Comparison Of Herberg's Religiosity And Religion

Literature has many different purposes. Authors write about life lessons and the way of the World to reach their audiences and connect with them through people's life experiences. Some writings share a purpose while others do not. For example, William Herberg's "Religiosity and Religion", Langston Hughes's "Salvation", and Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation" all talk about the common misconceptions about God and religion. People misinterpret their relationship with God, God's purpose, and God's character in order to help their self-images and make them feel like better people.

First, people's impersonal relationships with God are seen in Herberg's "Religiosity and Religion" and Hughes's "Salvation". In Herberg's writing, he states, "The 'unknown God' of Americans seems to be a faith
Herberg defines these people's perception of God as someone who is "mobilized and made to serve man and his purposes" (Herberg 371) and, "God is conceived as man's 'omnipotent servant'"(Herberg 371), meaning that some people only turn to God when they need something or when they are asking for grace. Comparatively, In O'Connor's writing, she says, "If it's one thing I am...It's grateful. When I think who all I could have been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, 'Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way it is!' It could have been different!" (O'Connor 301). O'Connor's character constantly thanks God for her good disposition and is grateful for the wrong reasons. She personalizes God as someone who blesses her because he made her rich and attractive. She wants the God she serves to focus solely on outer, not inner, beauty so that she is worthy in God's eyes. Both of these stories center around how people personalize their "God" in order for him to fit their individual needs and