Christian literature

Christian literature is a wide-ranging term referring to written works that incorporate the teachings, beliefs, philosophies, or themes found in the religion of Christianity. The first Christian literature developed in the decades after the religion’s birth and generally took the form of accounts of the life of Jesus Christ or letters to church leaders. Other early Christian works served as impassioned defenses of the new religion or recounted the lives of those who had died for their faith. With the Christian church emerging as the dominant societal force in medieval Europe, much of the literature from the period bore strong religious overtones. Christian aspects were often included in fictional works to provide context for a story or as symbols promoting church philosophies. In the modern era, Christian-based fiction has grown into a popular literary genre, infusing common themes such as romance or adventure with Christian morals and ideologies.

Brief History

Christianity is a religion based upon the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, a Jewish religious figure who lived in the Middle East from about 6 BCE to about 30 CE. To Christians, Jesus was the messiah, the promised savior of the Jewish people whose coming was foretold in Jewish scriptures. The title of Christ was not a given name, but was bestowed upon him later to acknowledge his role as the messiah. Christ comes from the Greek word christos, meaning “anointed one.” Christos has the same meaning as the Hebrew word for messiah.

Christians believe that Jesus was the divine son of God who was sent to earth as the human incarnation of God himself. He was born to a human mother, grew up, and began to preach his message when he reached the age of thirty. Jesus traveled across the region of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon, speaking to ever-growing crowds and collecting a following of disciples. Twelve of his followers, known as the apostles, became his most trusted disciples and aided Jesus in spreading his teachings.

After preaching publically for three years, Jesus made enemies among both the Jewish and Romans leaders of the region. He was arrested, tortured, and killed by crucifixion, a form of execution in which a person is tied or nailed to a wooden cross and left to die. According to Christian beliefs, Jesus rose from the dead three days later, fulfilling his role as messiah through his death and resurrection. He remained among his followers on earth for forty days, at the end of which, he was taken up into heaven. Before he left, Jesus told his followers to go forth and “make disciples of all the nations.”

From an historical context, Christianity spread quickly in the mid- to late-first century CE. As more people embraced the new faith, the Roman and Jewish leaders began to worry about the religion’s growing influence. Early Christians became the target of numerous persecutions that continued on and off for almost three centuries. In 313, the Roman Emperor Constantine not only lifted a ban on the religion but converted to Christianity himself. More than half a century later, the Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

Overview

In the formative years of Christianity, followers did not have access to a common body of information containing the religion’s teachings, beliefs, or rules. To fill this void, several authors began compiling instructions to educate the faithful or collecting the teachings of Jesus in written form. There was no organized effort to create a definitive work that applied to the religion as a whole. Rather, authors wrote independently and often expressed differing opinions and narratives in their writings.

Early Christian Literature

One of the key figures in founding Christianity during the first century CE was the Apostle Paul. While not one of the original twelve apostles, Paul was converted to Christianity after the death of Jesus and spent his life traveling throughout the region spreading his beliefs. When Paul was unable to travel to a particular area, he would write letters to church leaders to be read aloud at early Christian gatherings. These letters, called epistles, generally contained a greeting from the author, the main body of the message, and a blessing for the faithful. The oldest known work of Christian literature is believed to be Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians—Christians who lived in the Greek city of Thessalonica. The epistle was written about 50 CE and was followed by several more letters to churches in Greece, Turkey, and Rome. Paul is often credited with writing the majority of the epistles from the mid-first century, but modern scholars believe he personally wrote only seven.

Written accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus were compiled in works known as gospels, a term that comes from the Greek word for “good news.” The oldest surviving gospel is believed to be the Gospel of Mark, mostly likely written between 65–70 CE. However, many scholars think the work, and the Gospel of Matthew that followed, were inspired by an earlier, now lost gospel known as “Q,” from the German word quelle, meaning “source.” Another theory holds that the Gospel of Thomas was the oldest known gospel in existence. This gospel is more a collection of the words of Jesus than an account of his life. Some evidence suggests it was written as early as 60 CE, but other experts date it much later, even as late as the third century.

The Gospel of Thomas is an example of early Christian literature known as apocrypha. Apocryphal works were books that were not included in the canonical version of the Bible’s New Testament. As Christianity spread in its first few centuries, followers and church leaders began to debate its core beliefs, particularly the status of Jesus as divine vs. human. After Emperor Constantine converted in the early fourth century, he called together a council of bishops to decide on a uniform Christian philosophy. To reflect this definitive belief system, an Egyptian bishop named Athanasius selected twenty-seven works that would be included in the New Testament. The books included four gospels—Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John—twenty-one epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Book of Revelation. The Acts are a history of the founding of the church, while Revelation is an account of Jesus’ promised return at the end of time.

Among the apocrypha were works written by a Christian sect known as gnostics. The gnostics believed that true knowledge of God could only be achieved by mystical and secretive means. Gnostic texts were often wildly different from the accepted books of mainstream Christianity. For example, a second-century gnostic named Basilides wrote that there were 365 heavens ruled over by a distant, ultimate god named Abraxas, and that Jesus actually switched places with another man who died on the cross in his place.

