The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Christian Thought

Abstract

The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Christian Thought offers a comprehensive assessment of the various ways in which Christian thought has found expression -during the long nineteenth century; 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 nineteenth century was less a period of secularization than one of dynamic, innovative, and diverse transformations of Christian thought, even if these were often expressed in new, non-traditional, 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 nineteenth-century society and culture. Further sections of the Handbook provide overviews of confessional developments and more strictly theological ideas throughout the long nineteenth century. In this way, the Handbook provides a comprehensive and definitive overview of a field of study central to the work of theologians, scholars of religion and literature, historians, historians of art, philosophers, and anthropologists.