Discuss how religion was a theme in Uncle Tom's Cabin. This is in reference to the book Mightier Than the Sword by Reynolds.

In Mightier Than the Sword, Reynolds makes the point that Uncle Tom's Cabincontains a great number of references to Catholic rituals (page 31). For example, in the novel, Eva owns many icons, including angels and statues of Jesus. However, Reynolds notes that Harriet Beecher Stowe herself was anti-Catholic and disliked the idea of a priest working as an intermediary between people and God. Instead, Stowe was inspired by the ideas of the Second...

In Mightier Than the Sword, Reynolds makes the point that Uncle Tom's Cabin contains a great number of references to Catholic rituals (page 31). For example, in the novel, Eva owns many icons, including angels and statues of Jesus. However, Reynolds notes that Harriet Beecher Stowe herself was anti-Catholic and disliked the idea of a priest working as an intermediary between people and God. Instead, Stowe was inspired by the ideas of the Second Great Awakening, including the idea that God spoke directly through people. Stowe believed that God's love could be brought to earth and work through people. She also believed, contrary to many people of her time, that African-American people could be good Christians and that the Christian cause should align with abolitionism. Christianity, thought Stowe, could redeem a society that had gone horribly wrong in its countenance of slavery. 

Stowe identified with oppressed people in society, including children and slaves--the two main characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Both Tom, a slave, and Eva, a child, are Christ-like figures who are what Reynolds calls the "centers of religious authority" in the novel (page 35). Stowe regarded simplicity as holy, and she had a pictorial, visionary approach to religion in which God has a loving bond with people. These religious ideas are embodied in Eva and Tom. When Eva is close to death, for example, she assures Tom that she will reunited with God in a loving way. Tom and Eva are so loving towards people around them that they also bring about their conversions. For example, Eva is able to convert the slave girl Topsy, and Eva is a type of Christ figure. Stowe's characters show the type of power that she felt Christianity could have to redeem society.