Religion in Literature: A Look at Some of the Classic Books

How Famous Writers Used Religion as the Foundation for Their Novels and Plays

In addition to a topic of debate and mild confusion, religion is also a subject that permits the basis for many different creative venues, including literature. Novelists of all walks of life, and from every possible time period, have used religious allusions in their creative works. They might be simply passing comments on the way to a very different plot, or they may very well be the foundation upon which the entire work is based.

Religion is a popular subject because no one seems to be in agreement, and there are more avenues down which to travel than with, for example, alien abductions. A novel about angels, demons, the afterlife, God, Satan, persecution, or undoing will capture the readers’ attention and hold it until the very end. It will inspire controversy on the most primitive level because, if you choose to use religion in your writing, someone is going to disagree with you; it’s a certainty.

Throughout history, some of the most memorable and acclaimed literary works have been rooted in one religious context or another, baiting readers to sink deep into the mysticism and possibilities they create. Many have been honored only posthumously because the people of their time thought them blasphemous.

I have by no means included all of the various books and authors who have used religion as a basis for their story, but it will give you an idea of how it is done and who wrote about what throughout history.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Purgatorio, Paradiso, & Inferno

Dante’s poem, which we now refer to as The Divine Comedy, was originally called simply Commedia, which means “comedy.” We will probably never know why he called it that, though literary scholars believe it is because the poem ends in the most joyous place of all: Heaven. Later, it became known as Divino, meaning “divine,” for obvious reasons, and eventually was titled The Divine Comedy, as it is called today.