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Adrian Russell
7
December 2016
Religious Literature or References
Literature truly has the power to shape the perceptions of readers.
However, the relationship between literature and the reader requires a symbiosis
in which the reader has a responsibility to be aware of how their perceptions
may be coloring what they are reading, or how they are reading it. Religious
references in literature can cause many to disregard some texts. I admit to
being one of these readers in the recent past. However, in studying the texts in
the American Renaissance course, I contend that once a reader can relinquish
their tendency to let religious references sway their perception when reading,
regardless of which direction the perception is swayed, one can see the merit,
meaning, and pertinent context of religious references in various types of
literature.
The setting most widely considered as taboo for the teaching and
discussion of religious texts is in the public school classroom. Though it is
known that many people become charged and polarized in this setting, it is
important to discuss the tools a reader must develop when discussing the merit,
meaning, and context of religious reference in the literary realm. Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is
not only a text that has many references to Christianity, but it is historical
in terms of American heritage. For the heritage and historical aspects alone,
this text should be discussed. However, it is the religious aspects of this text
that give it a deeper meaning. Whether one believes in or agrees with religion
or not, understanding how religion plays into the motives of the characters will
assist a reader in not only understanding the text on a deeper level, but how
they, the reader, understands how they interpret a text as well. One of the
final lines on Uncle Tom’s Cabin is
when Tom proclaims that he would “be
willing to bar' all I have, if it'll only bring ye to Christ! O,
Lord! give me these two more souls, I pray!". Discussing the relevance of this
line to Tom’s character and Stowe’s intention of the novel does not push a
student to become religious. Students should be able to discuss and understand
that Tom becomes a religious martyr and is a true champion of forgiveness when
he prays for the souls of the thieves to accompany him to heaven. The debate of
whether heaven exists or not is irrelevant to what the author was attempting to
portray with Tom’s character. He was a character who endured great hardship but
found solace in knowing that the adherence to his religious beliefs would carry
him to heaven after he endured many hardships in life. The key in leading the
educational discussions is that religious references in texts must be discussed
in a literary realm, as opposed to being a debate of the merit of religious
belief. This type of debate is a conversation that never ends.
Perhaps a more daring venture in the discussions of literary texts would
be found in discussing the sermons of George Whitefield. These sermons are so
beautifully written, it is a travesty that they are not discussed more in the
literary world. Regardless of the intentions of George Whitehead, or whether
they are agreed with, one cannot ignore the similarities of these religious
texts with Romantic and Transcendental texts of the American Renaissance.
Granted, many secular readers are put off by the use of the phrase
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" in Whitehead’s sermon titled
“The Great Duty of Family Religion”, but one cannot deny the mirroring of this
sermon as it relates to the rhetoric of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Transcendentalist
texts. Though Emerson claims that nature and man are “part or particle of God”
and Whitehead claims that men are “by
nature lost and estranged from God”, there is a similar tinge of one man
exclaiming that he, seemingly above others, understands what mankind’s
relationship is to nature, God and themselves. This is the kind of literature
that must be discussed in school settings so students can contemplate what they
are claiming to know of themselves and others.
Again, the merit, meaning, and contextual value of religious reference in
literature is not found in the literature itself, but how the religious
references are used in the literature. In the American Renaissance course, these
texts have urged me to question my own rhetoric regarding religious belief. In
doing so, the conclusion was reached that even rhetoric against the discussion
of religion in life, literature, or the classroom is as potentially dangerous as
urging one to believe in a religion they are not inclined to practice. Even the
refusal of religion can become a religion itself. However, the discussion of
literature helps a reader at any age to question what they think they know and
believe. With the right goals and parameters in place, these discussions can
change the way literature is discussed in schools with great advantage to the
literature and lives of future generations.
