A small carved wooden pew stands against a blue-gray background, with a slender spent match resting across its top.

Original artwork, not a still

Arrowsmith • 1925

Sinclair Lewis

Like all ardent agnostics, Martin was a religious man.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The narrator wryly claims that committed agnostics are, in their own way, religious. The paradox is gently ironic: someone so devoted to questioning belief shows the same seriousness, intensity and preoccupation with ultimate questions as believers do, only aimed at doubt instead of faith.

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