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THE CRISIS OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AS A REFLECTION OF GLOBALIZATION PROCESSES IN THE NOVEL BY WILLIAM PAUL YOUNG “THE SHACK” // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2018. Issue 6 (195). P. 153-157

In modern literary studies in the context of globalization processes “mass culture” is less criticized as something “low” in relation to “elite”. Mass literature claims equal rights with any other literature in connection with the latest discourse of relativism and pluralism, when there is no consistent hierarchy of literary values. Moreover, popular literature increasingly becoming better and more inventive. However, these processes also lead to the erasure of cultural identity, in particular national and religious, as shown in the article on the example of the Christian novel by William Paul Young “The Shack”. The novel significantly deviates from the norms of the biblical Canon in matters of the value of the Church, Scripture, the image of God, the concept of hierarchy, and this deviation is associated with such global processes as multiculturalism, democracy, individualism, liberalism, etc. For example, instead of addressing the Church and the Bible, the main character receives a note from God for a personal audience, during which God appears before him in the image of a large black woman. The mass popularity of the novel around the world testifies to the crisis of modern religious identity, as it is positioned as a Christian, and in fact is heretical.

Keywords: globalization, multiculturalism, religious identity, Christian novel, William Paul Young