This presentation explains the history behind the banning religious titles from libraries and schools as part of the Banned Books week digital presentation from Christina Van Amerogen's LIT2000 Class

1. Religious Banned Books
A presentation by: Amelia Wagner, Mayelin Montero, Shayla Robinson, Doratea Keith, Jorge Ortiz-Saucedo
Fall 2020 Disclaimer* all images are taken from Google

2. What does it mean when a book is religiously
banned?

3. Books may be banned or censored on a
religious basis for many reasons. When a
book is banned, a group of people are calling
for the removal of the book from places such
as schools, libraries, etc.
Below are a few reasons why a book might be
religiously banned.
• Blasphemous dialogue
• Unpopular religious views
• Unpopular religious content or opinions
• Contains witchcraft or satanic themes
• Excessive violence or sins containing
deity

4. The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis Book Summary
The Last Temptation of Christ, written by
Nikos Kazantzakis, was originally published in
1953 by the Greek publisher Athenai.
The 33 chapters of this book depict an all
too human version of Jesus Christ. He is a
normal human like the rest of the world,
that struggles with emotions like fear, pain,
temptation, and death.
Towards the end Jesus then realizes that his
marriage and children was all an illusion sent
by the Devil to deter Jesus from his chosen
path. He also realizes that he has not
betrayed anyone and that everything has
turned out as it should.

5. Why was it religiously banned?
Kazantzakis’s unorthodox portrait of Jesus was
to make him more humanlike and more
understandable to those of the 20th century.
However, his book led the Eastern Orthodox
Church to excommunicate Kazantzakis in 1954
and for the book to be called blasphemous by
others.
The Catholic Church put the book on their lists
of Forbidden Books. Kazantzakis was
disconcerted by all the criticism.
Although when it first came out the novel was
highly rejected, it soon became popular in many
countries. There was a movie adaptation of the
book made in 1988.

6. The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Offred is captured and she was sent to the Red Center. Women were indoctrinated into
Gilead’s preparation for becoming Handmaids
- Aunt Lydia supervised the women, giving speeches for Gilead’s beliefs that women should
be subservient to men and solely concerned with bearing children.
- Once assigned to the Commander’s house, Offred’s life settles into a routine. She must visit
the doctor frequently to be checked for disease and other complications, and she must
endure the Ceremony, in which the Commander reads to the household from the Bible, then
goes to the bedroom, where his Wife and Offred wait for him, and has sex with Offred.
- Offred sees a black van from the Eyes approach. Then Nick comes in and tells her that the
Eyes are really Mayday members who have come to save her. Offred leaves with them,
over the Commander’s futile objections, on her way either to prison or to freedom.

7. Why was is religiously banned?
- Handmaids Tale was, and is, banned because people said it was anti-
Christian, certain terms that they would use when greeting each other and
making it seem like the torture that the women endured was God’s plan for
humans.
- The book encouraged brainwashed acts and made them seem as if they
were acceptable, such as rape and beating someone with rocks.
- Even when the unthinkable was done, the book made it seem as if it was
an ordinary thing.
Is it still banned?
- The Handmaids Tale is still banned and known for having profanity,
sexual overtones, and going against the true beliefs of Christianity.
- Parents find it to be troublesome to their children and refuse for them
to read it.

8. The Witches by Ronald Dahl
Summary
The Witches by Ronald Dahl is a story about a young child who lost his
parents and seems to be surrounded by misfortune.
The story follows a child and his experiences from living with his
grandmother to meeting the witches themselves.
The Witches tells of the child eventually meeting the Grand High Witch,
defeating her inevitably, but still becoming a mouse.
The witches, although seemingly normal people, are very powerful and have
a hatred for children that can turn children into mice.

9. Why was it religiously
banned?
Summary
Ronald Dahl, author of many children's classics, has had many
of his novels banned due to the darkness in the main themes of
his novels. The Witches, although dark in concept, was
inevitably banned due to the misogynistic ideas that only
women are witches and the lack of value for a child's life.
The story was banned between 1990 and 1999 for issues such
as crude language and much larger issues such as religious
depiction. Some communities felt as though the tale was
pushing forward the idea that witchcraft was the superior faith
and that it was pushing young girls and women into it, instead
of them focusing on their original faith.
Most religious children are held at a praised level due to their
innocence and witchcraft is pushed away due to it seeming to
be the “devils work.”

10. The Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
Summary
Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations
evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural
selection.
The book presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life
arose by common descent through a branching pattern of
evolution.
It was his idea of how animals evolved and became what they are
now and the more in depth investigates the past allowed for
interesting studies to be made.

11. Why was is
religiously
banned?
The book was banned in some
countries in the 20th century,
Darwin believed that evolution
was right while the theory of
Creation was wrong, given that
there were many religious
people during his time, it had a
large effect on the public as a
result of his book.
The book was a giant step for
science to disprove religion. As
such, the book was banned for
being against the idea that God
created the creatures, land, or
earth to be the way it is.
Given the rivalry between
science and religion it was
bound to meet some
controversy.

12. Works Cited
Banned Library. “The Witches by Roald Dahl.” Banned Library, Banned Library, 21 Feb. 2016,
Banned books 2020 - the handmaid’s tale - Marshall libraries. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2020, from Marshall.edu website: https://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/the-handmaids-
tale/. Accessed 14 Sept. 2020.
"Banned Books: Reasons for Banning Books." Butler University, 9 Sept. 2020, https://libguides.butler.edu/bannedbooks?p=217686. Accessed 14 Sept. 2020.
Darren J. N. Middleton. Scandalizing Jesus? : Kazantzakis’s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years On. Continuum, 2005. Academic Search Complete,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=nlebk&AN=226736&site=ehost-live. Accessed 14 Sept. 2020.
Hesse, M. (2017, April 24). ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has been feared, banned and loved. Now it’s scaring the bejeezus out of us again. Washington Post (Washington, D.C.: 1974). Retrieved
September 9,2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-handmaids-tale-has-been-feared-banned-and-loved-now-its-gotten-under-our-skin-
again/2017/04/24/6aefc398-246e-11e7-b503-9d616bd5a305_story.html. Accessed 14 Sept. 2020.
Karoldes, Nicholas J., et al. 120 Banned Books. New York, Checkmark books, 2011.
https://wcbannedbooks.weebly.com/the-origin-of-species-charles-
darwin.html#:~:text=The%20Origin%20of%20Species%20is,naturalist%20from%20the%2019th%20century.&text=This%20book%20was%20banned%20because
,and%20was%20thought%20as%20blasphemy. Accessed 9 Sep. 2020.
Streeck, Wolfgang. “From Speciation to Specialization: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin.” Social Research, vol. 85, no. 3, Fall 2018, pp. 661–685.
Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=a9h&AN=132866174&site=ehost-live. Accessed 10 Sep. 2020