World Literature as General Revelation - Coursework Example

Things Fall Apart The novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ by Chinua Achebe best depicts the religious themes in the world literature. The story is written by an African author who has been in Europe and hence much conversant with both African and European religious culture. The novel explore the African religious beliefs through the life Okonkwo the protagonist and the Igbo African religion (Achebe, 2010). However, the author introduces Christianity as European religion and outlines its positive and negative impacts on African culture.

The mixing of world religions describes the reason I preferred the story of ‘things fall apart’ by Achebe.The novel conveys a flavor of Igbo religion as part of African culture. The religion has many superstitions as other world religions. They believed in chi as their supreme god and also the ancestral spirits that they offered sacrifices to and relied on heavily for decision-making (Bloom, 2009). The novel diversifies the religious themes by describing how Igbo viewed Christianity. The author describes misperceptions of Igbo people to the west where they considered them as fools.

Christianity, a religion from the West appears more civilized to Igbo people, and many are converted apart from building churches (Bloom, 2009). It illustrates the theme of conversion among world religions and also the clash between cultures. Mr. Brown a European portrays Christianity as flexible and accommodating by respecting Igbo beliefs and traditions hence winning many converts (Achebe, 2010). Christianity outweighs African religion since it takes control of Igbo laws and justice systems apart from the change of beliefs.

The novel reveals both African and European religious traditions and beliefs hence best suited to exploring religious themes. As a Christian, traditional beliefs such worship to ancestral spirits and other practices enslaves people to these false doctrines and end up causing more harm.ReferencesAchebe, C. (2010). Things Fall Apart: A Novel. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Bloom , H. (2009). Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Blooms modern critical interpretations. New York. Infobase Publishing