How is the theme of religion explored in the novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?

In Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Spark deeply probes the theme of religion and its role within the lives of the the titular teacher Jean Brodie and the "Brodie set." Spark contrasts Calvinism, a form of Christianity that emphasizes predestination, with Roman Catholicism. The two characters who best represent these two disparate religions are Brodie and Sandy Stranger, respectively.

Brodie is associated with Calvinism in part because of her fascination with...

In Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Spark deeply probes the theme of religion and its role within the lives of the the titular teacher Jean Brodie and the "Brodie set." Spark contrasts Calvinism, a form of Christianity that emphasizes predestination, with Roman Catholicism. The two characters who best represent these two disparate religions are Brodie and Sandy Stranger, respectively.

Brodie is associated with Calvinism in part because of her fascination with Fascism. The predetermination inherent in Calvinism is rigid and dictates that all events have a predetermined outcome. Brodie is confident about the course that her girls will take, and believes that she has a huge influence in steering them toward what she perceives to be their destinies. At the end of the novel, Sandy reflects:

"She thinks she is Providence, thought Sandy, she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end"(129).

This is especially potent because Brodie is influencing her set to be like her. She lives vicariously through these young women, but Sandy rejects Brodie's overbearing nature. Sandy plays a Judas-like role because she betrays Brodie, and then devotes her life to the Catholic Church. However, even in Catholicism, Sandy finds Fascist elements that are reminiscent of Brodie's influence:

"By now she had entered the Catholic Church, in whose ranks she had found quite a number of Fascists much less agreeable than Miss Brodie"(134).

Even though Catholicism does not have the same ardent belief system as Calvinism, Sandy discovers some of the same issues that she had when she was contending with Brodie. These are just some of the ways Spark explores the theme of religion in her novel.