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Behind The Altar - A Novel By Robert Henman
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Behind the Altar is my first work of fiction. It is a dramatic exploration of the deficiencies of psychology in contemporary religious practice.
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Review of Behind the Altar. Robert Henman (2008)
Love and betrayal, anger and distrust – such are the phases of relationships ending in pain. In Behind the Altar Robert Henman narrates his protagonist’s journey through these phases. The love was for a
Church that offered a secure home, moral ideals, a purpose for living. Betrayal took the form of institutional authorities putting personal gain and the Church’s reputation above service to those they professed to love.
If anger is proportionate to love lost, then the greater the original love the greater the distrust betrayal evokes.
The reader will suspect much of the story is autobiographical, an insider’s report on the psychological flaws and rationalizing defenses of fearful individuals: authority figures desperate to hang on to power and
prestige and their too trusting followers anxious about leaving the only secure home they have known. The author’s careful depiction of the wrenching trauma of betrayal is so nuanced that it must have a basis
in personal experience. There is no sudden shift from naive belief to disillusionment. Instead, trust erodes slowly; doubts arise and subside; resolve takes shape and retreats; efforts to overcome fear and to
accept financial and spiritual risks only gradually build momentum.
The greatest strengths of this novel are its psychological insights. From the bureaucratic mindset of Church leaders and the self-aggrandizing motives of the archbishop to the tortured gropings of the protagonist
and his wife toward a new understanding of their spirituality, there are subtle portrayals of the intricate ways conflicting thoughts and emotions move toward hard decisions.
This reader delighted especially in two passages: “No one survives childhood.” (176) “This is eternity. I’ve been here all along. I just didn’t know it.” (185) The first passage is evocative of multiple readings: a Freudian
paradise lost, a naïve love that reality shatters, a simpler age that history forces us all to leave behind. The second “rounds off” the first. The losses, betrayals, traumas and exposures of naiveté are part of life.
Moving beyond them to a new way of hoping and trusting is another part. Putting the two together is the tale worth telling in this fine novel.
Professor William J. Zanardi
Professor of Philosophy
St. Edwards University
3001 South Congress
Austin, Texas 78704
512-448-8610
williamz@stedwards.edu
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THE CHILD AS QUEST - By Robert Henman
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This book outlines a method in education based on the works of Bernard Lonergan. Formally published by UPA, 1984. Presently out of print. Library of Congress No. BV 1473.H46.1983
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