Victorian Era Religion

English 2323
25 July 2011
Religion of the Victorian Era: Faith in Crisis

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness … it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”(Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

The Victorians had a society comparable to ours with an explosion of ideas and innovation. Today our American society is famous for being a “melting pot.” Each individual has a different background where they create ideas completely different from another’s. One most likely pictures a melting pot as a fusion of ideas mixing together. One may also see the conflicts our society’s opposing ideas have created and see confusion rather than fusion. The term Victorian
The growth of industry made towns larger and widened the gap between classes. In 1830 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened. This was the first steam-powered, public railway line in the world. Railway construction exploded and the train changed England’s landscape, brought cities closer together, and allowed commerce growth. The economic growth brought parliament reform (Christ, and Robson 982). Astronomers became able to gain knowledge of stellar distances which was also frightening to people who never pictured a universe so vast. Anxiety from new scientific theories such as Charles Darwin’s evolution out broke. This not only went against the Christian God creating the world in seven days but also stole man’s role in the world and purpose felt lost for many. John Fowles writes in the novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman, “By the 1860s the great iron structures of their philosophies, religions, and social stratifications were already beginning to look dangerously corroded to the more perspicacious” (Christ, and Robson, 987). This quote gives a great illustration of the feelings coming over the Victorian British society at the time. Their faith was being rocked by humans’ new ability to accomplish more things allowing some to feel stronger and no longer needing God. Science and new philosophical ideas shook everything they based their lives
Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Browning express their viewpoints through poetry. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In memoriam AHH expresses the change of the seasons and the celebration of Christian feasts starting with despair and growing with hope. Tennyson was moved to write this long religious poem because of the death in 1833 of his friend Arthur Hallam. The poem opens with the words “Strong Son of God, immortal Love,/ Whom we, that have not seen thy face,/ By faith alone, embrace,/Believing where we cannot prove;” (1-4)(Sanders, 140). This displays his feeling of God well. Although there is much going on in this time period, with scientific discoveries, humans growing stronger with their capabilities, along with the tragic death of his close friend Tennyson holds tight to his faith. Matthew Arnold spoke a different theme through his poetry; It was the questioning if the life in a modern industrial society had the capability to be full and enjoyable (Christ, and Robson 1350). Robert Browning came along later than Tennyson and Arnold but was seen as a mediator between the two poets to one group of readers. This group saw him as a great philosopher and religious teacher that dissolved the doubts. There was a second group of readers that appreciated him for his writing rather than the content (Christ, and Robson 1248). In An