Religion in Good Omens. A Study of the Usage and Effect of Religion in the Comedic Fantasy Novel Good Omens

When analysing the fantasy novel Good Omens (1990) by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, one comes across various interesting features, most to do with its relationship with the source material, the Bible. As it is a fantasy novel, the authors have defined the Christian biblical elements as foreign and 'other', outside of the realm that is familiar and natural to the reader, and can thereby render both Heaven and Hell antagonistic. An important element of that is the morality of the central characters. Those of them that are human have free will, and are therefore in control of their own destiny and consequently can take responsibility for their actions. Thus the humans are moral creatures. On the other hand, the characters that belong to either the forces of Heaven or Hell, that is, angels or demons, have no free will, and are completely under the control of either God or Satan. Therefore Heaven and Hell are exempt from moral consequences. They have no free will, are not to blame for their actions, and therefore their actions can not be classified as morally good or bad. Furthermore, the story takes place in the last eleven years before the apocalypse, as told in Revelation, and therefore a number of biblical characters are included, such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Besides Revelation, Good Omens pays homage to two other chapters from the Bible, these being Genesis and the Gospels. This essay attempts to examine the influences of these biblical passages and look at their effects in correlation with the novel's themes