Samuel Beckett's use of the bible and the responsibility of the reader

Spyridoula Athanasopoulou-Kypriou

pp. 63-72

in: Williams Ortiz Gaye, Clara B. Joseph (eds), Theology and literature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006

Abstract

Samuel Beckett's use of the Bible might seem quite inconsistent, ambiguous, and irresponsible, especially when seen from a Christian point of view, for the plethora of allusions and direct references to the Bible and to some Christian understandings of the concept of God along with his emphasis on nothingness and "mystical" silence are followed by parody and a tendency to reduce God, the divine, and religion in general to the level of the ludicrous. The fact that, on the one hand, Beckett uses the Bible and the Christian religious beliefs with which he is familiar and, on the other, he ridicules them, has caused much confusion among those critics who attempt to analyze his stance toward Christianity. Thus, on the one hand, there are critics who stress Beckett's negative attitude toward Christianity and, on the other, critics who actually believe that he has a positive attitude toward the Christian tradition. In this essay, I distance myself from the debate about Beckett's attitude toward the Bible and Christianity in general.

Cited authors

Beckett Samuel