VII: The Bishop’s Vision explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Corruption of Institutions (Church, State, Labor)

  The Bishop's vision exposes the Church's abandonment of Christ's teachings, as he condemns its pomp and calls for direct action, while the audience and platform leaders treat his radical Christianity as heresy.

• Ideology, Propaganda, and the Control of Thought

  Ernest's analysis of the press as a 'parasitic growth' that suppresses any menace to the established order demonstrates how media and institutions control thought by silencing dissent.

• Revolution and Personal Sacrifice

  The Bishop's willingness to sacrifice his reputation and comfort by taking in prostitutes and speaking truth to power prefigures the personal sacrifices required for revolutionary change.

Characters to notice

• Ernest Everhard

  Writes to Avis about the Bishop's impending speech, predicts its futility, and later harshly laughs at the audience's reaction, explaining the press will suppress the story and the Bishop will be declared insane.

• Avis Everhard

  Attends the I.P.H. convention at Ernest's invitation, is moved by the Bishop's speech, initially believes it will make a sensation, but later witnesses the press blackout and begins to understand Ernest's predictions.

• Bishop Morehouse

  Presides over the I.P.H. convention and delivers a visionary sermon about taking two prostitutes into his home and calling on the rich to do likewise; he is led off the platform by H. H. Jones and Philip Ward.

• Mary McKenna

  Mentioned by Ernest as an example of a poor woman evicted and declared insane for hoisting the American flag to resist eviction, illustrating how society silences those who threaten the established order.

Key passages

• “The Bishop is out of hand. He is clear up in the air. Tonight he is going to begin putting to rights this very miserable world of ours. He is going to deliver his message. He has told me so, and I cannot dissuade him.”

  Ernest writes that the Bishop is acting unpredictably and plans to deliver a radical message tonight, which Ernest cannot stop.

  Ernest's letter to Avis sets the stage for the Bishop's visionary but doomed speech.

• “I stopped the carriage, got out, and, after a few minutes' conversation, persuaded two of the public women to get into the brougham with me. If Jesus was right, then these two unfortunates were my sisters, and the only hope of their purification was in my affection and tenderness.”

  Bishop Morehouse recounts picking up two prostitutes in his carriage, believing that treating them as sisters is the Christian way to redeem them.

  The Bishop's radical act of taking prostitutes into his home shocks the audience and exemplifies his new vision.

• “The press of the United States? It is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class. Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion, and right well it serves it.”

  Ernest condemns the American press as a parasite that serves the capitalist class by shaping public opinion to maintain the status quo.

  Ernest's critique of the press explains why the Bishop's speech will be suppressed.

• “What honest man, who is not insane, would take lost women and thieves into his house to dwell with him sisterly and brotherly? True, Christ died between two thieves, but that is another story.”

  Ernest argues that society will label the Bishop insane because his actions, though Christ-like, threaten the established order.

  Ernest predicts the Bishop will be declared insane for his radical Christianity.