God, church, and conscience: Eça de Queirós and José Saramago—between institutional critique and the demystification of the divine

Abstract

This article compares the critique of religion in the works of Eça de Queirós and José Saramago, highlighting the convergences and divergences between two literary projects separated by a century. In Eça, the question of God is framed by critical realism, anticlericalism, and the influence of nineteenth-century positivism and scientism, focusing primarily on clerical hypocrisy and the repressive morality of Portuguese Catholicism. A work such as The Crime of Father Amaro (3rd version, 1880) exposes priests without vocation and devout nuns, while simultaneously revealing the diffuse theocracy of provincial everyday life and the way religion functions as a mask for interests and desires. Saramago, an avowed atheist, shifts the focus of this critique: moving beyond the ecclesiastical institution, he questions the very figure of God and the historical use of the “name of God” as an instrument of domination and alienation. In The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991), God appears as an ambitious power, while Jesus is humanized and confronted with ethical dilemmas. This study also integrates the issues of moral conscience, responsibility, and power, linking Eça and Saramago to modern debates on freedom, ethics, and violence legitimized by the sacred.