Christian Themes In Prominent Novels

[WinePusher]

Everytime I read a book, I try to find the christian implications in their themes. Clearly Christianity, God and Jesus are important figures in books such as

The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost.

Since I went to Catholic Schools the teachers would kind of mix christianity and the texts we read.

1) Are there any christian themes in contemporary novels such as

-The Color Purple
-Brave New World
-One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest
-Of Mice And Men
-The Catcher In The Rye
etc...............................

2) Shakespeare's religious beliefs aren't set in stone, but from reading his texts a reader can tell that christianity had a huge influence on his plays. Was Shakespeare a believer? Do any of his plays demonstrate a possible christian conviction?

3) My favorite genre of literature would be books associated with the Holocaust. Any thoughts or opinions on books such as "Night" "The Book Thief" and "The Boy In Striped Pyjamas"

[McCulloch]

Everytime I read a book, I try to find the christian implications in their themes.

Mythological themes are ubiquitous in literature. Don't restrict yourself to the particularly Christian themes.

1) Are there any christian themes in contemporary novels such as

-The Color Purple
-Brave New World
-One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest
-Of Mice And Men
-The Catcher In The Rye
etc...............................

Of course there are. Without diving into specifics, since the authors of these works were part of a culture where the Christian myths were very significant, it would be surprising if there were not echos of the Christian themes in them.

2) Shakespeare's religious beliefs aren't set in stone, but from reading his texts a reader can tell that christianity had a huge influence on his plays.

The Church was a huge power and influence in his world. He could not have written without showing the huge influence of Christianity.

Was Shakespeare a believer? Do any of his plays demonstrate a possible christian conviction?

It would be impossible to tell. He does not explicitly write any Christian apologetics or specifically Christian morality plays. Yet, he could not have written anything against Christianity and be accepted by his society. I doubt that he was a believer.

3) My favorite genre of literature would be books associated with the Holocaust. Any thoughts or opinions on books such as "Night" "The Book Thief" and "The Boy In Striped Pyjamas"

Of those three, I have only read The Book Thief. The universal themes of death and dying, the value of literature, guilt and forgiveness, the individual versus society, and the brutality of humans are all explored. But I fail to see how these themes are looked at in a specifically Christian lens.

[LiamOS]

1) Are there any christian themes in contemporary novels such as
-Brave New World

Certainly not. Aldous Huxley was a far cry from Christian, and the book, from my reading at least, had little at all in the way of anything spiritual.
The obvious exception to this rule would be the characters' experiences with 'Soma', but from my knowledge of Huxley, his spiritual experiences were merely the results of drugs(LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT...), and he viewed them as such.
As such, I would conclude that any Christian themes found in this book would be a matter of bias on the reader's part while reading slightly allegorical sections.

-Of Mice And Men

Having only read this book a short time ago, I cannot remember any specific references to a God or Christian values.
Given the messages on the value of life one could extract from it, I would conclude that, although there may be an occasional reflection of a Christian value(As one would almost expect from a book written in such a period), it is not an overtly Christian exploration of the subjects being discussed.

-The Catcher In The Rye

My room-mate is currently reading this book, so I should have it read within two days.
I'll try to remember to edit it in.

2) Shakespeare's religious beliefs aren't set in stone, but from reading his texts a reader can tell that christianity had a huge influence on his plays. Was Shakespeare a believer? Do any of his plays demonstrate a possible christian conviction?

From my readings of 'The Tempest' and 'The Merchant of Venice'(The only two I know well enough to comment on), it seems that Christianity was certainly an integral part of society.
In 'The Tempest', there are innumerable references to God, and to marriage. Although the marriage seen between Miranda and Ferdinand is a rather unconventional one, the Christian values attributed to marriage at the time were maintained.
In 'The Merchant of Venice', there is a very clear and consistent commentary on Christian and Jewish values. The play seemed to be showing how such values were very appropriate, but how they were almost unanimously ignored. So yes, although Shakespeare was quite clearly a Christian and upheld most of the morals taught in those days, he did question the hypocrisy of the 'religious' and other aspects of the day such as marriage, colonisation and equality.
I would definitely agree that at no point Shakespeare seems to assert his religious beliefs as strongly as one might expect from a devout believer, but I would expect him to have, at the very least, believed in a God similar to that proposed by the Catholic church.
As

3) My favorite genre of literature would be books associated with the Holocaust. Any thoughts or opinions on books such as "Night" "The Book Thief" and "The Boy In Striped Pyjamas"

I have read none of these, but may if I have the time.

Edit: Sorry that some of it reads like an exam answer, but that's what years of conditioning on book discussion does to you, I guess.

[GrumpyMrGruff]

1) Are there any christian themes in contemporary novels such as
-Brave New World

Certainly not. Aldous Huxley was a far cry from Christian, and the book, from my reading at least, had little at all in the way of anything spiritual.
The obvious exception to this rule would be the characters' experiences with 'Soma', but from my knowledge of Huxley, his spiritual experiences were merely the results of drugs(LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT...), and he viewed them as such.
As such, I would conclude that any Christian themes found in this book would be a matter of bias on the reader's part while reading slightly allegorical sections.

