Literature and Theology

Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt: Kurt Vonnegut's Critique of the Theology of Culture

by Joel Harrison

Heroism in the Harry Potter Series

by Rita Singer

Chapter: 'Harry Potter and the Battle for the Soul: The Revival of the Psychomachia in Secular Fiction'

On regular intervals a discussion of Christian elements seems to arise in the Harry Potter novels. Usually, the... more On regular intervals a discussion of Christian elements seems to arise in the Harry Potter novels. Usually, the critics are looking for the obvious and either end up praising the inclusion of a number of selected imagery or the lack of a comprehensive Christian world view on all levels. Consequently, a balanced discussion of the series from a theological point of view is still missing to date. J. K. Rowling said herself on the matter that her novels 'are not that secular' . This article argues that the Harry Potter novels not only contain Christian imagery, but that they are constructed after a once very popular and highly influential literary genre of the Middle Ages, namely the psychomachia. The struggle of seven virtues against seven vices forms the narrative arc of the entire series and, thus, firmly roots the stories in the Christian literary tradition. An analysis of the final instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, shall serve as an example to introduce the reader to the most important aspects of the psychomachia and their respective application.

Fallen Nature and Infinite Desire: A Study of Love, Artifice, and Transcendence in Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À rebours and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

by C. Michael Shea

This paper has been sent to Logos Journal for consideration. I originally uploaded the first few pages but decided to take them down, since the paper was getting more attention that I expected. Feel free to contact me for more information!

The influence of Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À rebours upon Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray has been generally... more The influence of Joris-Karl Huysmans’s À rebours upon Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray has been generally acknowledged. Only a few studies have focused on this influence at any length however, and none has done so with an eye toward religion. This essay argues, in particular, that À rebours provided Wilde with a plot-driving aesthetic that was ethical and theological in character. This aesthetic coordinates the moral dimension of beauty in Wilde’s work, and illuminates how beauty impresses itself upon observers, carrying the individual to a crisis of ethical decision. In both works, this has to do with surface and depth: in À rebours and The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty presents itself as ideation and graspable form, yet gestures past itself to a transcendent beyond of personal and divine presence. It is the dilemma of whether to cling to the form of beauty, or allow beauty to authoritatively speak the transcendent, this study contends, which drives the narratives of both works.

A little bit of paradise; Allegories of Eden in The Diamond Lens

by Pete Orford

Leeds Centre Working Papers in Victorian Studies, Vol. 12, 2012

In The Diamond Lens Fitz-James O’Brien presents a lost paradise of infinitesimal size that exists within a single drop... more In The Diamond Lens Fitz-James O’Brien presents a lost paradise of infinitesimal size that exists within a single drop of water, in which the perfect woman Animula lives a utopian life unaware of the horrors in the larger world outside her.

After a brief stint writing for the London journals, O’Brien moved to New York where he received great praise for his short stories and gothic tales; The Diamond Lens caused a literary stir on its first publication in 1858 and remains his most famous work. It details how the narrator becomes obsessed with fashioning the perfect microscope, resorting to contact with the dead through a medium, and the betrayal and murder of his friend to obtain the necessary diamond, before then becoming increasingly obsessed with the beautiful creature he discovers within the waterdrop. The story is celebrated today as a pioneering work of science fiction, and in so doing its spiritual nature is overlooked: here is a tale of the pursuit of Eden and the hellish methods one man will stoop to when trying to spy upon heaven.

This paper will explore the contrast of paradise and the real world within the story, linking this back in turn to O'Brien's own religious and moral outlook.

Towards the Centre of the Self by Getting Inside the Belly of the Dragon: Levels of Initiation in Tolkien's Works

by Robert Lazu

A short version of my paper delivered at the Oxford Tolkien Conference "The Lord of the Rings. Sources of Inspiration" organized by Exeter College, Oxford, Monday 21st to Friday 25th August 2006. Published in "Acta Iassyensia Comparationis", 5/2007.

The methodology used in this paper is that of mythologic analysis (or “mythanalysis”). Established and perfected by... more The methodology used in this paper is that of mythologic analysis (or “mythanalysis”). Established and perfected by historians of religions and literary critics, this method allows a
good degree of interdisciplinarity. Thus, fields as far apart as theology, history of religions and comparative literature can be fruitfully brought together, and the topic of religious symbolism (usually associated with creations of classical mythology and the corpus of Jewish and Christian traditions) can be also discussed in terms of a discreet continuity in modern works such as those of J.R.R. Tolkien. The paper focuses on one recurring symbolic theme in Tolkien’s works: the process of
initiation of the hero, who is confronted with the dragon. Analysed before by some important scholars of folklore and historians of religions, such as V.I. Propp, M. Eliade, W. Bölsche, G.E. Smith, A.R. Radcliff-Brown or E.A.W. Budge, the theme of the hero confronting the monster represents one of the key-stones in the process of initiation underwent by each and every hero of Tolkien’s stories: Beren, Aragorn, Gandalf or even
the little hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Following this hermeneutic path does result (in our opinion) into realizing that religious symbolism is a powerful element in Tolkien’s work, indeed.

