Scherr 192). Unlike Jesus, Meursault committed a malicious act, which was one of the key pieces of evidence brought against him in court. Camus allowing Meursault to write this letter can be interpreted as a test for Meursault. Camus put Meursault in a situation where he was tempted, and he gave in. This is nothing more than Camus’s attempt to humanize Meursault and praise Christ by modeling this dinner after a famous biblical story.
One strong parallel that Camus drew between Meursault and Jesus was how they reacted under stressful situations, particularly associated with their deaths. They both have a pretty unwavering demeanor as mentioned earlier, but then each suffer a breaking point. While Meursault was thinking about his persecution, he was interrupted by the priest and loses his temper. Meursault said “Then, I don’t know how it was, but something seemed to break inside me, and I started yelling at the top of my voice” (Camus 74). Meursault had been calm the whole book, even when he committed his crime, but he yelled and let all of his frustration out on the innocent priest, when all he was doing was trying to save his soul. Similarly, throughout Jesus’ crucifixion, he remained calm and collected. However, while dying on the cross, Jesus also has a breaking point and yells at God “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Camus was very clever to establish this resemblance because some readers will want to condemn Meursault for his outburst, but Camus tries to deter this by modeling his fit after a similar outburst from Christ. Camus wanted to take some scrutiny off of Meursault by using the outburst of Jesus as a more acceptable template for the situation Meursault was in.
One could say that Meursault snapped due to the stress of thinking about the death penalty he received, but no one knows. However, it is true that receiving capital punishment for the crime Meursault committed was almost nonexistent during the given time period. Scherr says “Meursault's crime and its anomalous capital punishment, which was hardly ever the penalty in Algeria when a pied-noir killed an Arab” (Scherr 196). The fact Meursault received the death penalty for an almost typical crime for the time should be confusing, but, this too is directly related to Christianity. Jesus was a Jew, and during his time period, Jewish laws prohibited capital punishment. Scherr wrote “This is similar to Jesus' fate, in that the Jews, whose laws prohibited capital punishment (John 18:31-32), delivered him to Pontius Pilate, expecting him to be executed according to Roman law” (Scherr 198). Jesus and Meursault both received punishments that were uncanny given their respective time periods, however, they both served a purpose. Camus let Meursault take the fall in order to reveal the hidden evils of society, just as Jesus died for the sins of the world. Camus paralleled the death sentences as an effort to show how wrongly punished both men were, and how he believes that Jesus should not have been crucified, just as he felt Meursault went down for the wrong reasons.
Toward the end of the book, while Meursault was pondering what his execution would be like, he said something that appeared to be rather strange. He said “For all to be accomplished (In some translations “For all to be consummated), for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration” (Camus 76). Basically Camus wrote this as a way to show how Meursault was ready to die, and to portray how truly evil society was. Well, Jesus was also met by a large crowd who screamed and cursed him at his crucifixion, showing how evil the world was. Similarly, Jesus was also ready to die, and his last words were “Consummatum est” which directly translates to ‘it is finished’ (John 19:30). Camus used the last words of Jesus to send Meursault off with, to signify how highly he thought of Jesus, and how closely related Meursault and Jesus were in his eyes.
Now, why are all of these examples of similarities between The Stanger and The Bible relevant? Well, through Camus’s writing he learned more about Christianity and was able to work through some of the “kinks” he had with the religion. He was able to construct The Stranger in such a way that made him gradually move toward Christianity. He built Meursault as a “Christ-like” character, almost as an effort to create his own, ideal religion. However one chooses to look at it, The Stranger served as a platform for Camus to warm up to Christianity, and led to his supposed desire to accept the religion at the end of his life.
Howard Mumma is the author of Albert Camus and the Minister. In this book Mumma provides us with a conversation he had with Camus while he was a guest preacher at the American Church in Paris. Mumma accounts that while they were casually sitting and enjoying coffee, Camus inquired “Howard, do you perform baptisms?” (Mumma). Mumma said he was stunned and happy at the same time. However, as they kept talking, Camus informed him that he “cannot belong to any church” because of his independent thinking and the hypocrisy of other members of the Church. Mumma took this into consideration and convinced Camus that maybe he was not quite ready to commit to Christianity (considering Camus’s attitude toward the church members). So, they did not proceed with the baptism, and Camus died shortly after in a car accident.
Although some Camus scholars try to discredit Mumma’s story like Giovanni Gaetani who said Mumma’s book is “a big and badly made fraud”, one thing is for certain: Camus had an ongoing, love/hate type relationship with Christianity, and it largely affected his works and his personal life (Gaetani). Through all of the similarities between The Bible and The Stranger, we are invited to look into the true religious views of Camus, which is that he never truly settled down into a religion, but he let Christian morals and values guide him. And through Camus’s character Meursault, the reader is able to see how highly Camus thought of Jesus, which ultimately carried over to Camus and his personal way of life.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Stranger; Translated From the French by Stuart Gilbert. Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. Pp. 76. Print.
Gaetani, Giovanni, and Jim S. "Camus and Christianity." Agent Intellect. Blogspot, 7 Nov. 2014. Web. 19 May 2015.
Hanna, Thomas. "Albert Camus and the Christian Faith." The Journal of Religion 36.4 (1956): 224-33. Print.
Mumma, Howard E. Albert Camus and the Minister. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete, 2000. Print.
Peyre, Henri. Camus the Pagan, Yale French Studies, No. 25, Albert Camus (1960), pp. 20-25. Print.
Rapids, Mich. "Matthew, John, 1 Timothy." The Holy Bible: New International Version. Large Print ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005. Print.
Scherr, Arthur. "Meursault's Dinner with Raymond: A Christian Theme in Albert Camus's L'Etranger." Christianity and Literature 58.2: 187-210.
Showalter, English. The Stranger: Humanity and the Absurd. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1989. 53. Print.