Christianity in Shakespear?

The Merchant of Venice starts out with Bassanio owing his dear friend Antonio money, and yet needing more. Antonio is more than willing to help his friend, and replies thus,
"...within the eye of honor, be assured my purse, my person, my extremest means lie all unlocked to your occasions." (Act. 1, sc. 1)
To me this shows the extremely loyal friend that Antonio is, and honestly reminds me of Jesus Christ.
He is called "my best, my Heavenly Friend" in the humn "Be Still My Soul". Christ is our advocate. He offered up everything to ransom us from sin, even His mortal person, as he suffered in Gethsemane and hung and died for us on the Cross at Golgotha.

On that note (punny :), I was also thinking that if Antonio was reflective of Christ, than Bassanio might represent us. In fact his has a righteous attitude of gratitude and humility, and therefore can be linked to how we are completely dependent on Christ.
Bassanio says, "Nor do I now make moan to be abridged for such a noble rate, but my chief care is to come fairly off from the great debts wherein my time something too prodigal hath left me gaged. To you Antonio I owe the most in money and love, and from your love I have a warranty to unburthen all my plots and purposes how to get clear of all the debts I owe."
Shakespeare's use of the word "prodigal" also points in that direction because it makes me think of the parable of the Prodigal Son. This parable is of course representative of our debt to Christ. We cannot, return to live with Heavenly Father by ourselves because we all sin and are unfit for Heaven. It is here that Jesus Christ steps in and takes upon Himself all imperfections and makes us whole if we repent. It is through Him that we can return and live with our Heavenly Father, if we repent.

This is also reflected in another hymn I Stand All Amazed
This is how I have begun to wonder if Shakespeare was Christian, or maybe I am just reading into the characters and lines a little bit and have seen something that he didn't even intend. Maybe that's why they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".