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1.2 Brief introduction of Catholic Christianity
Catholic Christianity is one of the three major denominations, formally known as the Catholic or the Catholic Church. There are many tenets and rules in the Catholic Church. If a person wants to be a sincere Catholic, he has to follow these rules and tenets. They should adore the Lord over all and not call God’s name to make a false oath. As children, they should respect parents. If they want to get married, they should marry a Catholic too. If your partner is not a Catholic, he or she needs to convert. And for the followers, it is not allowed to porce or abort. They should not have some dirty thought like lust, greed and so on. Asceticism and clerical celibacy is the tradition of the Catholic Church, and it has been established since the early Middle Ages. Over a thousand years, world twists and marshes, but these iron rules are still maintained by the Catholic Church.
1.3 Social Background
After the WWII, British social and political situations have fluctuated. The British Labor Party and the Conservative Party take turns to come into power. “From 1940 to 1970, the Labor Party has set off two climaxes of nationalization. And its policies of high taxes and high welfare have made the problem worse”（Li Ling,2011:63）. Because of the economic stagnation and the serious inflation, British’s economic status has been declining. However, unlike the economical depression of UK, USA is booming. Americans enjoy an unprecedented prosperous material life which made the British people begin to think whether Catholicism has refined the development of UK and whether it’s the time to find more open and free ideology.文献综述
At the same time, social reform and Cultural Revolution in Western Europe and North America have greatly impacted people’s religious beliefs and changed people’s view of the world. Under the circumstances, those outdated creeds passed on from the Victoria Age began to face many kinds of challenges and finally collapsed as time goes on. That is why the characters of Paradise News, even the main character Bernard who once was a priest, show a strong interest in the secular life and prefer to enjoy the material life rather than control themselves and focusing on the Catholic.
1.4 Lodge’s unique attributes to Catholic Novels
In the traditional Catholic novels, religion is always described as a shelter to shield believers from the sin. And it’s inevitable to show some pessimistic attitudes by representing the religions inability in confront with the influence from secular and material world. However, in Lodge’s works, he shows a more rational and optimistic attitude to religion. Lodge’s ideas of the religion conveyed from the text are the rational transformation of religious teachings. Take Ursula for example. She suffered a lot from the religion, but after she accepts the transformation of her faith, she gains the peace of mind, which shows that religion still has an optimistic effect on the secular.
Rocky said in the preface of The British Museum is Falling Down that he likes to write “in the comic mode” (David Lodge, 1967:2). And he insisted that the aim of the novels was not to focus on the fierce crusade against Catholics Catholic, but on evoking non-Catholics and non-Christian Catholics reader's interest, compassion, and universal thinking of religion and humanity.
Hence, the main characters in Lodge’s novels always get some kind of “flying cross blessing” at a critical moment to get rid of the present difficulties, to break free of the fetters of doom. For example, Bernard got rid of the entire physical and psychological crisis by inheriting a fortune. Lodge’s novel is always showing a kind of optimism rather than an utter hopelessness to the reality, regardless of religion or the characters’ fortune, which gives the reader a sense of vista. His novels are always full of the well-intentioned mockery.