Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature

Recent scholarship in nineteenth-century literary studies consistently recognizes the profound importance of religion, even as it marginalizes the topic. There are few, if any, challenging yet manageable introductions to religion and literature in the long-nineteenth century, a factor that serves to fuel scholars' neglect of theological issues. This book aims to show how religion, specifically Christianity, is integral to the literature and culture of this period. Itprovides close readings of popular texts and integrates these with accessible explanations of complex religious ideas. Written by two scholars who have published widely on religion and literature, the book offers a detailed grounding in the main religious movements of the period 1750-1914. Thedominant traditions of High Anglicanism, Tractarianism, Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism are contextualized by preceding chapters addressing dissenting culture (primarily Presbyterianism, Methodism, Unitarianism and Quakerism), and the question of secularization is considered in the light of the diversity and capacity for renewal within the Christian faith. Throughout the book the authors untangle theological and church debates in a manner that highlights the privileged relationship betweenreligion and literature in the period. The book also gives readers a language to approach and articulate their own 'religious' readings of texts, texts that are often concerned with slippery subjects such as the divine, the non-material and the nature of religious experience. Refusing to shut downreligious debate by offering only narrow or fixed definitions of Christian traditions, the book also questions the demarcation of sacred material from secular, as well as connecting the vitality of religion in the period to a broader literary culture.

Knight and Mason capture the flavour of each individual text beautifully, serving to tantalise and encourage further reading rather than to frustrate, and their analysis is scholarly and suggestive. Although it is extremely selective, this is an excellent introduction to a broad and complex subject, and will provide interested readers with a solid starting point.

Emma Mason is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. She is the author of Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century (2005), and numerous articles on the relationship between religion and poetry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is also a coeditor of two forthcoming volumes on biblical hermeneutics: The Oxford Handbook to the Reception History of the Bible; and Blackwell'sCompanion to the Bible in English Literature.Mark Knight is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Roehampton University. He is the author of Chesterton and Evil (2004), author of an edition of Mary Cecil Hay's sensation novel Old Myddelton's Money (2004) and co-editor of Biblical Religion and the Novel, 1700-2000 (forthcoming, 2006). He has written a range of articles on religion and literature in the long-nineteenth century, and is currently working on a new book exploring sensation fiction,evangelicalism, and the mid-Victorian novel.