RELIGION AS VISIBLE IN LITERATURE: A STUDY OF THINGS FALL APART AND ARROW OF GOD

Nigeria, ID LLCE2015-138

Religion and spirituality has been commonly used interchangeably among people. Religion can be a set of worship or belief that is common to a set of people. Spirituality can be said to be a belief or worship but guided by a person’s intuition or sense. However, religion proposes spirituality as its watchword but being religious does not make one spiritual or vice versa. African writers to a large extent try to show that man’s activity is centered on his belief in something, whether his personal chi (god) or the one that Christians postulate. The whole affair of any individual in a traditional society is guided by his act of worship in which laws are derived. This is achieved by contrasting Traditional African Religion with Christianity.                                                                                                            

On this basis, it behoves me to explore how religion is seen in literature using Achebe’s works; Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God.