Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England

by Timothy Larsen

Overview

The Victorian crisis of faith has dominated discussions of religion and the Victorians. Stories are frequently told of prominent Victorians such as George Eliot losing their faith. This crisis is presented as demonstrating the intellectual weakness of Christianity as it was assaulted by new lines of thought such as Darwinism and biblical criticism. This study serves as a corrective to that narrative. It focuses on freethinking and Secularist leaders who came to faith. As sceptics, they had imbibed all the latest ideas that seemed to undermine faith; nevertheless, they went on to experience a crisis of doubt, and then to defend in their writings and lectures the intellectual cogency of Christianity. The Victorian crisis of doubt was surprisingly large. Telling this story serves to restore its true proportion and to reveal the intellectual strength of faith in the nineteenth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199287871
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/18/2007
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.64(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Timothy Larsen is Professor of Theology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

Table of Contents

1. Crisis of Faith2. William Hone3. Frederic Rowland Young4. Thomas Cooper5. John Henry Gordon6. Joseph Barker7. John Bagnall Bebbington8. George Sexton9. How Many Reconverts Were There? 10. Crisis of Doubt

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating book."—John Wolffe, American Historical Review

"Crisis of Doubt is an impressively researched, clearly written, and forcefully, even polemically, argued work of scholarship. Larsen has amply demonstrated that at least among the plebian leaders of 19th-century secularism there was indeed a "crisis of doubt" to go alongside the more familiar meta-narrative of a "crisis of faith." —Books & Culture

"Well written and gently provocative... This book is an excellent and challenging addition to the literature on nineteenth-century religious thought and should lead on to further study." —Journal of Theological Studies

"Well-written and carefully argued." —Church History

From the Publisher