We often refer to Jamie as deeply religious and while I understand that religion looks different for different people at different times, I'm beginning to think that Jamie just has deep-seated superstitions. Or maybe it's just that we only see certain things in the books. I suppose what I'm getting at is that we see his religion only in very specific ways but it doesn't seem to influence other areas of his life that I would assume it would. I would love your perspective on this!
Jamie’s Catholic faith is core to who he is - how he perceives himself, how he makes sense of the world around him, and how he approaches his marriage to Claire.
True, he was raised in a world full of fairies and folk tales. A pagan setting which, in all fairness, has much in common with Catholic traditions and beliefs in saints, angels, demons, sacred places, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, etc.
This fully shapes his world view. He truly believes there are angels and saints on his shoulder; that saying prayers to his dead relatives will bring their presence into his presence, that reciting the prayer to the Archangel Michael (or, which tugs at my heart, asking Claire to recite the prayer for him) before going into battle, is the only thing standing between him and potential damnation (or at least limbo), dying without absolution.
I do also think that Jamie sees Claire - his love for her, his bond with her - as the means of his soul’s salvation.
For he has done many terrible, immoral things for her sake - lied, cheated, killed, betrayed, broken trust. But it was all for love of her - to protect her, to defend her. For each of those sins individually, he should be condemned to hell. But knowing that he did it in her service - her, who is literally an otherworldly being, not that dissimilar from the angels and saints from other realms whom he worships regularly, without questioning their metaphysics - that is his salvation.
Everything you need to know about how Jamie sees Claire as the sole absolution for his sins, is evident in this critical passage from A Breath of Snow and Ashes:
“They are dead because of me, Sassenach. And because of their own wickedness. If there is guilt, let it rest upon them. Or on me.”
“Not on you alone,” I said, my eyes still closed…“You’re blood of my blood, bone of my bone. You said so. What you do rests on me, as well.”
“Then may your vow redeem me,” he whispered.
