Episode 67 - Shakespeare and Religion

Religion is always a touchy subject, but for most of the world today it's not nearly as dangerous a point of discussion as it was during Shakespeare's lifetime. Protestant and Catholic debates hadn't just destroyed previously unassailable assumptions on articles of faith, they'd led to war, religious persecution to the point of murder, and constant political and religious upheaval. While Shakespeare's time was one of relatively steady Protestant rule, the crises of the past hundred years hadn't disappeared magically upon Shakespeare's birth, and his plays reflect a conflicted mixture of religious viewpoints in the shape of his characters and the stories they live through. This episode we looked at the history of religion in England, and then how that history manifested in the plays.

Notes:

The video Lindsay references around anti-Judaism practices in Elizabethan England is a good watch!

The Folger Shakespeare Unlimited episode on religion is also a fabulous listen and we'd highly recommend it if we say anything remotely interesting.

As promised, Aidan quoted two scholarly articles, so here are the requisite MLA format citations for both:

Ribner, Irving. “SHAKESPEARE, CHRISTIANITY, AND THE PROBLEM OF BELIEF.” The Centennial Review, vol. 8, no. 1, Michigan State University Press, 1964, pp. 99–108, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23737596.

Hunt, Maurice. “VISIONARY CHRISTIANITY IN SHAKESPEARE’S LATE ROMANCES.” CLA Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, College Language Association, 2003, pp. 212–30, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44325209. 

Ancient Bickerings:

Which of Shakespeare's plays is his most religious?