Superb! I read Jane Eyre last year and remember hearing all these people speaking of it as an anti-christian feminist awakening and I could not remotely understand this interpretation given the overt and powerful christian passages throughout. Your writing is providentially well timed too. As I will be discussing Jane Eyre this summer with my faith and culture group! Thank you for helping draw out clearly many of the Christian themes running throughout.
as an aside to your aside "...(This passage clearly notes that sexual promiscuity has historically been a privilege of the rich.)....": rich men, not so much (rich) women. but that's another discussion altogether ;-))
It does seem to me that the brand of Christianity in the book is pretty far the traditional versions of Catholicism, Presbyterianism, etc.
As I recall from my first (none-too-pleasurable) reading last year, the first representative of religion one meets in the book is a hypocritical cleric who preaches the orthodox dogma of damnation, but lacks any trace of charity. Further along, the saintly Helen Burns is a schoolmate of Jane's who espouses the heresy of universalism. The romantic message is clear: religion is primarily a matter of the heart, not something clearly revealed, and certainly not something institutional.
I must admit, I prefer Jane Austen.
Note also that Jane makes the decision to marry Rochester after listening to an "inner voice." I think I agree with your statement; the proto-feminist reading is overblown to some degree. But the Christianity in the novel is a highly Romantic (interior, even dis-incarnate) version; one that is reflected in the well-nigh anti-Austenite marriage that ends the novel.
Brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed reading one of my favorite novels again through your brilliant perspective. The last time I read it, I picked up Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys for a post colonial take. That broadened my view even more.
I guess some people think like lawyers in that if they hear someone point out a flaw, contradiction, and/or limitation in something then that can only mean that you must reject out of hand everything that the "something" is or represents.
Certainly I lament that one of the Crusades sacked Constantinople, Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, and other instances of hypocrisy - though I do applaud and contribute to the charity work of various churches - but that doesn't "destroy" Christianity as a faith. No more that a broken ATM "destroys" a bank. [Hmm given what's happened to the Barings, Signature and Silicon Valley banks maybe I should stay away from bank analogies.]
Superb! I read Jane Eyre last year and remember hearing all these people speaking of it as an anti-christian feminist awakening and I could not remotely understand this interpretation given the overt and powerful christian passages throughout. Your writing is providentially well timed too. As I will be discussing Jane Eyre this summer with my faith and culture group! Thank you for helping draw out clearly many of the Christian themes running throughout.
as an aside to your aside "...(This passage clearly notes that sexual promiscuity has historically been a privilege of the rich.)....": rich men, not so much (rich) women. but that's another discussion altogether ;-))
An interesting and well-written piece.
It does seem to me that the brand of Christianity in the book is pretty far the traditional versions of Catholicism, Presbyterianism, etc.
As I recall from my first (none-too-pleasurable) reading last year, the first representative of religion one meets in the book is a hypocritical cleric who preaches the orthodox dogma of damnation, but lacks any trace of charity. Further along, the saintly Helen Burns is a schoolmate of Jane's who espouses the heresy of universalism. The romantic message is clear: religion is primarily a matter of the heart, not something clearly revealed, and certainly not something institutional.
I must admit, I prefer Jane Austen.
Note also that Jane makes the decision to marry Rochester after listening to an "inner voice." I think I agree with your statement; the proto-feminist reading is overblown to some degree. But the Christianity in the novel is a highly Romantic (interior, even dis-incarnate) version; one that is reflected in the well-nigh anti-Austenite marriage that ends the novel.
Thank you for a thought-provoking read.
Brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed reading one of my favorite novels again through your brilliant perspective. The last time I read it, I picked up Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys for a post colonial take. That broadened my view even more.
I guess some people think like lawyers in that if they hear someone point out a flaw, contradiction, and/or limitation in something then that can only mean that you must reject out of hand everything that the "something" is or represents.
Certainly I lament that one of the Crusades sacked Constantinople, Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, and other instances of hypocrisy - though I do applaud and contribute to the charity work of various churches - but that doesn't "destroy" Christianity as a faith. No more that a broken ATM "destroys" a bank. [Hmm given what's happened to the Barings, Signature and Silicon Valley banks maybe I should stay away from bank analogies.]
Have you read Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair? It’s fantastic.