Dickens, Christianity and 'The Life of Our Lord': Humble Veneration, Profound Conviction [Hardcover]

While Dickens's religion and religious thought is recognized as a significant component of his work, no study of Dickens's religion has carefully considered his often ignored, yet crucially relevant, The Life of Our Lord.
Written by a biblical studies scholar, this study brings the insights of a theological approach to bear on The Life of Our Lord and on Dickens's other writing. Colledge argues that Dickens intended The Life Of Our Lord as a serious and deliberate expression of his religious thought and his understanding of Christianity based on evidences for his reasons for writing, what he reveals, and the unique genre in which he writes.
Using The Life of Our Lord as a definitive source for our understanding of Dickens's Christian worldview, the book explores Dickens's Christian voice in his fiction, journalism, and letters. As it seeks to situate him in the context of nineteenth-century popular religion-including his interest in Unitarianism-this study presents fresh insight into his churchmanship and reminds us, as Orwell observed, that Dickens was always preaching a sermon .

The Life of our Lord is a life of Jesus written by Dickens for his children in the 1840s but not published intil 1934. This is the first major study to carefully and seriously consider the work and its place in the Dickens corpus.This volume is a delightful and accessible read that brings a fresh perspective to one of the most beloved and researched figures of Western literature. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Dickens or popular Christianity in late Victorian England. Caroline Hamilton-Arnold, Claremont School of Theology,Religious Studies Review

Preface
A Note on References and Abbreviations
Chapter the First: An Easy Version of the New Testament
Chapter the Second: Telling the Gracious and Compassionate History
Chapter the Third: The Eternal Majesty of Heaven
Chapter the Fourth: Where the Two Ends of Life Meet
Chapter the Fifth: lÓ.