'The Damnation of Theron Ware ' Summary

Theron Ware is a promising young Methodist pastor recently assigned to a congregation is small town in the Adirondack Mountains, which Frederic modeled after Utica, New York. His education has been limited and his experiences limited to church society and his strict enforcement of its norms. Theron has a number of experiences that cause him to begin to question the Methodist religion, his role as a minister and the existence of God. His "illumination" consists of his awakening to new intellectual and artistic experiences embodied by several of his new acquaintances including the town's Catholic priest who introduces him to the latest Biblical scholarship; a local man of science, who eschews religion and advocates for Darwin; and a local Irish Catholic girl with musical talent and artistic pretensions, with whom Theron becomes infatuated. In the end, these three characters grow disappointed in Theron, who initially represented an interesting social specimen but whose emergence from naivete and disparagement of his congregation disappoint them. A parallel concern is the role of women in this society, with model provided by Theron's wife, the musician-aesthete, and a church fundraiser who charms Theron with a common-sensical approach to religious affairs. Having lost his vocation and his new friends, Theron departs for Seattle, where he imagines he might use his oratorical skills to enter politics.