Crisis Of Doubt Honest Faith In Nineteenthcentury England Timothy Larsen by Timothy Larsen 9780199287871, 9780199544035, 9781435622937, 0199287872, 0199544034, 1435622936 instant download after payment.

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.