Literature, Religion, Theology

Abstract

There are two possible ways to approach this topic: the historical the abstract. Literature religion have been historically fused in religious literature: liturgical hymns, mystical texts, religious poetry, even in the equivocal notion of metaphysical poetry. This historical interweaving justifies the study of the relationship between religion literature, the task of writing an article on the copula that links them could be discharged by selecting an illustrious example, Teresa of Avila's The Dwelling Places of the Interior Castle, St. John of the Cross's Spiritual Canticle, or any other. But case studies either presuppose an answer to the general question or are a surreptitious way to evade it. If the purpose is to understand the place of religion as a context for literature in our time, then we must search beyond merely factual linkages for an inherent relationship between the two. By inherent I mean an essential connection whereby it is impossible to think of literature without thinking of religion. I shall not add and vice versa because it is indeed possible to think of religion without literaturesilent prayer charitable deeds, motivated by the love of God, exist without words, whereas, as king Claudius realizes, without thoughts never to heaven go (Hamlet III.iii.98). Since the only aspect of religion that can be related to literature is the one displayed in words and, since the very formulation of an experience is in some degree a rationalization, a sharp distinction between religion theology cannot be established. The title of my study reflects this stance, which I hope will be justified through my exposition. Literature in a strictly formal description is a phenomenon of communication in which language, the means of expression, becomes substantive because it is simultaneously used in its four functions: intellectual, emotional, sensorial, structural. The four functions of language are most conspicuous in the poem-message (intellectual function), involvement of the poet through the use of first or second person (emotional), sound color (sensorial), repetition of verse patterns (structural)-but they can also be pinpointed in the novel drama. In these two genres the emotional aspect of language becomes manifest in the dialogue, in descriptive passages, possibly in the very story narrated in the novel or enacted in the play. This definition of literature is purely formal, since the same structure of language-the simultaneous display of the four functions mentioned above-appears in a wretched poem as well as in Don Quijote. But then the