The pearl of great price

“The Pearl of Great Price” is a short story that explores the ways faith can go wrong. The central character, Janet, a single mom in a dead end job, is drawn into a multi-level marketing scheme, Benevite, by an unscrupulous salesman. She is encouraged to believe in herself and her dream and to give...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for philosophy of religion 2017-04, Vol.81 (1/2), p.151-160
Main Author: Howard-Snyder, Frances
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Belief & doubt
Education
Faith
Non-Western Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy of Religion
Religion
Religious Studies
Social philosophy
Trust
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Summary:“The Pearl of Great Price” is a short story that explores the ways faith can go wrong. The central character, Janet, a single mom in a dead end job, is drawn into a multi-level marketing scheme, Benevite, by an unscrupulous salesman. She is encouraged to believe in herself and her dream and to give everything she has to it. She is fed the standard clichés to the effect that you can achieve whatever you want if you try hard enough. In the end her faith in her dream leads to the loss of her relationship with her child and other losses. Her pursuit exhibits many of the standard features of faith, belief, desire, resilience, tenacity, passion, and yet she does not save herself. The story is not meant as an indictment of faith in general, but as an acknowledgement of the fact that faith can be a vice and an exploration of when this might be so.
ISSN:0020-7047
1572-8684
DOI:10.1007/s11153-016-9605-y