Apart from religious texts, other forms of early Christian literature typically involved philosophical defenses of Christianity or tales of martyrs who died during the many persecutions. Written defenses of the faith were known as “apologies,” a word that was not associated with regret or sorrow as it is today. These works were meant to dispel rumors about the new religion and convince Roman authorities that the mass persecution of Christian was wrong and should be stopped. The acts of the martyrs were written to reassure Christians facing persecution that they would be rewarded with a place in God’s kingdom after they died. Martyr tales were typically highly embellished, depicting many victims as willingly, and even happily, accepting death. Often, the gruesome deaths of the martyrs were accompanied by some miraculous event that showed Christianity’s triumph over persecution.

Medieval Christian Literature

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Christian Church rose to become the dominant force in much of Europe. While secular histories, romances, and mythologies were popular during the period, many medieval literary works displayed at least some religious influences. For example, in the Song of Roland, a twelfth-century work based on an historical battle that took place in 778, the Christian faith of the heroic French army is contrasted with the “pagan” beliefs of attacking Muslims. When Roland gives his last breath to call for help, angels appear to take his soul into heaven.

Many medieval Christian works used a literary device known as a dream vision in which the narrator tells a story as if it were a divinely inspired vision. Among the most well-known was the fourteenth century poem Pearl, about a grieving father who has a dream about his daughter who died when she was a child. In his vision, the father sees that his daughter is living a happy life in heaven. Another work from the same century is Piers Plowman by William Langland, in which a man named Will falls asleep and is taken on a spiritual journey where he learns to be a better Christian.

The most famous use of the dream vision in medieval literature was by Italian poet Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy, written in the early fourteenth century. In the three-part poem, the narrator becomes lost and is taken on a journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven where he comes to understand the true path of Christianity and the divine nature of God. The Divine Comedy also incorporates another popular medieval literary device known as allegory, where symbols and images are used to represent Christian concepts. For example, the narrator’s journey through the underworld can be seen as representing the human soul’s lifelong journey to heaven.

Like all written works in the medieval period, Christian literature was only accessible to those who could read. Because most of the population was illiterate, drama plays were often used by the church as a way to teach people about Christian beliefs. Morality plays were performances that instructed people on ways to live a good life. For example, the fifteenth-century play Everyman is about a man approaching his own death who realizes that the only thing he needs to attain heaven is a record of his good deeds. Mystery plays were put on to teach people about the “mysteries” of God, from stories of the creation to accounts of the Last Judgement. Finally, passion plays reenacted the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Modern Christian Literature

With the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church lost its dominant hold on Christianity as multiple groups splintered off to form new denominations. Many of the denominations developed their own literary apologies to both promote and defend their views on Christianity. Other authors used stories from the Bible as the basis for their own literary works. One of the most famous, Paradise Lost, written by English poet John Milton in 1667, is an epic tale of the creation of the world, the fall of Satan, and Adam and Eve’s removal from the Garden of Eden. Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ, weaves the fictional story of Jewish slave Judah Ben-Hur with Biblical accounts of Jesus.

In the twentieth century, British author C. S. Lewis became a leading voice for Christianity, arguing its merits in both non-fiction and fictional works. His 1952 apologetic, Mere Christianity, grew out of a series of radio lectures he gave in the 1940s advocating for his faith. However, his best-known novels are the fantasy series the Chronicles of Narnia, which is heavily layered with Christian allegory. For example, in 1950’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the heroic lion Aslan sacrifices himself to save the life of a young boy. The next morning, Aslan rises from the dead even more powerful than he was before, drawing a strong parallel to the death and resurrection story of Jesus Christ.

J.R.R. Tolkien became another popular twentieth author who combined Christian teachings with fantasy elements. His three part saga The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) is one of the most popular books from the 20^th century and has been translated into thirty-eight languages. The story was adapted into three movies, released in 2001, 2002, and 2003. The stories feature many common themes from Christian teachings including the battle between good and evil, the symbols of the king, the priest and the prophet, and the importance of grace and humility. While Tolkien’s religious elements are not as obvious as those in Lewis’s series, Tolkien confirmed in interviews that his Catholic faith deeply influenced his writings.

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, a literary genre known as Christion fiction began to grow in popularity, particularly among evangelical Protestants. Many of these works use Biblical themes or Christian values as the basis for a story with modern, real-world elements. Stories may involve a romance between two people who discover that love is just part of God’s plan for them. Other books may use Christian ideals to craft adventures tales or mysteries. One very popular group of Christian books is the Left Behind series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The series is based on Biblical prophecies about the end of the world and is set in modern times. The title refers to those left behind to face the trials of the apocalypse while devout Christians have been taken up into heaven. The sixteen books in the series have sold about 80 million copies since it debuted in 1995. Five films were created based on the series.

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