Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a timeless story about apocalyptic cycles, conflicts and similarities between religion and science, religious ethics and secular ethics, sin and redemption, myth and preternatural innocence. Canticle is a very religious story about a monastery dedicated to preserving scientific knowledge from the time before nuclear war which devastated the world and reduced humanity to a pre-technological civilization. The Catholic Church and this monastery are portrayed as a bastion of civilization amidst barbarians and a light of faith amidst atheism. Unfortunately, humanity destroys the Earth once again, but Miller ends with two beacons of hope: a starship headed for the unknown to help humanity begin again and the preternaturally innocent Rachel who portends a future for similarly innocent human beings repopulating the Earth. Thus, faith ultimately triumphs over atheism even in the midst of almost total catastrophe.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GEORGIA/oai:digitalarchive.gsu.edu:english_theses-1009 |
Date | 12 June 2006 |
Creators | Smith, Cynthia M. |
Publisher | Digital Archive @ GSU |
Source Sets | Georgia State University |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | English Theses |
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