Protestant Thought In The Nineteenth Century 1799 1870

A comprehensive account of the principal Protestant theological concerns and writers from 1870 to World War I. Welch discusses both major and minor thinkers, placing them within such overarching themes as the nature of faith and the relationship of church and society.

This comprehensive study analyzes the theological concerns of the major Protestant thinkers in Europe and the United States during the early part of the nineteenth century. The discussion ranges from such influential literary religious thinkers as Carlyle and Emerson to theological critics such as Feuerbach and Kierkegaard.

Offering a comprehensive assessment of the various ways in which Christian thought has found expression during the long 19th century, this handbook examines how it has been influenced by contemporaneous scientific, social, political, and cultural developments; and how it has in its turn impacted all areas of Western life and thought during this period. Its contributors accept that, contrary to earlier views, the 19th century was less a period of secularisation than one of dynamic, innovative, and diverse transformations of Christian thought, even if these were often expressed in new, and often controversial forms. Consequently, the volume starts with a section on 'paradigm shifts' underlying intellectual engagements with Christianity during the period, and proceeds to explorations of the role Christian thought played in various aspects of 19th-century society and culture.

This volume provides a critical examination of the lives and works of the leading novelists, poets, dramatists, artists, philosophers, social thinkers, mathematicians and scientists of the period. The subjects are assessed in the light of their cultural importance, and each entry is deliberately interpretative, making this work both an essential reference tool and an engaging collection of essays. Figures covered include: Marx, Wagner,Darwin, Malthus, Balzac, Jane Austen, Nietzsche, Babbage, Edgar Allan Poe, Ruskin, Schleiermacher, Herbert Spencer, Harriet Martineau and Oscar Wilde.