Dickinson-Dissertation-2018
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ABSTRACT Your Own Personal Jesus: Individualized Religious Sectarianism in the Mid-Victorian Novel Christian S. Dickinson, Ph.D. Mentor: Kristen A. Pond, Ph.D. This Dissertation explores four novels from the mid-nineteenth century, two of which are by canonical authors, Charles Dickens and George Eliot; two not as well known, Charles Kingsley and Charlotte Yonge. The nineteenth century, in particular the century’s central decades, was a time of great religious debate and division. Theological and popular elements within the Anglican Church sought to pull it in two different directions: The one towards the rights and practices of the Roman (Catholic) Church, the other towards the ‘Bibliocentric’ ideals of the Reformation. I argue that each of the novelists represented in this dissertation speaks to one of four divisions occurring within the Church at this period: High-Church Anglo-Catholicism (Charlotte Yonge), Broad- Church Christian Socialism (Charles Kingsley), Low-Church Evangelicalism (George Eliot), and ‘No-Church’ Protestant Dissent (Charles Dickens). Your Own Personal Jesus: Individualized Religious Sectarianism in the Mid-Victorian Novel by Christian S. Dickinson, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of English Kevin J. Gardner, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee Kristen A. Pond, Ph.D., Chairperson Joshua King, Ph.D. Dianna Vitanza, Ph.D. Natalie Carnes, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School December 2018 J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2018 by Christian S. Dickinson All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE. .................................................................................................................1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO ...............................................................................................................25 “Gleams from a Brighter World, Too Soon Eclipsed”: Charlotte Yonge’s Anglo-Catholic Reserve in The Heir of Redclyffe .................................................25 CHAPTER THREE ...........................................................................................................64 “A Crucified God”: Charles Kingsley’s Broad-Church Embodiment in Hypatia...............................................................................................................64 CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................................105 Making Christ Real: George Eliot’s Evangelical Sympathy in Adam Bede .......................................................................................................105 CHAPTER FIVE .............................................................................................................149 “Neither High-Church, Low-Church, nor No-Church”: Charles Dickens's Dissatisfaction and Dissent in Bleak House.........................................................149 CHAPTER SIX ................................................................................................................185 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................185 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................190 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank first and foremost my director, Dr. Kristen Pond. Her constant care and guidance has helped shape this project into what it is today. I could have never made it this far without her invaluable insight, knowledge of the field, and never-ending patience. I would also like to thank Dr. Joshua King, who first led me to the possibility of this topic with his wonderful work on the Anglican Church and poetry. Dr. King has been a constant source of encouragement, and his insight related to the religious culture of the Victorian Era has been absolutely invaluable. I would also like to thank Dr. Dianna Vitanza, whose course on the Victorian crisis of faith served as the genesis for many of the ideas in this dissertation, and Dr. Natalie Carnes, who came last minute from the religion department and gave some wonderful suggestions for the project. I would like to thank Dr. Joe Stubenrauch, who directed me to several sources that provided a much-needed foundation for an understanding of the historical framework for the sectarian-religious debate of the period. I would also like to thank Dr. Stubenrach for suggesting several much-needed revisions for my Introduction, without even being on my committee! Last but not least, I would like to thank Dr. Natalie McKnight, President of the Dickens Society, who helped me shape the fourth chapter of this dissertation into a publishable article. v DEDICATION To my parents, Edson and Donna Dickinson, without whose constant love and encouragement I could have never made it this far vi CHAPTER ONE Introduction The Victorian novel, perhaps much more than has been traditionally recognized by readers, is a medium that owes a great deal to the religious culture of the era in which it was produced. In fact, I would like to argue that the form of the novel itself, so important to the study of this genre, is in many ways tied to the religious beliefs of the era. An understanding of the religious belief of the period is crucial for a thorough understanding of the nineteenth-century novel, and we do a disservice to the proper study of this form by making religion a marginal concern. This being said, it is perhaps easy to understand why modern scholarship sees the religious culture of the Victorian period as marginal to other socio-cultural concerns of the novel genre. Traditionally, it was believed that the nineteenth century witnessed the rise of ‘secularization’, a cultural move away from Christianity in the English nation as a whole. Yet, recent historical and literary scholarship places true secularization as happening in, not the 1860’s, but the 1960’s.1 In other words, the Victorian Era remained a majority religious culture; secularization occurring in the late twentieth century. To put it even more simply (in terms of literary scholarship), Victorian novelists (even Eliot and Hardy) were the product of a religious culture; Victorian scholars the product of a secular. Since recent scholarship has addressed the existence of this divide between the sacred and the secular2, I will not give time to it here. I will simply reiterate what is, for my purposes, perhaps the most important result of this bifurcation: for many Victorians, 1 religion was the sacred foundation of identity rather than simply another piece of the puzzle3. Once this is understood, the approach to reading religion in the Victorian novel can become much more nuanced and complex. Recent scholarship has also made another important move in this direction by taking into account the multiplicity of sectarian belief systems that made the religious tapestry of Victorian England to be so richly patterned. However, before reviewing these sources, it may be helpful to orient my approach by giving a brief historical sketch of these religious divisions, and how each originated. We will begin with what we know: As the Protestant Reformation was sweeping Europe, Henry VIII made a decision that would forever alter religious history in the West. Separating from the Catholic Church in order to secure a divorce from his wife, King Henry declared himself head of the church in England. This move served for his own ends, as well as doing much to appease the growing Protestant fervor in the nation. When the dust settled, the newly-minted church retained some of the hierarchical and ceremonial trappings of Catholicism, while at the same time imbibing Protestant doctrine and practice. Forever after, the Anglican Church would be seen as the Via Media, a perfect ‘middle way’ between Catholicism and Protestantism; by this, King Henry hoped to please both himself—and everyone else. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Seeking to appease both sides, Henry only succeeded in making each angrier than before. Some thought the Anglican Church too Catholic, some too Protestant; as a result, factions within the church itself began to agitate for their own chosen sect. This is, essentially, the same battle that is occurring within the Church during the nineteenth century. One portion of the population seeks to promote Anglo-Catholicism, 2 another Anglo-Protestantism. However, the particularities of religious division in the nineteenth century itself stem from two important historical moments: Catholic Emancipation, and the Rise of Evangelical Dissent. On Friday the 13th of April 1829, the bill freeing Roman Catholics from their civil constraints was passed in the House of Lords. Three days later, King George IV signed it into law. The Emancipation itself seemed to many at the time the natural result of what was perhaps an even more monumental decision at the turn of the nineteenth century—establishing a political union with Ireland. Overnight,