Famous Atheists Who Weren’t Atheists 2: The Christianity of Camus

Last updated on: February 1, 2015 at 10:15 pm by Artur Rosman

Famous Atheists Who Weren’t Atheists 2: The Christianity of Camus 2015-02-01T22:15:47-07:00 Artur Rosman

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Camus has a new book out: It’s on Christianity!

Albert Camus was nearly as unfaithful as Jean-Paul Sartre . . . to atheism.

This should not be especially surprising to any semi-conscious reader of his novels. Despite his good existentialist intentions Camus could never really get beyond good and evil. Most of his literary works collapse under the weight of trying to cover up their origins in, and direct debts to, classical Christian doctrines, especially Original Sin.

It’s as if he keeps trying to roll a rock to seal off the tomb, only to find it rolled away every darn morning. Just look at the plots of The Fall, The Plague, and The First Man and tell me God shouldn’t sue for copyright infringement upon the biblical narrative.

Look here.

The connections go even deeper as a recent memoir reveals. The book is entitled Albert Camus & the Minister. It is written by the (Methodist) minister, Howard Mumma. Mumma hailed from Ohio and met Camus, was actually hounded by him, during a stint as guest minister at the American Church in Paris.

The two talked about Christianity constantly and it got to the point where Camus asked to be re-baptized, only to be turned down. Today’s Methodist ministers are nothing like the hardcore Methodist ministers of yesteryear!

Camus was still actively courting the Christian faith when he was cut down in a car accident. We don’t know how things would have turned out if Camus had lived, however, as this book recounts, he thought he was heading for a reversion. Actually, he was already there.

By the way, Camus has a new book out on Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism. No joke.

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