Are you yourself a Christian?
The young man made a negative sign. The concepts of religion baffle me.
This inscrutability is perhaps not unintentional, said the ex-priest. It gives endless employment to dialecticians who otherwise might become public charges or, at very worst, swindlers and tricksters.

Chapter 1, section 4 (p. 367) - Quotations and text from the Lyonesse Trilogy - The Green Pearl (1985)