Overall Thoughts on Religious Perspective Class

My understanding of how religion is important to humanity was very clear after reading the books for this class. Perhaps Asher Lev showed this most clearly as he had so much torment in deciding between his religion or his passion of art. Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin used religion as his life line. I'm guessing he would not have lived had he not had God to give him hope. Hope was the common element in all the books. Without religion, people do not have hope and fall into despair. Graham Greene expertly showed this in his book. Their communities seemed non-existent without their priests directing them.

People need hope in life and religion gives them that hope. I am reminded of my pastor talking about "believers" who are on their deathbed compared to "nonbelievers". He said believers, having hope for everlasting life, do not fight death and their physical death comes much easier. They seem to accept the crossing over to the other side because of their religion. They have hope and belief that God will take care of them. Nonbelievers, on the other hand, fight death and show much fear. He said he watched many people struggle through the end and hang on to the life they had, even when they are in extreme pain. I just think this is a great example of how people need God in their lives.

It seems as religion has always brought out the best and the worst in people. As far back as the beginning of time, people have fought over religion and power. They are continuing to fight and kill each other today all because of religious persecution. Of course, WWII is a great example of this. The Germans tormented and torchured the Jews just because of their religion and their Jewish heritage. Even today, people waste much time and energy fighting over whose doctrine is right or wrong. Families and friendships can be split over the issue of religion.

Again, I felt reading these books for class opened my eyes to some different thinking. It was especially good to read others thoughts and writings in this online class. I have not had the opportunity to read EVERYTHING a student has submitted in a regular class. On the other hand, it was a little hard for me to post my writings for everyone to read. I was just a bit intimidated at first, and then decided it didn't matter. I really felt my classmates had some wonderful interpretations of the books we studied and I have gained from them.

My biggest "a-ha" moment came when I read the background on Graham Greene. He was such an interesting person and his background was so important in understanding where he was writing from in his book. I think I learned the most about him as we had to come up with different facts than the other students in class. I finally got confused trying to write something someone else had not written. Then I realized it did not really matter at this point since I had gained to so much from reading all the other facts. That was a great assignment!

I thought the class definitely met the objectives. I would have been good to study a different religion. Perhaps something from the Middle East since that is such a current topic in the world today.

The Power and the Glory

Reading The Power and the Glory was definitely interesting. The book certainly had a religious theme. The characters were all tied to religion in one way or another. I found several symbols of Jesus: the priest riding on a mule and Jesus riding on a donkey, the priest betrayed by the half-caste and Jesus betrayed by Judas.

I felt a lot of sadness on how people are treated in the book. I didn't like the violence and the senseless killing. Taking a villager and killing them because they wouldn't turn in the priest was such a waste. It made me really hate the army and what they stood for. I wanted the priest to escape and was grouchy when he went back two times! I think I knew after the second time that he would be captured.

I'm not Catholic but I have a strong Christian religious belief. I found it difficult to read about a leader of the church who was so sinful. I think it is probably a good lesson that church leaders are human and make mistakes. It still made me sad to read about such things. I probably learned the most from this book about my religious views and how I would stand up for what I believe. If I was persecuted and hunted, I might turn to sinful things too. I would hope that I would never speak against my religion and I was happy the whisky priest held firm on that until the end of the book.

There were some connections in this book to Asher Lev. I wanted the priest to get away from the soldiers and I also wanted Asher Lev to leave his home and experience his artwork without being looked down upon. I wanted the people to stand up and help the priest. I also wanted Asher Lev's religious community to accept him and give him a chance. I found the inhuman treatment of people in Greene's book horrible. I wanted Asher Lev to stand up to his father and not let him treat Asher like a child.

As I read through the book, I enjoyed it more. It is a book that I will keep on my bookshelf and read again. Although the violence and drinking wasn't so great, I can look past that and see Greene's characters in a religious sense. It was definitely a book that made me think and want to discuss with others.