Synopses & Reviews
Even in the industrial nineteenth century, age-old theological disagreements were the cause of religious and cultural conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. This book asks why these ancient divisions were so deep and have prevailed and how novelists and poets, theologians and preachers, historians and essayists reinterpreted the religious debates. Michael Wheeler explains how each side misunderstood the other's deeply held beliefs about history, authority, doctrine and spirituality, and, conversely, how these theological conflicts inspired creativity in the arts.
Synopsis
This wide-ranging, well-illustrated study explores how the ancient divisions between Catholics and Protestants continued in the Victorian age.
About the Author
Michael Wheeler is Visiting Professor at the Universities of Lancaster, Roehampton and Southampton, and Lay Canon of Winchester Cathedral.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: 'Papal aggression'; Part I. Bloody Histories: 2. On the origin of churches; 3. England drawn and quartered; 4. Jacobite claims and London mobs; Part II. Creeds and Crises: 5. The fortress of Christianity; 6. Out of the war of tongues; 7. Authority on the rocks; Part III. Cultural Spaces: 8. Maiden and mother; 9. Liberalism and dogma; 10. Painful epiphanies; Bibliography; Index.