God and the Novel: Religion and Secularization
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GOD AND THE NOVEL: RELIGION AND SECULARIZATION IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICAN FICTION by KRISTIN JOY WILKES A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Kristin Joy Wilkes Title: God and the Novel: Religion and Secularization in Antebellum American Fiction This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: Henry Wonham Chairperson William Rossi Core Member Mary Wood Core Member Matthew Dennis Institutional Representative and J. Andrew Berglund Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2014 ii © 2014 Kristin Joy Wilkes iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Kristin Joy Wilkes Doctor of Philosophy Department of English December 2014 Title: God and the Novel: Religion and Secularization in Antebellum American Fiction My dissertation argues that the study of antebellum American religious novels is hindered by the secularization narrative, the widely held conviction that modernity entails the decline of religion. Because this narrative has been refuted by the growing field of secularization theory and because the novel is associated with modernity, the novel form must be reexamined. Specifically, I challenge the common definition of the novel as a secular form. By investigating novels by Lydia Maria Child, Susan Warner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Hannah Bond, I show that religion and the novel form are not opposed. In fact, scholars’ unexamined and unacknowledged definitions of religion and secularity cause imprecision. For example, the Marxist definition of religion as ideology causes misrepresentations of novels with evangelical purposes, such as Warner’s The Wide, Wide World and Bond’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative. Both novels feature protagonists who submit—one to patriarchy and the other to slavery—a stance that appears masochistic to feminist scholars and critics of slave narratives, respectively. However, attending to the biblical allusions, divine interventions, and theological arguments that saturate these texts places them in another framework altogether and reveals that they are commenting not on one’s relationship with other humans but with God. iv Likewise, unexamined definitions of the secular are problematic because critics often conflate two definitions: the etymological sense of “earthly” and the modern sense of “anti-religious.” This slippage underlies the view that religious literature of the nineteenth century became less religious, when it simply became more grounded in daily life. Therefore, to label as “secular” an author like Stowe, who promoted an earthly, lived Christianity, is only accurate if one means “mundane.” Finally, my dissertation demonstrates that literary criticism itself relies on the secularization narrative, perceiving itself as modern and progressive. This reliance obscures the role literature has played in constructing this narrative. For example, colonial novels like Hobomok and The Scarlet Letter rewrite American religious history to exclude Calvinism. Noting how our investment in secularity has delimited interpretive possibilities, this project opens the way for increased clarity in the study of religion in literature. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Kristin Joy Wilkes GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Regent College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy in English, 2014, University of Oregon Master of Arts in Theological Studies, 2010, Regent College Bachelor of Arts in English summa cum laude, 2004, Wheaton College AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Nineteenth-century American literature The novel and narrative theory Religion and literature Secularization theory PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Instructor, English Dept., University of Oregon, 2011-2013 and 2014 Instructor, English Dept., Pioneer Pacific College, 2011 Instructor, English Dept., Des Moines Area Community College, 2010 Writing Center Director, Regent College, 2008-2009 Teaching Assistant, Regent College, 2007-2008 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Harry Wonham for being a model of generosity and graciousness, to Bill Rossi for introducing me to secularization theory, to Mary Wood for her insightful criticism and excitement about my project, and to Matt Dennis for his cheerful encouragement. Thank you to my mom for reading all of my primary texts and chapter drafts, and thanks to my husband Jon for serving as both cheerleader and proofreader. Thank you to Alison Lau Stephens for making my research possible by being my library buddy 1. Finally, I extend gratitude to the scholars whose work helped me find a voice as a Christian academic, many of whom I quote in this project. This dissertation is intended as both an act of service to the scholarly community and an act of worship to God—a challenging combination, for reasons the project itself seeks to elucidate. I am grateful to these pathfinders for showing me the way. vii All the acts which I have done expressly to serve thee, and also all the acts which I believe to be neutral and purely human, and also all the acts which I know to be disobedience and sin, I put into thy hands, O God, my Lord and Savior; . use, cut, trim, reset, readjust, now that it is no longer I who can decide or know, now that what is done is done, what I have written I have written. It is thou that canst make a line true by taking it up into thy truth. -Jacques Ellul viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION: READING RELIGION IN THE SECULAR ACADEMY...... 1 Rationale: The Secular Novel and the Secularization Narrative ........................... 1 Methodology: Reading Religion............................................................................ 11 Results and Conclusion: Religion Matters............................................................. 17 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 24 II. THE MYTH OF THE VANISHING CALVINIST: THE SECULARIZATION NARRATIVE IN HOBOMOK .............................................................................. 26 Vanishing Indians and Vanishing Calvinists ......................................................... 29 Vanishing the Calvinist.......................................................................................... 37 The Light of American Progress............................................................................ 48 Recognizing the Myth............................................................................................ 58 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 64 III. THE BIBLICAL NOVEL: SUBMISSION AS FORM AND THEME IN THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD .................................................................................. 67 Submission as Form: Writing into the Bible’s Margins ........................................ 71 Submission as Theme: Creaturely Compliance ..................................................... 89 Defining Religion................................................................................................... 99 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 109 IV. NOVELISTIC THEOLOGY: THE MINISTER’S WOOING ................................ 112 Defining the Secular .............................................................................................. 113 Rhetorical Resources of the Romance Novel ........................................................ 123 Theology of the Bones........................................................................................... 139 ix Chapter Page The Secular Novel.................................................................................................. 145 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 152 V. THE PROVIDENTIAL PLOT: SLAVERY VERSUS CHRISTIANITY IN THE BONDWOMAN’S NARRATIVE .................................................................... 154 Slaveholding Religion Versus Slave Religion....................................................... 158 Servant of Christ .................................................................................................... 165 Bond’s Providential Plot........................................................................................ 174 Defining the Novel................................................................................................. 192 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 197 REFERENCES CITED................................................................................................ 200 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. John Gast, American Progress, 1872..................................................................... 56 2. Van Brunt calling the sheep. 1892 line drawing by Frederick Dielman from The Wide, Wide World ........................................................................................... 82 3. John instructing Ellen. 1892 line drawing by Frederick