Our Heritage of BooksThe Bible has influenced some of the best-known literature in the English-speaking world:
• Many of our earliest poems have Christian themes. During the fourteenth century ‘Julian of Norwich’, one of the first women writers, wrote Revelations of Divine Love, and Geoffrey Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales. Their work is still popular today.
• John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671) are about mankind’s fall into sin and God’s way of salvation through Jesus Christ.
• One hundred and fifty years ago it was said that in almost every home you would find two books: the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress (1666). This is John Bunyan’s story of the Christian’s journey through life.
• The plays of William Shakespeare, the world’s greatest dramatist and poet, are filled with echoes of the Bible, and a wide knowledge of the Bible lies behind the poetry of Cowper, Wordsworth and Burns – to name just a few.
• Daniel Defoe’s well-known story of Robinson Crusoe (1719) has a Christian theme and, though not a churchgoer, Charles Dickens wrote a children’s Life of Christ.
• Modern writers also reflect the Bible in their work. The Christian books of C S Lewis, particularly his Narnia series for children, are read all over the world.
Christianity also influenced important women writers like the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, Dorothy L Sayers and Christina Rossetti. Hannah More, a successful playwright in the eighteenth century, made a great impact on society through her writing after she became a Christian. Click Here to find out more
Copyright Day One Publications, used with permission |
