Gaming

Sinclair Lewis’s God Seeker Is Even More Relevant Today Than Yours It Can’t Happen Here

Columnist Alice B. Lloyd, writing for The weekly standard, recently published an article on the revival of the popularity of the novel Can’t happen here by Sinclair Lewis. That 1944 book about the fictional election of a president who comes to rule the United States as dictator has been a best-seller since Donald Trump took office.

Rather than praise the importance of that book, Lloyd reveals in his column that he described Can’t happen here as one of Sinclair Lewis’ most disappointing endeavors. He admits that the Minnesota author, as well as the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, has at least four novels that are more relevant today than I am.It can’t happen here.

His classic about a small-town realtor in the fictional town of Zenith in Minnesota, a novel titled Babbitt after his main character, he is the first listed by Lloyd in his column. The next is Main Street, an early feminist account of the ambitious wife of a small-town doctor.

It is also included as a novel on Lloyd’s list. Dodsworth, which chronicles the troubled marriage and life adaptation of a retired auto mogul. The final novel centers on the hypocrisy of a traveling evangelist named Elmer Gantry, who became a popular movie starring Burt Lancaster as the main character.

The list omits an even better examination of religion in the United States, a novel called The god seeker. This virtually forgotten Sinclair Lewis book is set in America before the Civil War, but its message is quite relevant to the religious upheaval we are experiencing today.

Aaron Gadd is a teenager when the book is opened and works as a carpenter’s apprentice in a small town in New Jersey. After hearing from an evangelist at a revival, Aaron is convinced to join the man’s mission camp in the wilderness that would eventually become the state of Minnesota.

As missionaries are trying to bring the teachings of Jesus to the Sioux tribesmen on the plain, Aaron finally finds himself questioning the many inexplicable aspects at the heart of Christianity. Through his association with those he was supposed to convert, the young missionary learns to appreciate the faith of the Native Americans around him.

A member of the Dakota tribe named Black Wolf causes Gadd to consider some of the eccentric rituals of Christianity, which he says are more implausible than those involved in the worship of his people.

“Naturally, since we know that our God invades every inch of space, we don’t establish any place as sacred to him,” Black Wolf tells Aaron. “Christians do not dare to worship together unless they have built an isolated refuge from evil spirits, and they call this a church, a chapel or a temple.”

Aaron has to admit that worship should take place everywhere, just as the Dakota believe. He also doubts, once Black Wolf points it out, the Christian practice of setting aside Sunday for worship.

“Christians have a special day that is sacred to their main God, while for Indians every day, hour, minute is full of duty and gratitude to God,” Black Wolf tells Gadd. “His voice is in every breeze, in every flowing water, to be revered both Wednesday at midnight and Sunday at noon.”

Black Wolf also makes Aaron question the ritual of Christian marriages compared to those of the Dakota and other tribes, who are outraged by the pomposity of the wedding ceremony.

“The suggestive rites and horrible jokes of public marriage are the most horrible of all,” says Black Wolf of the typical Christian wedding. “Between us, Dakota, marriage is a strictly private matter between a man and a woman who run away for a time to consummate their marriage in view only of the stars and clouds.”

On The god seeker Sinclair Lewis has shown Americans that it is okay to question their faith from time to time and allow themselves to hear how they may be perceived by other cultures. With the religious and cultural divide among the citizens of the United States today, many of us could benefit from reading a 1949 book that, somewhat sadly, addresses many of the problems we have now.

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