The Role of religion on the evolution of literature

Tittle: Christianity and Medieval Literature

Introduction

Reading Harlands chapter two about the role Christianity played in the evolution of not
only European literature but literature on the whole, I started pondering about it. I wanted
to know how and why Christianity had such an immense impact on Medieval literature ,
and how did ,Christianity changed everything it touched, for it was both a force for
preservation and change (Harland R 1999) ; thus, this essay.

We know that religion is the belief system (Wikipedia 2007) and the practices of one,
based on this belief system, whereas literature is the expression of ones feelings and the
extension of life. As such the role of religion on any literature is undeniable. Most of the
worlds oldest literature had its origin from religions, may it be Pagan religions of the
early Greeks, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam; e.g the Greek mythology and epics, the
Hindu Mahabaratha, Vedas, Ramayana, the Roman Catholic influence or the Moslem
world of Arabic literature.
As such, for the purpose of this study I will look only into the part Christianity played on
Medieval Literature.

History
A variety of cultures influenced the literature of the middle ages, one of strongest among
them being Christianity. The connection of Christianity was greatest in Latin literature,
which influenced greatly the literary cycles of that time. Language played a crucial role
in the development of literature. And since it was associated with Christianity, thus the
influence of Christianity in the writings was unavoidable.
Since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated
Western and Central Europe, and since the Church was virtually the only source
of education, Latin was a common language for Medieval writings, even in some
parts of Europe that were never Romanized . However, in Eastern Europe, the
influence of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church made
Greek and Old Church Slavonic the dominant written languages.
( Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Though many of the early writers used Latin for their literary works they remained
anonymous not mainly due to the lack of proper record and documentation but due to
the control the church fathers had over these scholars.
Medieval authors were often overawed by the classical writers and the Church
Fathers and tended to re-tell and embellish stories they had heard or read rather
than invent new stories. And even when they did, they often claimed to be handing
down something from an author instead. From this point of view, the names of the
individual authors seemed much less important, and therefore many important
works were never attributed to any specific person.
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

During the early part of the middle ages the Greco-roman culture declined and
Christian thinking was the norm; and in the later part of the middle ages, France
played a major role due to the strongly Romanized areas around the
Mediterranean. For the Christians the classical literary theories were impossible to
accept. The church fathers and the clergy were against the very principles Platos
and Aristotles mimesis especially that of drama and condemned them to be just
pleasurable and not sufficiently instructional, resulting in drama being abandoned
until very much later.

Rhetoric and figurative language

Early literary works were rarely created in isolation from other currents in the
social and cultural world and it contained much rhetoric representations; and
figurative language was widely used in the literary works. The earlier GrecoRoman forms of oratory were discontinued and much emphasis was given to
poetic compositions resulting in new hair-raising terns of classifications.

The Christian world of the middle ages were also concerned with fictionality or
fabula and figmentum and dismissed the early classical literature (esp. the Greek
mythology and the epics) as that of fiction and not real. It was not only considered
untrue but dangerously untrue as they claimed it evoked false Gods and false
miracles. On the contrary the events described in the bible were considered to be

historical facts. As such it was no wonder that the bible was considered as part of
literature and better than other profane literature ( Jasbern & Trickett 1999).

Albeit that, during the middle ages the gap between the bible and other literature
was far less clearly defined. Eramous in his Enchridion Militis Christiani
(1503) that a sensible reading of the pagan poet and philosophers is a good
preparation for the Christian life. (Jasbern & Trickett 1999). The bible, played an
integral part of the local culture which led to a constant demand for biblical
stories to be retold in plays, in verse and later even in prose narrative. The stories
and poems in the bible were told and retold, adapted appropriated and reused and
it became part of English literature. The bible especially the old testament was
noted not so much for content but for poetic value.

Allegorical Nature of Medieval Literature

As in classical literature, allegory was also widely utilized by the Christian

writers, e.g. the world was seen as Gods book full of messages (life itself) for the
Christians to read. They had their own allegorical interpretation (just as that of the
early Greek allegory in their mythical stories and epics). The bible (Old Testament
is full of allegory) and it was used throughout the middle ages to teach and preach
theological thinking. Longinus, who was considered to be a Pagan critic writing
sometime in the early Christian era included a section On the sublime , among
his examples he sites; the lawgiver of the Hebrews(i.e Moses), who describes

God as saying Let be light in relation for good and evil (light and darkness) and
illumination or enlightenment.( Luke 9:28-36).

Conclusion.

As we can clearly see that the Roman catholic church and later the Protestant
church (of King James of England) had much impact on the development of
Literature during the medieval times. The early classical theories were dismissed
as nonsensical and Christian beliefs and were incorporated in the early literary
work as means for the propagation of religion. The bible and other biblical stories
became a platform for the spread of Christianity. Works of early literary writers,
e.g Beowulf, written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon writer, The Canterbury
Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and the Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio etc are
all testimony to this influence of Christianity on literature.

As such (what is said in, Harland 1999) it is indeed very true that , Christianity
changed everything it touched including the Literature of the middle ages.

References

Gildeons,(1979) The Holy Bible, National Publishing Company, USA

Harland R,(1999) Literary Theory from Plato Barthes (An introductory

History),Palgrave, New York.
Jasbern & Trickett, (1999), Bible in Literature,Blackwel Publishers, New York

Noritah,(2007), Lecture Notes. & handouts ,UPM, Serdang.

Website References

http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/medieval literature

http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/middleages/welcome.html

http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/16century//welcome.html