The Drama and the Bible
Abstract
The beginnings of the English drama were simple and beautiful indeed. After the conversion of Constantine under the early Roman Empire the Fathers of the early church found it necessary to condemn the bloody spectacles and cruel pantomines that had taken the place of the lofty types of tragedy and original comedies of the Greeks. So greatly were these dangerous performances frowned upon that for many years it seemed as if the for drama was to be destroyed for ever, for hundreds of years its history is all darkness with not a single play--to be performed by sectors before an audience--or the name of a single playwright recorded. The church, however, that had found it so expedient and wise to suppress the drama when it became perverted was the first to recognize the latent potency and appeal of histrionic taste and instinct, when the time arrived favorable to the use of such powerful instruments. The Latin Bible, being a closed book to the people at large, and the ritual beyond their com- prehension, the clergy during the Middle Ages faced the necessity of finding a means of presenting their doctrines and teachings in some appealing form to the unschooled mind.
Subject Area
Religious education|Religion
Recommended Citation
Shannon, Regina, "The Drama and the Bible" (1928). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI31189794.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI31189794
