“Christian Socialism and English Literature: Frederick Denison Maurice's Teaching of Shakespeare1”

Abstract

This article focuses on F. D. Maurice’s contribution to the development of Christian Socialism from a literary point of view by analysing the way his social readjustment of the doctrine of the Incarnation is reflected in his lectures on Shakespeare, first at King’s College and later at the Working Men’s College. To analyse this until now unexplored issue, the following paper will first focus on the underlying social principles of Maurice’s theology of the Incarnation; second, on the main lines supporting his educational method as a national and providentialist enterprise, and on how Maurice perceived English literature as essential in that national educational scheme; and third, on how his emphasis on the earthly, social, and material nature of the Incarnation, on a Godly order ruling society and the resulting notion of divine revelation and progress reveal themselves in his teaching of Shakespeare’s drama, especially of his history plays.