Images and Symbols in Tolkien's Works. Hell

by Robert Lazu

Published in "Archaeus. Studies in the History of Religions", XI-XII/2007-2008.

By highlighting the profile of hell as a symbol of evil, constantly encountered as such at all levels of human... more By highlighting the profile of hell as a symbol of evil, constantly encountered as such at all levels of human culture, the author’s aim is to reveal its powerful influence on Tolkien’s works. Just like the paradisiacal paradigm, the “archetype” of hell continues to impregnate deeply “the anthropological structures of the imaginary realm” (Gilbert Durand) even in the context of a radically desacralized culture. Although J. R. R. Tolkien did not consciously and programmatically speculate on such symbols, he had possibly hoped for a more specialized appeal to his readers by introducing these symbols in his literary creation. How does one account for the recurrence of so many symbolic hypostases of hell in Tolkien’s works? Tolkien seems to have been partly aware of the symbolism embedded in the structure of the evil fortresses in Middle-earth. However, we should not conclude that he had a premeditated systematic “plan” of including certain symbols in the framework of his fairy tales.

'Like this Insubstantial Pageant, Faded': Eschatology and Theatricality in The Tempest

by Judith Wolfe

Paradise Lost and the language of epic rebellion

by Kalina Slaska-Sapala

A paper delivered at ASCS 32

Satan’s famous statement in Book 1 of Paradise Lost, ‘Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven’ (PL.1.263) not... more Satan’s famous statement in Book 1 of Paradise Lost, ‘Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven’ (PL.1.263) not only became the motto of his fall, but sparked a debate about Satan’s epic transgression and peculiar status as the intended hero of Milton’s epic. Through a choice of words recalling Achilleus’ proclamation in the underworld at Odyssey xi 488-91, Milton demonstrates a curious link between the language and themes of Homer to Milton’s own epic re-imagining of Judaeo-Christian aetiology. Milton’s engagement with the classical tradition is by no means a mere embellishment and demonstration of erudition, but serves a vital thematic purpose in his poetic act of creating a poem that will ‘justify the ways of God to men’ (PL.1.26). This paper will seek to explore some of the burning questions about Paradise Lost in light of Milton’s classical epic precedents. I will argue that in light of ancient, modern, and the most recent scholarship on what constitutes epic morality, the language of Satan’s rebellion and its epic precedents is more evocative than ever.

'The earth no longer a void': Creation Theology in the Novels of Charlotte Bronte

by Simon Marsden

Literature and Theology 25.3 (September 2011), 237-251.

Reason is a Choice

by Christopher Michael Luna

My Bachelor's Thesis (called Division III at Hampshire College), first completed in 2009, revised in 2010.

As science and reason gain increasing authority in modern Western society, it is ever more important to understand not... more As science and reason gain increasing authority in modern Western society, it is ever more important to understand not only their role, but their history. Reason is a loaded word with a long and changing history, and yet it is a word of profound authority even to those who little understand its evolution.

Contemporary caricatures of religion would have us believe that the man who has prophetic visions and who is suspicious of reason must be a theocratic oppressor at heart— that such a man is unable to respect the rights and freedoms of his fellows. Reason is set against the authority of ecstatic religious traditions as both more sensible and more liberating. But the truth is altogether more complicated. Not only does modern American secular society carry within it, often unconsciously, the long heritage of Protestant imagery, but visionary, prophetic religious thinkers have used the authority of their visions to argue for freedoms that may seem unintuitive given contemporary stereotypes of religion and reason. It may be startling to realize that one of the seminal tracts written in defense of the free press against a kind of theocratic censorship was written by a man wary of human reason and convinced in the ultimate authority both of scripture and of prophetic visions. How could a man use his suspicion of human reason and his unswerving belief in the authority of visionary religious experience to argue in defense of free speech and religious toleration? The idea seems almost antithetical to the modern thinker, and yet John Milton, writing in seventeenth century England, did just that.

O Resgate do Logos na Época Moderna: A Poesia Religiosa de T.S. Eliot e Murilo Mendes

by Margaret Anne Clarke

Originally published by the Departamento da Ciência da Literatura
Faculdade de Letras, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in
2000, as part of the series Registros do SEPLIC, Seminário Permanente da Literatura Comparada.

A comparative study of the poetry published in the 1930's by the English poet T.S. Eliot and the Brazilian poet Murilo... more A comparative study of the poetry published in the 1930's by the English poet T.S. Eliot and the Brazilian poet Murilo Mendes. Both poets, having converted shortly before or during this decade to Christianity ,published volumes of verse (Ash Wednesday in Eliot's case;Tempo e Eternidade, As Metamorfoses and Os Quatro Elementos in Mendes') which asserted a poetics based on a unifying Logos of divine origin manifest in the apparent chaos of the temporal world.