Jeannot battles with the military, with his enemies in the mulatto ruling class, with his superiors at the Vatican. But as Father Paul watches these struggles, he is unable to shake his fear that Jeannot's actions amount to hubristic despotism, that Jeannot's intransigence might lead to the murder of his innocent followers. This tension increases as the political crisis worsens, culminating in a magnificently rendered chase that ends with the two men alone together, fleeing through the countryside on a motorbike as Jeannot's recorded words are broadcast to the nation. It is the transformation of Father Paul's religious faith into the temporal creed of his apt pupil that forms the parallel plot to that of Jeannot's political fortunes. The Kingdom of God is founded on faith.
Faith is reason's opposite.
Jeannot believed that God had chosen him. Now he would use that belief to change the lives of others. At that moment I was besieged by doubts. But I had faith in him. And so, I hoped to change things.