Tetralogy Of Rabbit And Transition Of Contemporary American Religious Belief

Tetralogy of Rabbit are the masterpieces of John Updike, a contemporary American writer. These four novels, published every ten years, realistically reflect the development of contemporary American religion from 1950s to 1980s. Holding his two religious views, i.e. absolute faith to God and secular humanistic solicitude, Updike consciously explores the development and future of mankind's religion through the characterization of the hero, Harry. Harry's religious belief undergoes the transformation from guarding God to doubting God, to discarding God against traditional faith, and finally to returning to God. It also reveals the transformation of American religion:from rescuing people spiritually to comforting people in vain, then to weakening of its functions, and to eventual revival. Besides, three priests'attitudes towards religion in the novels show the secularized tendency of American religion. Furthermore, it also reflects the embarrassing situation of American belief as well as the relations of ranging from opposition to unity between American religion and secular society. The development of contemporary American religion is in accord with that of American economy, culture, society and religion. And the prospect of religion is to integrate the sacred and the secular. Only by doing this, can religion tackle the crisis of belief.The thesis aims to expound how Updike reflects the transformation of American religion from 1950s-1980s and to reveal the reasons of the transformation by analyzing social background and the author's religious belief, which highlights two features of contemporary American religion:crisis of belief and religious secularization. This analysis of Rabbit Series under the background of the time not only indicates contemporary American religion belief and American culture, but also sheds light on studying the subject on transformation of spiritual belief along with social development. Introduction is a brief review of the relevant researches abroad and in China and an illustration of the necessity of this thesis.Chapter One gives a general introduction to the social background of Tetralogy of Rabbit in terms of economy, politics and religion respectively.Chapter Two analyzes the images of Harry and other characters in Rabbit Series to present the development of American religion in the 1950s-1980s.Chapter Three introduces the reasons of American religion transformation from three dimensions:the contradiction between economy and culture, the change of tension between religion and society as well as religion itself.Chapter Four expounds the influence of Updike's religious belief on the novels according to his religious faith:absolute faith to God and secular humanistic solicitude.Chapter Five, based on the above discussion, explores further the reflection of Tetralogy of Rabbit on contemporary American religious belief, showing that traditional religion in modern society gradually loses the original position and influence and crisis tends to exist in people's belief. The way to deal with the conflict between spiritual belief and secular society, is to seek convergence between the two and to take the road of secularization.The Conclusion discusses the significance and the practical value as well as the deficiencies in this research.