Revisionist Fiction and Religious Dogma: The Hidden Undercurrents
The reinterpretation of religious ideas and beliefs through literary works has become an established literary genre. While some of these works seek to challenge religious authority on historical grounds, others question the relevance of traditional religious beliefs in providing solutions to our exi...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Creighton University
2017
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| In: |
The journal of religion & society
Year: 2017, Volume: 19 |
| Further subjects: | B
Mysticism
B New Age B Profane B Sacred B Existentialism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | The reinterpretation of religious ideas and beliefs through literary works has become an established literary genre. While some of these works seek to challenge religious authority on historical grounds, others question the relevance of traditional religious beliefs in providing solutions to our existential problems. Two works in this genre, the well-known thriller The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and the critically acclaimed book The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Nobel Prize winning Portuguese author José Saramago, exemplify these diverse tendencies in employing fiction to probe religion. In the former, the authenticity of religious facts is questioned while the latter utilizes fiction to show the inadequacy of religious beliefs in answering our deepest problems. This paper contends that the confrontation with religious dogma in these two works is an expression of intellectual movements and ideologies, The Da Vinci Code relying on New Age ideology while The Gospel According to Jesus Christ drawing on existentialist themes. It also shows how these ideologies themselves are driven by the underlying religious polarities of the sacred and the profane. |
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| ISSN: | 1522-5658 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of religion & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 10504/113360 |