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Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England

Online ISBN:
9780191713422
Print ISBN:
9780199287871
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England

Timothy Larsen
Timothy Larsen
Professor of Theology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
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Published online:
1 January 2007
Published in print:
1 November 2006
Online ISBN:
9780191713422
Print ISBN:
9780199287871
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

For fifty years or more, a dominant motif in 19th-century British studies has been the Victorian crisis of faith or loss of faith. From Basil Willey to A. N. Wilson, books have been written that recounted the stories of Victorians who lost their faith. This narrative has become so ingrained that it is often the principal theme presented when religion in 19th-century Britain is discussed in general histories, textbooks, and literary studies. Serving as a corrective to that tired and overblown approach, this book uncovers a new pattern: the Victorian crisis of doubt. A whole succession of freethinking or Secularist leaders in 19th-century England reconverted back to Christianity, including figures well known in social, political, and literary studies such as the radical publisher William Hone and the Chartist Thomas Cooper. As sceptics, they had read, written about, and lectured on all the latest ideas that served to undermine faith such as biblical criticism and Darwinism. Nevertheless, they went on to judge that faith was more intellectually compelling than doubt, and to defend Christian thought in their writings, lectures, and public debates with Secularists. They held an honest faith to match the familiar theme of honest doubt. This was a deep crisis in the popular, freethinking movement: again and again leading Secularist lecturers and editors defected from the cause and re-emerged as able opponents. The book explores in detail their reasons for rejecting scepticism and their responses to the intellectual challenges to faith in their day. This study serves not only to correct an exaggerated emphasis on the Victorian crisis of faith, but also to reveal the intellectual strength of Christianity in the 19th century.

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