English Shafaqna– Resurrection, understood as the raising of the dead after death, is a deeply held belief among the followers of the Abrahamic religions, one that has profoundly shaped many aspects of their lives. Numerous Iranian poets and writers have devoted their works to portraying this momentous day, each offering a unique vision of the Day of Resurrection.
According to Shafaqna, among the most celebrated Persian literary figures who have referred to the Day of Judgment in their writings are Mawlana Rumi, Saadi, and Hafez. Yet reflections on the Last Judgment are by no means confined to Persian-language literature. Many renowned writers of the Western world have likewise expressed their faith in the Abrahamic traditions—particularly in the Day of Resurrection—through some of their most famous and enduring works.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Clive Staples Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (C.S. Lewis) was a British author, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (1954–1963). He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles and The Problem of Pain.
Lewis was raised in a religious family that attended the Church of Ireland. He became an atheist at age 15, but his interest in the works of the Scottish writer George MacDonald was part of what turned him from atheism. In his very renowned allegory named The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he makes a clear reference to resurrection when Aslan the lion (a main character of the novel) chooses to die in the place of Edmund, who has fallen into clutches of White Witch. After Aslan is slain, an earthquake splits the alter on which he died, and when his friends arrive to mount for him, they find that he has been resurrected. Indeed, the central motif of this book is the theme of Christianity. Aslan’s death and his subsequent rebirth for the resurrection act as a symbolic parallel to the biblical narrative concerning the death and resurrection of Christ.
C.S. Lewis wrote other books about Christianity and resurrections, as well among them are Miracles, The Weight of Glory, Mere Christianity, and God in the Dock. We now turn to excerpts from Lewis, which eloquently capture his deep-seated bond with the Christian faith and the vision of the Resurrection:
“To preach Christianity meant (to the Apostles) primarily to preach the Resurrection. … The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in the Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences, were the ‘gospel’ or good news which the Christians brought.” (Miracles, ch. 16)
The Tale of Two cities, Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and journalist. He created some of literature’s best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.
Many critics believe that Dickens’ main aim of writing his very famous novel The Tale of Two Cities was to show the life after death or resurrection. Sydney Carton is flawed character throughout the novel, but his redeeming quality is love of a woman. She’s married, but her husband is scheduled to be executed during the French Revolution, Sydney changes places with him for her sake. As he is led to his death, he recalls a scripture verse:
“I Am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord; he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Carton’s death is not meaningless; it is so that another might live.
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky is a Christian novelist in a broad sense of the word. Dostoevsky puts Christian themes in an anthropological perspective: belief and unbelief, good and evil, freedom and determinism, guilt and innocence, love and hate are dealt with as fundamental human problems, and Crime and Punishment is no different.
At one level, it’s a psychological thriller concerning a man named Raskolnikov who murders an old woman. At another level, the novel is an analogy of sin, death, and resurrection. Some critics argue that Raskolnikov even contemplates the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Even though he’s murderer, he finds redemption through the patient love of a woman named Sonya and they’re both reborn spiritually. Having suffered for his crimes, he is finally released to Sonya. Tolstoy himself notes that their pale faces are, “full of resurrection into a new life”.
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Born to an aristocratic family, Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer who today is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. In 1884, Tolstoy wrote a book called What I Believe, in which he openly confessed his Christian beliefs. Other Spiritual Works of Leo Tolstoy are A Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You, Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, The Gospel in Brief and more: Nonviolent Gospel, and War and Peace.
War and Peace is one of Tolstoy’s religious works that specially focuses on resurrection theme. Prince Andrei (the main character of the novel) has everything. He is a handsome, rich man- but he is not happy. He realizes that he’s caught up in distractions and trivialities and so he decides to do something with his life. He joins the Russian army to seek greatness on the field of battle, but when he participates in the Battle of Austerlitz, he is gravely wounded. Lying on the battlefield gazing up at the sky, he has an epiphany. The only thing that will make him happy is love. Tolstoy connects this scene to the life after death and writes “Divine love cannot change. Nothing, not even death, can shatter it.” Andrei resurrects and lives a new life.
Source: Wikipedia, Apologia, Aleteia