Review 4: The Bible and
Literature
June 14, 2008
Dante and the Bible
Dante Alighieri: Books and
Biography
 The Divine Comedy: Study Guide
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the word "comedy," in the classical sense,
refers to works which reflect belief in an
ordered universe, in which events not
only tended towards a happy or
"amusing" ending, but an ending
influenced by a Providential will that
orders all things to an ultimate good. By
this meaning of the word, the progression
of Dante's pilgrimage from Hell to
Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of
comedy, since the work begins with the
pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with
Shakespeare and the Bible
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Life and Works:
Hamlet
Hamlet:
 1. The Theme of siblings murder
 2. Be true to thyself:
 Polonius:Act I, Scene 3
(Lines
545-565)
 Ecclesiasticus:37:13
 3. To be or not to be: Job
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Henry VI
The idea of marriage:
 Henry VI, part 3 - Act 1, Scene 1 by
William Shakespeare King Henry
VI’s son Charles says:
 不, 神不許我希望他們悲慘. 他們乃是神所
配的. 悲慘啊! 一但剪斷他們共負的軛樑.
 This same concept is revealed in:
 Matthew 19:6:BibleGateway.com
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Measure for Measure
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Matthew 7:2:
Jesus Teaches On The Mountain About Saying What
Is Wrong In Others
1 "Do not say what is wrong in other people's lives. Then
other people will not say what is wrong in your life. 2 You
will be guilty of the same things you find in others. When
you say what is wrong in others, your words will be used
to say what is wrong in you. 3 Why do you look at the
small piece of wood in your brother's eye, and do not see
the big piece of wood in your own eye? 4 How can you say
to your brother, 'Let me take that small piece of wood out
of your eye,' when there is a big piece of wood in your own
eye? 5 You who pretend to be someone you are not, first
take the big piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you
can see better to take the small piece of wood out of your
brother's eye.
John Milton and the Bible
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Life and Works: John Milton (16081674)
Paradise Lost
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Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our
woe.
Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 1.
Paradise Lost: Milton: Paradise Lost Book 1
John Bunyan and the Bible
Life: John Bunyan Biography
 Works:John Bunyan Page
 The Pilgrim’s Progress: Christian
Classics Ethereal Library
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John Donne and the Bible
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Life:
Works: The Works of John Donne
Death Be not proud: John Donne. Holy
Sonnet 10. (In this poem, Death is
personalized. Here John Donne illustrated
the Christian world view, stating that
death is not an end to Christians.)
For whom the bell tolls: Meditation XVII –
Wikisource (written after Donne
recovered from a severe illness)
Charles Dickens and the
Bible
Life: Charles Dickens
 Works:
 A Christmas Carol
 Theme: the rich who is stingy to
help the poor will be judged.
 Luke 16:BibleGateway.com
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Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
 Theme: sacrification for friends
 John 15:3:
 Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his
friends.
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C. s. Lewis
Life: C. S. Lewis
 Quotes: C. S. Lewis Quotes
 Works:
 The Problem of Pain
 A Grief Observed
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C. S. Lewis
Space Trilogy
 Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
 Pearland (aka Voyage to Venus)
(1943)
 That Hideous Strength (1946)
 The Screwtape Letters (1942)
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C. S.Lewis
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The Chronicles of Narnia
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(1950)
Prince Caspian (1951)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
The Silver Chair (1953)
The Horse and His Boy (1954)
The Magician's Nephew (1955)
The Last Battle (1956)
Flannery O’Connor
Grace changes us and change is
painful. –by Flannery O’Connor
 Life: Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)
 Workds: A Good Man is Hard to Find
 Critics on O’Connor: Critics:
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Others
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet
Letter; The Celestial railroad
 G. K. Chesterton: Father Brown
 T. S. Eliot: the Waste Land; Murder
in the Cathedral; Ash Wednesday;
Journey of the Magi
 Dorothy Sayers: the Man Born to Be
King
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Others
R. R. R. Tolkien: the Hobbit; The
Lord and the Ring
 Samuel Becket; William Blake,
Byron; Chaucer; Connard; stephan
Crane, Emily Dickson, Fauckner;
Robert Frost; Hemmingways; Ellen
Poe; Stainbeck; Tennyson,
Whiteman
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Biblical Allusions
Eleven hour: the last possible time
for doing something; not too late to
do something (Matthew 20)
 A (good) Samaritan: one who gives
help to people in trouble or distree
(Luke 10:30-37)
 Doubting Thomas: one who doesn’t
trust anything easily (John 20:24-29)
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Biblical Allusions
Prodigal son: a repentant son or a
criminal with deep sense of guilt for
wrongdoing (Luke 15:11-32)
 The salt of the earth: onoe who is
honest and dependable; one whose
character is valuable and admirable
(Matthes 5:13)
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Biblical Allusions
A wolf in sheep’s clothing: a
hypocrite; one who appears to be a
friend but rather an enemy; one
who pretends to be harmless but
rather dangerous (Matthew 7:15)
 A thorn in one’s flesh/sides: a
constant irritation; a petty
annoyance; a pain in the neck
(Corinthian II 12:7)
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Biblical Allusions
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The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak: one has good intentions, but
one’s weakness fails to fulfill them
(Matthew 26:41)
Biblical Allusions
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The grapes of wrath: used as the title of
one of John Steinbeck’s novels
Revelation 14:19-20, an apocalyptic
appeal to divine justice and deliverance
from oppression in the final judgment.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the
earth, and gathered the vine of the earth,
and cast it into the great winepress of the
wrath of God. And the winepress was
trodden without the city, and blood came
out of the winepress, even unto the horse
bridles, by the space of a thousand and