People of One Book

Although the Victorians were awash in texts, the Bible was such a pervasive and dominant presence that they may fittingly be thought of as 'a people of one book'. They habitually read the Bible, quoted it, adopted its phraseology as their own, thought in its categories, and viewed their own lives and experiences through a scriptural lens. This astonishingly deep, relentless, and resonant engagement with the Bible was true across the religious spectrum fromCatholics to Unitarians and beyond. The scripture-saturated culture of nineteenth-century England is displayed by Timothy Larsen in a series of lively case studies of representative figures ranging from the Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry to the liberal Anglican pioneer of nursing Florence Nightingale to the Baptist preacher C. H. Spurgeon to the Jewish author Grace Aguilar. Even the agnostic man of science T. H. Huxley and the atheist leaders Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant were thoroughly and profoundly preoccupiedwith the Bible. Serving as a tour of the diversity and variety of nineteenth-century views, Larsen's study presents the distinctive beliefs and practices of all the major Victorian religious and sceptical traditions from Anglo-Catholics to the Salvation Army to Spiritualism, while simultaneously drawing out their common, shared culture as a people of one book.

Larsenâs careful research and accessible style will make this one of the classic works on the period for many years to come., This is a rich and thoroughly enjoyable book, A learned and engaging book., Another significant contribution to this field, Timothy Larsens learned A People of One Book: The Bible and the Victorians successfully demonstrates the diversity of the ways that Victorians thought about and interpreted the Scriptures., For demonstrating the surprising longevity and breadth of the Bibles cultural and linguistic influence, for its imaginative mapping of everyday Bible reading, and for introducing readers to a treasure trove of little-known primary sources, A People of One Book makes a significant contribution to the field.

Timothy Larsen is McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has been a Visiting Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books including Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England (Oxford University Press), which was named Book of the Year by Books & Culture.