There are more riffs on Christianity than just Soma. There's an extended satire of Anglicanism in the book. Huxley's dystopia has Fordism, a materialistic inversion of the church. The symbol of the prevailing ideology is a Tau cross in honor of Henry Ford's Model-T. This symbol adorns the Solidarity Service (Sunday Mass) buildings and is worn on clothing and jewelry. Soma, literally 'the body,' is the communal sacrament distributed and ingested at Solidarity Services. Ford, who championed the assembly line mentality of the BNW culture, is something of a secular messiah figure. Calendars no longer record the Anno Domini, but rather the years AF (After Ford).

It has been a long time since I read Shakespeare and even longer since I read Night. I don't remember explicit Christian themes in the latter, but there were plenty of religious allusions in Shakespeare. There's an interesting wiki article on his religion. He may've been a closet Catholic.

I read some Steinbeck last year. I don't remember any overt Christian references in Of Mice and Men. The title of The Grapes of Wrath comes from the Battle Hymn of the Republic:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

The rest of the novel was more humanistic, though. There is a defrocked preacher, but he doesn't have any glowing praise for Christianity. (However, he does deliver some humanistic sermons and his initials are JC.)

I've permanently blocked Catcher from my memory. I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield.

I mostly read SF. I don't know if that's your cup of tea, but you might look into A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller, Jr. It develops many overt Christian themes and is considered something of a genre classic.

[ChaosBorders]

What do you mean it's not symbollic?

[WinePusher]

I've permanently blocked Catcher from my memory. I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield.

LOL! Thats funny. Catcher In The Rye is one of my favorite books, I grew to like Holden Caulfield over time; a misunderstood person in a world whole of phonies. It made me feel sad when his sister Phobe gave him $80 at the end and Holdeen started crying out of nowhere.

I mostly read SF. I don't know if that's your cup of tea, but you might look into A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller, Jr. It develops many overt Christian themes and is considered something of a genre classic.

I've never read sci fi. I'm sure its a fasinating genre, but I like literature with complicated plots and societal themes.

[ChaosBorders]

I've permanently blocked Catcher from my memory. I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield.

LOL! Thats funny. Catcher In The Rye is one of my favorite books, I grew to like Holden Caulfield over time; a misunderstood person in a world whole of phonies. It made me feel sad when his sister Phobe gave him $80 at the end and Holdeen started crying out of nowhere.

Though I could understand where he was coming from, and even empathize with him a bit, when I read it Holden struck me as taking it to the level of eventually just sounding whiny. So unfortunately I didn't really enjoy the book very much.

[WinePusher]

Though I could understand where he was coming from, and even empathize with him a bit, when I read it Holden struck me as taking it to the level of eventually just sounding whiny. So unfortunately I didn't really enjoy the book very much.

He certainly was very unplesant and probably not someone I would want to associate in real life, and he was definitly whining. Did you see the south park on Catcher In The Rye? Absolutly Hilarious.

[GrumpyMrGruff]

I've permanently blocked Catcher from my memory. I couldn't stand Holden Caulfield.

LOL! Thats funny. Catcher In The Rye is one of my favorite books, I grew to like Holden Caulfield over time; a misunderstood person in a world whole of phonies. It made me feel sad when his sister Phobe gave him $80 at the end and Holdeen started crying out of nowhere.

Holden reminded me too much of myself as a kid. You might see a misunderstood soul in a sea of phonies. I see one phony among many, not even self-aware enough to realize his own phoniness. Oh, and I hate the words phony and lousy.

I've never read sci fi. I'm sure its a fasinating genre, but I like literature with complicated plots and societal themes.

This is why many an author dreads being banished to the genre shelves of the bookstore. Many people dismiss sci-fi books as simple pulp fiction, but much of the best sci-fi is packed with allegorical references to contemporary issues. (Sometimes to the point where it becomes painfully overdone.)

You mentioned A Brave New World - that's a prime example of literary dystopian sci-fi commenting on Anglicanism and materialism (among other things). A Canticle for Leibowitz is about how the Catholic Church preserves humanity's collective knowledge after a nuclear war (paralleling church scriptoriums during the Dark Ages). There's commentary on nuclear brinksmanship, overt religious and non-religious symbolism (it's set at a monastery), and extended allegory about redemption (both individual and collective) after a very literal Fall of Man.

Consider the recent best-selling The Road - post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Cormac McCarthy escapes the genre pigeonhole by way of his literary credentials. Ditto for some of Margaret Atwood's books. Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale are both set in devastated post-apocalyptic dystopias, but Atwood hates having her work called science fiction.

Anyway, end rant. There is a lot of "empty-calorie" pulp sci-fi out there. There's also a fair amount of literary SF that uses fantastic situations to hold a mirror to contemporary issues.

[EduChris]

...Are there any christian themes in contemporary novels such as...Of Mice And Men...

I watched the movie (haven't read the book, unfortunately).

I thought it was interesting that the big guy (I forgot his name) had to take such a terrible beating by the farmer's son before he "earned the right," so to speak, to fight back. Had he not taken such a terrible and undeserved beating before he responded, probably at least some of the farmhands would have questioned his right to defend himself (or at least the wisdom of his doing so).

I think this is part of why Jesus had to become human and to identify with us even to the point of death. Jesus' full experience of genuine human life gives him the right, so to speak, to judge and forgive us. Jesus has earned that right in a way that the Islamic Allah--who sits high above, unaffected by our sorrows and far removed from our infirmities--has not.