In the conclusion to his book “Christianity and Western Literature: A Story of Sin and Salvation” Father Ambrose Mong asks: “Has the Church made up its mind on literature with thought-provoking themes? How will the relationship between Christianity and Western literature evolve? Overall, is literature doing justice to the Gospel vision?”
Father Mong’s latest title was published by James Clarke & Co in 2023. In his work, he elaborates on how some of the greatest works of Western literature have been greatly influenced by Christian themes. He draws attention to how Augustine’s thought on creation and sin in Confessions was influenced by Neoplatonism and the Pauline letters, which compelled him towards finding truth in the Scriptures.
Father Mong observes that Dante Alighieri’s portrayal of sin and its punishment in The Divine Comedy is aided by his reading of Augustine, Aquinas and Averroes, with the Roman poet Virgil becoming Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory.
Shakespeare, too, was steeped in the classics. He read deeply in Ovid, Virgil, Cicero, Horace and Seneca, and his Hamlet and The Tempest are imbued with biblical imagery and Christian symbolism.
In the seventeenth century, in Paradise Regained, Milton draws on the stories of gods and goddesses in pagan writings while at the same time subordinating their mythic imagery to his overall Christian vision. Milton’s Paradise Lost is a distinctively Christian poem that is classically inspired.
However, while writers in these earlier periods of history could tap into some sense of a genuine community and a unitary tradition which gave then a communicative power, in modern times there is no longer any robust common faith to orient the imaginative faculties of people with respect to the ultimate mysteries of existence. The writer as artist is faced with the very great difficulty of connecting with any significant body of belief and there is, in fact, little of profound significance that is widely shared by modern people.
As literary Romanticism emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. primarily in England and America, it profoundly influenced how Christian ideas were discussed and taught. In reacting to the eighteenth century’s scientific world-view with its focus on reason and rationality, it was characterised by concern for the individual and their transcendental aspirations. Understood as a genre rather than a philosophy, Romanticism was concerned with the individual, with their passion and inner struggles. It promoted a sacramental vision of life in which every creature and created thing can be a revelation of divine presence, as can be discovered in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
In the nineteenth century, Dostoevsky breaks with Romanticism and, inspired by the writings of Voltaire, Kant and Hegel, frames his fiction in existentialism as he tells a story with deep reflection on the human condition in The Brothers Karamazov.
Although traditional Catholic literature seeks to illustrate the truth of the faith with its emphasis on Church teaching and doctrine, in the twentieth century Graham Greene represents a new kind of Catholic writing, filled with biblical imagery and sacramental symbolism. In The Power and the Glory, he presents the moral and spiritual struggles of the individual in a hostile world. There is a rapprochement with secularity in his religious narrative and his treatment of theological issues facilitates a dialogue between the Church and the modern world.
Father Mong provides us with a thought-provoking question today – in what innovative and inspiring ways will Christian values and the Gospel vision continue to find expression in contemporary literature of the twenty-first century?
Father Ambrose Mong is assistant parish priest at St Joseph’s Church, Hong Kong, part-time lecturer at the Holy Spirit Seminary, and research associate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His recent publications with James Clarke & Co. include Christianity in the Modern World: A Study of Religion in a Pluralistic Society (2022), Sino-Vatican Relations: From Denunciation to Dialogue (2019) and A Better World Is Possible: An Exploration of Western and Eastern Utopian Visions (2018)
