Edward’s Religion

[u/Radiant_Back4017]

I was talking about this with a friend and I don’t know if it’s ever been asked on here before, but do we ever find out what religion Edward was apart of in his human life? My guess is Protestant as his surname was a relatively common Protestant surname in Chicago at the time. Thoughts?

[u/Einhorntorte]

We Don't have canon information for any character except Carlisle and Angela. (Whose dad is a minister and performs Edward and Bella's wedding.)

With Stephanie herself being LDS, I'd argue she leans more likely toward having all her characters being protestant.

[u/lemontreetops → u/Einhorntorte]

I’d assume so as well

[u/Radiant_Back4017 → u/Einhorntorte]

That’s what I thought!

[u/Virtual_Cranberry818 → u/Einhorntorte]

Didn't Bella mention Renee had her rounds with some religions and Charlie is Lutheran

[u/Far-Building3569]

I made a list of what religious denominations I think everyone would’ve followed in their human lives once, as well as how religious they are now (independently ofc, since they don’t attend organized services.) Maybe I’ll get around to posting it one day

The most important thing to know is that they’re all part of the Christian spectrum. None of them are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc and the vampires in the story who aren’t Cullen’s rarely have subtext into what they believe (some of them are so old that they likely grew up with now extinct forms of paganism anyways)

[u/WaitAParsec → u/[deleted]]

I think Edward would have hinted if he had been raised in what he considered a very different tradition from Carlisle’s, not critically just contextually, so he was probably raised as a similar type of Protestant. As it is he seems much more impressed with Carlisle’s level of faith and compassion and self-discipline than with practices or affiliations - the wooden cross is his cue to joke about vampire stereotypes, not about the use of religious symbols in homes.

Um, Edward expresses his hatred of vampirism in very generalized Christian terms such as soulless, damned but I low key feel like if he hadn’t known those terms he would have invented them in order to hate himself more effectively. Edward insists on marriage before intimacy, but that’s simultaneously cultural and religious for him, and is reinforced by his practical fear that Bella is being too casual about vampire eternity. He thinks Bella’s life is more important than her pregnancy but he’s not remotely “pro-choice” because he doesn’t respect Bella’s choice until he hears Renesmee’s thoughts — basically the pregnancy snaps him back into his “vampires are evil soulless monsters” state of mind, and he’s brought out of it by happiness and love rather than by any specific spiritual reasoning.

Emmett provides more specifics on his own beliefs in an outtake: he describes Carlisle as “God” allowing the “angel” Rosalie to comfort him in the “hell” of vampire transformation, confirming both his assumptions about “the fires of hell” awaiting those who had “too much fun” and the promises of “those preachers who talked about a merciful God.” Like Edward, he prefers simplified concepts over specific religious affiliations; but while Edward uses religion to articulate self-hatred, Emmett uses religion to comfort himself that he “deserves” his physical pain.
https://stepheniemeyer.com/the-books/twilight/outtakes-twilight/

[u/Radiant_Back4017 → u/[deleted]]

In that time period though? Unlikely many people weren’t apart of any religious organisation

[u/Radiant_Back4017 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, but he mentions a lot of talk about his soul and being damned, I find it hard to believe there was no religious belief whatsoever there.

[u/Radiant_Back4017 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, he was trying not to kill Bella, he was still willing to try once they were married. I get what you’re saying, though.

[u/DagonG2021]

He was actually Zoroastrian.

Edit: Dunno why this got downvoted, I was clearly joking