Literature as religious educator

In a previous blog I referred to the prize-winning philosophy of Charles Taylor. Drawing further inspiration from some of the arguments presented in A Secular Age, I would like to consider the merits of literature as an important resource for religious education. That is, how and why a consideration of poetry, story, prose and fiction can inspire and inform students as part of their religious education.

In his analysis of religious belief in a secular age, Taylor uses the example of the writing and experience of Bede Griffiths. Griffiths, also known as Swami Dayananda was born in the suburbs of London in 1906, and died in his Christian-Hindu Ashram in Shantivanam, India, in 1993. He was one of the most famous (and controversial) interreligious pioneers of his generation, but it is the influence of literature upon Griffiths’ spiritual experiences in suburban England which are of relevance here.

Griffiths studied literature in Oxford. His tutor was the author and Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis – another famous advocate of the role of literature in religious understanding. Like Lewis, Griffiths underwent a process of conversion that he documented in his writings with compelling detail. Griffiths came to belief partly through a serious reading of the English poets, particularly the Romantic poets, while living in an experimental community with two friends in a cottage in the Cotswolds. He then converted to Roman Catholicism and entered a monastery. He wished to find the deepest level of union with God through a heightened experience of prayer. For Griffiths, Jesus was not a philosopher, but a poet. In a ruthless industrial era, Griffiths believed Christian spirituality could be deepened by engaging with non-Western traditions and reconnecting with nature.

Taylor uses an example taken from Griffiths’ autobiography to illustrate religious experience in the modern era. Griffiths describes listening to bird-song on a summer’s evening (as though he had ‘never heard the birds singing before’) that shattered his senses momentarily and brought him into an awe-inspiring encounter with God. To Taylor, this experience of fullness of life shows that neither belief nor unbelief in a secular age should be considered as theories or ideas. They are lived ‘conditions’.

Throughout A Secular Age Taylor explores how, through the numerous turns of Western culture, literature provides a way to understand shifting religious and intellectual trends. A Secular Age is, as one reviewer has remarked, the result of a lifetime’s reading. From Baudelaire and Blake, to Wordsworth and Woolf, the lived experiences of different orientations to life and God are examined in broad sweep.

In a recently published article about the religious beliefs and fiction of Leo Tolstoy, using a similar argument to Taylor’s, I explore how and why attitudes to non-Christian religions changed in the post-Kantian era to allow for the global pluralism that we have today (of which multi-faith religious education is a part).

This brings us to the purpose of this blog. Why and how can literature help with the business of religious education? Firstly, it should be noted that there are many kinds of literature and some may be more relevant than others. But, in general, great literature explores human experiences and values through dramatic, narrative and poetic devices that can cut across cultural and religious differences.

Literature describes ‘thick’ situations in detail often with characters’ inner thoughts and realisations explored in a way that no other kind of text does. While many stories have goodies and baddies, actually in many literary works we see how complex moral decisions are, and how people are capable of good and bad actions depending on the dilemmas they may face. In this way literature encourages empathy with different kinds of people and presents circumstances that we may only be able to live vicariously. Literature also allows for the explication of distinct theological positions, but does so in nuanced and powerful ways explained through narrative, symbol, metaphor, or myth.

Through its complexity, beauty, and sustained demand on the imagination, literature can bring us to a greater understanding of human experiences and religious principles. It therefore can counteract some of the problems that face religious educators. For example, research shows that RE can often emphasise religious boundaries instead of breaking them down, particularly by the reification and distortion of religious traditions.

In small-scale empirical studies, Christian, Jewish and Muslim adolescents report considerable discrepancies between their own religious identities and those represented in multi-faith curriculum materials. Literature, on the other hand, is more authentic and unpredictable, often showing the complex relationships between people and religions. Furthermore, the evocative power of poetry can be considered as contrary to the ‘reasoning’ advocated by academic studies about religion which rely heavily on more rational interpretations and comparisons.

So much for the ideals and theory: what about some good examples? I give some tried and tested literary figures. I do not give any quotations, or examples of suitable learning objectives, but links to texts and further information.

Rumi is perhaps the most famous and well-known example of many great spiritual poets from Islamic cultures that could be used to enrich religious education. ‘Rumi’ as he is commonly known in English, was born in the area that is now known as Afghanistan and Tajikistan in the Persian Empire and later lived in what is now modern-day Turkey. Writing in Persian, he is also known as Jalal ad-Din Muhammad and Jalaluddin Balkhi. Rumi was a religious scholar before becoming a mystic and poet. His poetry has universal appeal and is held in high regard across the Muslim world. (He is frequently said to be the best-selling poet in the United States of America.)

Another good example is the Nobel Prize winning Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). His great work of poetry The Gitanjali was championed by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats and was popular among some in the British establishment, finding favour among English Unitarians. Tagore returned his Knighthood, however, in protest to the British rule in India. Like Rumi, Tagore’s poetry is concerned with the spiritual life and can be interpreted as uniting concepts across different religions.

 

The photograph shows a monument to writers outside the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Mexico City

The great writer Leo Tolstoy is the subject of an earlier blog. Unlike the other examples given so far (Rumi and Tagore), Tolstoy eschewed poetry and indeed, in later life, the form of the novel. Tolstoy therefore began writing short moral stories for children and for adults. Some of these are good examples of what is known as narrative theology. This is the notion that the twist of a story (as opposed to the evocative language of poetry) can be utilised to illustrate theological concepts for consideration. Perhaps a better example of narrative theology can be found in the work of C.S. Lewis, whose Narnia stories are famous for being allegories. (An interesting research project is currently being conducted at the University of Leeds considering how these stories can build moral understanding among those of all faiths and none).

A controversial and grittier consideration of Christianity through narrative is the famous novel, Silence by Shusaku Endo. This tells the story of an outlawed Portuguese missionary in feudal Japan. It has been made into a film by Martin Scorsese (it is a gruesome story and the film, due in January, will most likely not be for the faint-at-heart).

As for Griffiths, Wordsworth had an enduring impact. And through this example we can observe the potency of literature. For while a work of literature may be derived from its author’s experiences; it can also provide a key for readers to reinterpret their experiences in light of the vision of that author. Reading Wordsworth it is possible to palpably feel the poet’s own spiritual response to the beauty of nature, something that resonated with the young Griffiths – and then lingered with him for the rest of his life. Indeed, understanding this, it would seem impossible to read that staple of schooling, ‘I wondered lonely as a cloud’ without considering Wordsworth’s religion. Or to put it in Taylor’s terms, Wordsworth’s lived condition – in the case of the daffodils, a fleeting and heavenly vision of life’s momentary fullness.