The myth of a secular Shakespeare is a fallacy foisted on us by an unbelieving age. Before we look at the play, we need to consider the cultural milieu in which Shakespeare lived. Shakespeare's England was a thoroughly Christian and Protestant society. The Bible was the best-selling book. Regular church attendance was mandatory (and there are no parish or civil records that suggest Shakespeare was found guilty of nonattendance). Shakespeare was baptized in the local Anglican church. Upon his retirement he became a lay rector (also called a lay reader) in that same church. When he died he was buried inside the church (not the surrounding cemetery). All of this should predispose us to expect Christian elements in Shakespeare's plays.
One evidence of this pervasive Christianity in Shakespeare's plays is the abundance of biblical allusions and echoes. At least two thousand biblical references exist, and additional biblical parallels and subtexts keep surfacing. Additionally, the plays assume the same kind of reality that the Bible does with such Christian beliefs as the existence of God and Satan, heaven and hell, good and evil, and punishment for sin and reward for virtue. There is nothing in Shakespeare's plays that show skepticism about the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Storytellers show their intellectual allegiance by means of the world they create within their stories; the world of Shakespeare's play is a thoroughly Christian world (as well as classical).
Moreover, with regard specifically to the play Hamlet, Ryland contends that the "leading ideas in Hamlet" are "entirely congruent with Christianity."
All of what Ryland says about the "pervasive Christianity" in Shakespeare's works is quite compelling, yet as a reader of Shakespeare's plays (first as a student and later as a teacher), there is at least one element that appears in a number of the plays that I find rather incongruent with Christian teaching. In Ephesians 5:3-4, the Apostle Paul warns: "...among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving" (English Standard Version). Nevertheless, in at least several of Shakespeare's plays that I have read I have noticed examples of exactly the kind of "course joking" that Paul warns Christians against.
For example, in Act II, Scene 2 of Hamlet there is a conversation between Hamlet and his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Near the beginning of their conversation (lines 221-233), Guildenstern remarks that he and Rosencrantz are the mere "privates" of Fortune. As the Penguin Shakespeare edition of Hamlet notes (footnote, p. 74): Shakespeare used the word "privates" in this context to mean both "ordinary men in private, not public, life" and "'private parts'"--an obvious double entendre.
This sort of sexual innuendo seems to occur with some frequency in Shakespeare's plays, and it seems impossible to reconcile with Paul's admonition for Christians to refrain from "coarse joking." Moreover, it can hardly be pleaded that such passages are necessary for the action of the plays in which they appear. Thus, it is difficult not to conclude that Shakespeare included them simply for the sake of eliciting laughter from his audience. Of course, the Elizabethans often had a very ribald sense of humor, so, to some extent, Shakespeare was only reflecting his times. Nevertheless, it seems to me that this does not excuse Shakespeare for indulging in such language.
To conclude, does the presence of "coarse joking" in his plays undermine the case for Shakespeare as a Christian author? I would say: not necessarily, but it does at least show that--if Shakespeare was truly a Christian--he sometimes did fall short as a believer. In that, he would have been no different from all Christians throughout time, including myself. Moreover, even if Shakespeare himself was not a genuine believer, his plays--as Ryland points out--are generally grounded in a Christian worldview, and on the whole remain worth reading by Christian readers--but with discernment.
Image of Shakespeare from Wikimedia Commons