books, art, common-groundSome may be inclined to answer with a resounding “none.” This is a perfectly valid and reasonable answer, however a tremendous amount of literature, philosophy and human history is strongly motivated by a religious agenda. It’s probably worth thinking carefully before casually dismissing so much shared human history and creativity…
So I’m a little disturbed that no one has mentioned Paradise Lost yet; Milton’s masterpiece is really wondrous even just for the way he uses words.
Also, I’ll be that guy and bring up C.S. Lewis again: The Screwtape Letters, they are really enjoyable and entertaining just in the way the devil communicates about the man he is trying to convince to sin. Unfortunate that such a good writer had all of his amazing skills almost wholly diverted into Christian apologetics.
Even if you don’t believe that any/all of the information is true, there is a lot to be gained by reading the scriptural texts from different religions.
A few options:
Disclaimer: I am actually a Christian, but I have found that a lot can be learned from other religions.
I recommend reading Dostoyevsky.
Dostoyevsky was a doubting christian. Many of his books, but particularly ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, depict his inner struggle between belief and disbelief. While the conclusion of ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ points towards christianity, it’s well known that Dostoyevski had the greatest trouble to write down a defense of christianity after penning his attack on it in a record tempo. His attack on organized religion, told as a parable by Ivan Karamazov under the title ‘The Grand Inquisitor’, is certainly worth a read on its own.
Other notable passage is in ‘The Idiot’ when he vividly describes the last instants of a man facing a firing squad. Dostoyevski narrowly escaped one himself. Actually, the entire novel is worthwhile, the main character (the idiot) being a depiction of Christ.
I would counter with C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. It is supposed to be a story which illustrates how you let go of all your worldly pleasures and vices in order to embrace God in Heaven, but I actually found it a good nudge towards pointing out how an excess of anything can make you intolerable to others. It’s well-written, vivid, and fairly short. Narnia was only interesting when you ignored the Christian allegory; “The Last Battle” was boring and ultimately incredibly depressing….
Separately, Dante’s Divine Comedy (the best English one is the heavily-annotated and beautifully translated version by John Ciardi), or at least The Inferno, is really a cornerstone of literature. You will also have to rush directly to Ovid’s Metamorphoses afterwards to pick up all the references, but that’s no bad thing. :) The Inferno and Comedy helped define Italian (that is, the vulgar, common form of Latin) as a separate, living language worthy of respect and usage, and probably accelerated the decline of Latin. Other than Beowulf, how many poems can make the claim that they defined an entire language?
Friedriech Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra:
Described by Nietzsche himself as "the deepest ever written," the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized prophet descending from his recluse to mankind, Zarathustra. A central irony of the text is that Nietzsche mimics the style of the Bible in order to present ideas which fundamentally oppose Christian and Jewish morality and tradition.
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Many criticisms of Christianity can be found in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in particular Christian values of good and evil and its belief in an afterlife.
I liked the style the book written in. The following are some excerpts I was able to remember — if you allow me — WRT religion and deities.
Many sickly ones have there always been among those who muse, and languish for God; violently they hate the discerning ones, and the latest of virtues, which is uprightness.
Or they sit all day at swamps with angle-rods, and on that account think themselves PROFOUND; but whoever fisheth where there are no fish, I do not even call him superficial!
Or they learn in godly-gay style to play the harp with a hymn-poet, who would fain harp himself into the heart of young girls: — for he hath tired of old girls and their praises.
With the old Deities hath it long since come to an end: — and verily, a good joyful Deity-end had they!
They did not "begloom" themselves to death — that do people fabricate! On the contrary, they — LAUGHED themselves to death once on a time!
That took place when the unGodliest utterance came from a God himself — the utterance: "There is but one God! Thou shalt have no other Gods before me!" — An old grim-beard of a God, a jealous one, forgot himself in such wise:
And all the Gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones, and exclaimed: "Is it not just divinity that there are Gods, but no God?"
He that hath an ear let him hear.
"..He was a hidden God, full of secrecy. Verily, he did not come by his son otherwise than by secret ways. At the door of his faith standeth adultery.
Whoever extolleth him as a God of love, doth not think highly enough of love itself. Did not that God want also to be judge? But the loving one loveth irrespective of reward and requital.."
I guess here the old pope refers to Maria, which got pregnant with Jesus by God, not Joseph, her husband.
"..I love everything that looketh bright and speaketh honestly. But he — thou knowest it, forsooth, thou old priest, there was something of thy type in him, the priest-type — he was equivocal.
He was also indistinct. How he raged at us, this wrath-snorter, because we understood him badly! But why did he not speak more clearly?
And if the fault lay in our ears, why did he give us ears that heard him badly? If there was dirt in our ears, well! who put it in them?.."
Certainly, there are number of other great thoughts in the book, and I'm sure you'll enjoy reading it.
For literature, C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia are pretty good. The fact that they are inspired by Bible becomes a little obvious towards the end.
For philosophical works, Bhagvad Gita is a good choice but I’m not sure how good english translations are. Although it is considered a sacred Hindu text, its contents are mostly philosophical.
Given the time of year it would be inappropriate not to mention Christmas Carols, many of which are beautiful, particularly when sung by a trained choir.
Go and grab of the Christmas CDs from The Kings College Choir (some are dirt cheap in the UK at least - sub £4) and enjoy.
Slacktivist. It's a blog by a liberal American evangelical Christian. He writes about the Real True Christian culture (he doesn't like them much). He analyses the Left Behind books. And he talks about politics and history. And he's a fascinating and excellent writer. (Have a look at the comments thread too.)
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