Bachelor of Arts

While the secularisation of Western society has led to the decline of the influence of Christianity, Christian ideas., images and beliefs continue to inform contemporary Western fiction. In the case of Franny and Zooey, concepts from Christianity were integrated with practices and ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism to form a new spirituality. Dune Messiah, on the other hand, uses Christian imagery to subvert the gospel story While Waiting for Godot disavows Christianity as a religion, it elevates and maintains Christianity as a text, using it as a primary anchoring thread in the play. The reinvention of Christianity in contemporary society is not new: similar reinterpretation has occurred throughout its history, ranging from the importing of the creation epic from Mesopotamia to the reformulation of Christian theology by Gnosticism. The reconstitution of Christianity is expected in a society where Christian ideas and images have exerted a prolonged and extensive influence and where society itself has changed with the influx of new perspectives and philosophies.