Crisis of Doubt Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England [Hardcover]

The Victorian crisis of faith has dominated discussions of religion and the Victorians. Stories are frequently told of prominent Victorians such as George Eliot losing their faith. This crisis is presented as demonstrating the intellectual weakness of Christianity as it was assaulted by new lines of thought such as Darwinism and biblical criticism. This study serves as a corrective to that narrative. It focuses on freethinking and Secularist leaders who came to faith. As sceptics, they had imbibed all the latest ideas that seemed to undermine faith; nevertheless, they went on to experience a crisis of doubt, and then to defend in their writings and lectures the intellectual cogency of Christianity. The Victorian crisis of doubt was surprisingly large. Telling this story serves to restore its true proportion and to reveal the intellectual strength of faith in the nineteenth century.

1. Crisis of Faith
2. William Hone
3. Frederic Rowland Young
4. Thomas Cooper
5. John Henry Gordon
6. Joseph Barker
7. John Bagnall Bebbington
8. George Sexton
9. How Many Reconverts Were There?
10. Crisis of Doubt

A fascinating book. --John Wolffe,American Historical Review

Crisis of Doubtis an impressively researched, clearly written, and forcefully, even polemically, argued work of scholarship. Larsen has amply demonstrated that at least among the plebian leaders of 19th-century secularism there was indeed a crisis of doubt to go alongside the more familiar meta-narrative of a crisis of faith. --Books & Culture

Well written and gently provocative... This book is an excellent and challenging addition to the literature on nineteenth-century religious thought and should lead on to further study. --Journal of Theological Studies

Crisis of Doubtis an impressively researched, clearly written, and forcefully, even polemically, argued work of scholarship. Larsen has amplÓ$