Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-277) and index
"This is the first full-length study of religion in the fiction of the Brontes. Drawing on extensive knowledge of the Anglican church in the nineteenth century, Marianne Thormahlen shows how the Brontes' familiarity with the contemporary debates on doctrinal, ethical and ecclesiastical issues informs their novels. The analyses of the novels clarify the constant interplay of human and Divine love in their development. While demonstrating that the Brontes' fiction usually reflects the basic tenets of Evangelical Anglicanism, the book emphasises the characteristic spiritual freedom and audacity of the Brontes."--Jacket
I. Denominations. A Christian home in early nineteenth-century England: Evangelicalism, Dissent and the Bronte family. Charlotte Bronte and the Church of Rome. An undenominational temper -- II. Doctrines. The Brontes in the theological landscape of their time. God and his creation. Faith and redemption. This life and the next -- III. Ethics. Forgiveness and revenge. The Christian life -- IV. Clerics. Clergymen in the Bronte novels. The enigma of St. John Rivers
