The Bible and Belief in Victorian Britain

Abstract

This article is written in opposition to an exaggerated emphasis on the Victorian loss of faith. Organized atheism is actually always a sign of the vitality of religious faith. The very sceptical books and organizations which scholars point to in order to show that faith was on the decline are actually evidence that contemporaries recognized that it was robust. Faith is the norming factor in Victorian thought and therefore even unbelievers found themselves working within a conversation in which the terms were overwhelmingly set by the Christian faith. This article will demonstrate this claim by showing how pervasive the presence of the Bible was in the words, arguments, and very thought patterns even of those Victorians who were militant atheists.

Keywords

• belief
• Victorian times
• Bible
• Martineau (Harriet)
• Huxley (Thomas Henry)
• agnosticism