| Many students are interested in the possibilities of a faith-based
interpretation of literature. Part of the focus of this class is to explore what
such a critical engagement might look
like and hopefully to encourage students to take seriously the task of bringing their
beliefs to bear on the experience of literature. I have also suggested some broad
general stances that Christianity has traditionally taken to matters of culture under
"Christ, Culture, and Academic
Research." One of the challenges of this kind of integration of faith and
learning is to learn how to sensitively and accurately investigate the demands of an
academic discipline with Christian insight. Often when
we first attempt this, we find ourselves going about it with a hammer. We too easily
dismiss or ignore the complexity of the text in question as we rush to make that specific
Christian critique. Like many other areas of our spiritual pilgrimage, we have to learn to
grow in discerning and practicing such analysis with skill and precision. It
is essential that we strive to respect texts, not unlike we would respect persons.
John Milton once wrote that "who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, God's
Image; but he who destroys a good Book, kills reason it self, kills the Image of God, as
it were in the eye." Milton proposes that texts because they are expressions of
human reason, emotion, and volition, are extensions of each human being's bearing of the imago
deus, the image of God.
Here are some specific suggestions about how one might go about such
a critique in the context of the research paper (Of course, be aware that these are only a
few of the ways this might be practiced):
- You might try comparing two characters, two plot lines, and/or two
settings from two different texts, one pagan and one Christian. The goal would be to
explore how the differing worldviews of the authors/texts result in contrasting outcomes.
For example, I might look at how Augustine and Aeneas both discover their destiny
through father figures, arguing that Augustine has altered the traditional Roman notion of
the patria, the authority and socio-economic status of the father (and by
extension, country) over his family and servants, to that of a spiritual patria,
where Ambrose models the compassion and pedagogy of a bishop for his parishioners. To
do an effective job with this approach, one would need to not only do a close
analysis of both The Confessions and the Aeneid, one would also need to
do a close study of secondary critics of both sources. In part, because it would be
important to show what the worldview actually is that is present in both.
- You might try pulling together a theological and/or biblical critique
of the worldview of a particular literary work. This requires a thorough exposition
of the ideas, story, or themes present in the text you will interpreting. It
behooves that you look closely at some secondary sources that help you tease out the
perspective of the text. And it also obligates you to faithfully look at theological
sources and/or biblical commentaries to help support the position you will critique
from. Such research is especially important when critiquing a Christian author who
may have a different tradition and/or biblical understanding than yourself. For
example, I could look closely at the idea of pietas in the life of Aeneas, the
Latin belief that loyalty to one's country exceeds one's personal attachments. I
might want to argue how Aeneas' choices not only illustrate the advantages of pietas
but also its limits, even deceptions. To do this I could apply the biblical concept
of faithfulness or covenant. To mention another example, if I were wanting to
critique Dante's view of Purgatory from my Protestant perspective, I would need to keep
two things in mind: 1) that Dante and Roman Catholicism also have a tradition of biblical
interpretation on this matter. I would need to research and show my awareness of
this; 2) that my critique helps better expand my audience's understanding of Dante.
In other words, my goal would be by carrying out such a critique to show how the insights
and limits of such an idea play themselves out in Dante's work.
- You also might consider studying closely how certain Christian truths
work are present in a text. This is, of course, easier when the author is Christian,
but it need not be limited to this. For example, I could do a study of how John
Donne's Holy Sonnets explore the gamut of faith and doubt, exploring how Donne as
a believer moves through various stages in a love-relationship with God. Again, to
do this well I would need to look at how Donne understood this essential Christian
truth. Equally, I could argue for how the biblical concept of glory helps us understand the force, beauty, and sublimeness
of The Odyssey. To do this, I would need to make careful distinctions
between the Homeric worldview and a Christian one. I would need to clearly explain
the theological truth I will be applying and explain how I intend to gather my
evidence. This is especially important because to take this approach, you have to
keep in mind that Homer did not intend for his style to mirror Christian truth,
but if we recall that Christians believe that all people are created by God, then it
follows that we may claim to recognize some aspect of their work, in this case aesthetics,
that they themselves would not have been aware of.
- Finally, you might consider a paper that closely examines the
worldview of the critics of a work in order to show the promise or deadends that such
criticism results in. Admittedly, this can be quite difficult because it requires that the
writer can tell from the secondary critics' works what their perspective and methodology
actually is. For example, I might argue that many critics, due to their materialist
assumptions, overlook the spiritual and theological techniques of Dante in regard to
Beatrice's mystical symbolism. And they are poorer for it. To do an effective
job of this, I would need to cite passages from the critics that reveal their limitations,
and I would need to offer a more thorough analysis of the passages from Dante that these
critics read too reductively. In order to be balanced and fair, I would also need to
show where the reading by these critics also succeeds in understanding Dante.
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