Assassinations, intrigue, cults, and the clergy all find a home in detective fiction. The birthplace of the detective in literature is often traced back to Edgar Allen Poe and his creation, Auguste Dupin. Since then, a sub-genre of detective fiction features clergy detectives who not only solve crimes but also try to save souls in the process. These clerical detectives originated from the early 20th century and continue to fascinate secular and religious audiences.
Detectives with this pairing of religious devotion and crime-solving acuity have occupied a curious place in the 20th-century and continue to fascinate people today. Many Americans may not know who G.K Chesterton is, but most have heard of his creation Father Brown — the most famous of the clerical detectives. Those acquainted with historical mystery fiction likely know of Ellis Peter’s 12th-century detective, Brother Cadfael. And thanks to Sean Connery, movie watchers know of the somewhat unorthodox William of Baskerville in the 1986 film The Name of the Rose.
People’s interest in religious sleuths has not abated. The Father Brown stories have been turned into movies and T.V series several times (the BBC Father Brown series just finished its tenth season), Ellis Peters books featuring Cadfael was turned into a T.V series in the 90s, and now a new series featuring a Catholic nun is in the works. All of these productions are occurring (or occurred) at a time when religious belief wanes in the United States and most parts of Europe. In many ways, detectives, whose main weapons are not guns but faith, continue to draw an unlikely audience.
In order to understand why religious detectives are still popular today, one must understand why they were popular to begin with. Skepticism of religion was in vogue throughout the 20th-century. Religious belief was still very high in the 1940s — as polls suggest — but the start of religious decline would soon begin. Father Brown was born in this era of high religious belief. His methodology strongly contrasted with his more popular predecessor, Sherlock Holmes, but still appealed to a mostly religious world.
Father Brown is the pioneering character in the area of religious detectives. He is often described as a clumsy, stubby man who consistently loses his umbrella and has the face of a dumpling. Compare Father Brown with the sharp figure and intellect of Sherlock Holmes and one might wonder how a priest can hold a lantern to the figure who represents the pinnacle of detective fiction.
The key to the religious detective, both then and now, is a combination of faith and complete humility. Father Brown can never compete with Sherlock Holmes in the areas of charisma, zeal, and physical strength because he is an antithesis to Holmes. Chesterton said as much in his autobiography: “In Father Brown, it was the chief feature to be featureless. The point of him was to appear pointless; and one might say that his conspicuous quality was not being conspicuous.” Father Brown is consistently underestimated by the criminal which provides him with the edge he needs to overcome the villain.
If religious skepticism was becoming popular during Father Brown’s time, then it has become dominant today. Yet, the cleric detective is still popular, which is especially telling since he stands against the flow of modern values namely relativism. The priest or monk detective is always clearly good while the villain on his best behavior is morally gray or outright evil. Father Brown never had an opioid addiction – like Holmes – and whatever evil Brother Cadfael did, he did it before becoming a monk. In a world that places a premium on nuance, the priest detective is almost always wholly good and rejects a nuanced morality. The clerical detective, then, can be seen as a force for good in a world of murky values.
The modern shows that depict cleric detectives are also revealing how the modern world sees religion. Few of these shows are made that depict a priest detective in the modern era. Instead, the authors choose to set the priest in the distant past (Brother Cadfael or William of Baskerville) or the near past like in the case of BBC’s Father Brown. These settings suggest that people see religious influence as a relic of the past rather than something that could exist today.
Although the modern perception of religion in the modern world is flawed, priests and religious detectives touch on the modern man’s imagination. Some small part of a person still craves a time when religion was acceptable to society. A time when belief infused a person to such an extent that even those who dealt with murder could not help but believe in God. That part is buried deep down in society — dormant but not dead.
