Moby dick calvinism

It seems that every time a writer picks up a pen or turns on his word processor to compose a literary work of fiction, deep in his bosom resides the hope that somehow he will create the Great American Novel. Too late. This novel, the one that has been unsurpassed by any other, is Moby Dick. Its greatness may be seen not in its sometimes cumbersome literary structure or its excursions into technicalia about the nature and function of whales cetology. No, its greatness is found in its unparalleled theological symbolism. This symbolism is sprinkled abundantly throughout the novel, particularly in the identities of certain individuals who are assigned biblical names.

Herman Melville, born on August 1, in New York City to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville - both came from distinguished and well-to-do American families [2] - had to face from his earliest days on and throughout his lifetime an America that was in a continuous state of religious upheaval and transition. During the early 19th century, two major religious forces caused the Christian community based on Jesus and his teachings to be the scene of constant debates. On the one extreme, there were the Unitarians who belonged to a Christian Church which rejected the doctrine of the Trinity — the Union of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in one God — but instead believed that God is only one person. On the other extreme, the Unitarians were opposed by conservative Calvinists who held a different interpretation of the moral relation between God and man. The Unitarians thought that God had endowed man with inherent rights that divine Providence would not violate, whereas the Calvinists believing in the predestination and personal election of each individual by God, thought that the Almighty ordained all sufferings and evils of life because he was rightly angered by the innate depravity of the human race that took its course with the fall of Adam. However, he became increasingly disenchanted, in particular during his first sea voyage in to Liverpool which was deemed a failure along with his subsequent voyages. As a consequence he began to doubt his Calvinist heritage, longing for a God that was more benevolent and a personal source of truth.