Victorian Religious Discourse

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Framing Victorian Religious Discourse: An Introduction

   1. Framing Victorian Religious Discourse: An Introduction

      • Jude V. Nixon

      Pages 1-24

3. The Higher-Critical Debate

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. The Victorian Radicals: Time, Typology, and Ontology in Hopkins, Pusey, and Müller

      • Jerome Bump

      Pages 27-49

   3. “Kill[ing]Our Souls with Literalism”: Reading Essays and Reviews

      • Jude V. Nixon

      Pages 51-81

   4. Skeptical Women V. Honest Men V. Good Old Boys: Gender Conflict in the High Victorian Religion Wars

      • Janet L. Larson

      Pages 83-116

   5. “Decomposing” Texts: Browning’s Poetics and Higher-Critical Parody

      • Suzanne Bailey

      Pages 117-129

   6. “Our King Back, Oh, Upon English Souls!”: Swinburne, Hopkins, and the Politics of Religion

      • Renée V. Overholser

      Pages 131-153

4. Religion and the Aesthetic Imagination

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

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   2. Hearing Adventure: Giuseppe Caponsacchi, Browning’s “Hollow Rock”

      • Joseph A. Dupras

      Pages 157-173

   3. Faith, Romance, and Imagination: Newman the Storyteller

      • Bernadette Waterman Ward

      Pages 175-187

   4. A “Thousand Solaces” for the Modern Spirit: Walter Pater’s Religious Discourse

      • Lesley Higgins

      Pages 189-204

   5. “Amen in a Wrong Place”: Charles Dickens Imagines the Victorian Church

      • Natalie Bell Cole

      Pages 205-234

   6. “Poetry is Where God is”: The Importance of Christian Faith and Theology in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Life and Work

      • Alexandra M. B. Wörn

      Pages 235-252

5. Back Matter

   Pages 253-278

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This collection of essays attempts to address the disparate historical and critical ways religion informs the literature and culture of nineteenth century England, showing how a representative group of major Victorians negotiated its impact. The collection attempts to present Victorian religious discourse not as monologic but as dialogic, if not protean. It seeks to make available new understandings of nineteenth-century British literature as well as to elucidate the extent to which religious discourse is vested in Victorian cultural thoughts and practice.

• Charles Dickens
• culture
• English literature
• gender
• Imagination
• poetry
• time
• Victorian era
• British and Irish Literature

"Jude V. Nixon's collection of essays, Victorian Religious Discourse, is an up-to-date survey of scholarly work on Christian faith and doubt in nineteenth-century England. These essays demonstrate the centrality of Protestant faith and practice to English nationhood and personal identity. Combining studies of prose, poetry, and fiction by established and younger scholars, the book is crucial reading for critics and historians interested in Victorian religious culture." - Sue Zemka, Emory University

• Oakland University, USA

  Jude V. Nixon

JUDE NIXON is Director at the Honors College, Oakland University, USA. He is author of numerous books and articles.

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