John Updike - Longing for Lutheranism?

A great American Novelist died yesterday, John Updike. I have enjoyed many of his works, particularly the "Rabbit" series. The protagonist is "Rabbit" Angstrom. OK, so Updike does kind of hit you over the head with the character's unimportance. The pastor of his youth was the German Pastor Kruppenbach. And how do you resolve the military Germany (Krupp) with the artistic (Bach)? Anyway, aside from the names, I followed "Rabbit"'s angst (Quit it!) through the subsequent novels. I was struck by the longing of Rabbit for the certainty of the Pennsylvania Lutheran faith of his youth. For Updike, it seems, the modern person abandons faith as prerequisite for realism, but then longs for something, for the assurance and hope that has also been abandoned. In "Rabbit Is Rich" (I think.), Rabbit listens to the church bells on Sunday, and you can almost feel his desire to go across the street and reenter that childhood faith. I think Updike was on to something there. How many people share that longing for something outside their pursuit of success, wealth, personal fulfillment? How can they cross the street and reenter the world of the holy?