This book is the study of a religious metaphor: the idea of God as
a mother, in British and US literature 1850–1915. It uncovers a
tradition of writers for whom divine motherhood embodied ideals
felt to be missing from the orthodox masculine deity. Elizabeth
Gaskell, Josephine Butler, George Macdonald, Frances Hodgson
Burnett and Charlotte Perkins Gilman independently reworked their
inherited faith to create a new symbol that better met their
religious needs, based on ideal Victorian notions of motherhood and
‘mother nature’. Divine motherhood signified compassion,
universal salvation and a realised gospel of social reform led
primarily by women to establish sympathetic community. Connected to
Victorian feminism, it gave authority to women’s voices and to
‘feminine’ cultural values in the public sphere. It represented
divine immanence within the world, often providing the grounds for
an ecological ethic, including human–animal fellowship. With
reference also to writers including Charlotte Brontë, Anna
Jameson, Charles Kingsley, Elizabeth Charles, Theodore Parker,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Baker Eddy and authors of literary
utopias, this book shows the extent of maternal theology in
Victorian thought and explores its cultural roots. The book reveals
a new way in which Victorian writers creatively negotiate between
religious tradition and modernity.
General
Imprint: |
Routledge
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Series: |
Among the Victorians and Modernists |
Release date: |
July 2023 |
First published: |
2023 |
Authors: |
Rebecca Styler
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
232 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-367-47363-1 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-367-47363-1 |
Barcode: |
9780367473631 |
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