The Word the Self-Perpetuating Narrative of Christ

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Langston, Douglas

Keywords

Christology, Literary Ananlysis, Novels

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

In this thesis I examine twentieth century literary depictions of Christ, attempting to distinguish a shift in focus around the time of the Second Vatican Council. While portrayals of Christ before and after Vatican II adhere to the Nicene Doctrine of True Man and True God, after Vatican II authors are able to emphasize human aspects of Jesus such as sexuality, humor and psychology which were taboo before, and could lead to their books being banned by the Church. I explain the genesis of the Church's authority by describing the formation of the institutional Church and its Doctrine of the nature of Christ as they were defined in response to Gnosticism. In order to demonstrate the power wielded by the Church, I also discuss the First Vatican Council, which specifically condemned not only liberalism, but also freedom of the press. I hope that the dramatic change in tone from the First to the Second Vatican Council will distinguish how radical it was for the Church to ride the wave of post World War II secularization as it did. The novels I discuss which came after Vatican II might have been considered heretical prior to the 1960s, but afterwards they can instead be recognized as works of faith with Gnostic nuance.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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