Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination

Dyck explores how the higher criticism’s treatment of the Bible, as a text like any other, resonated with the Victorian fascination with Biblical wisdom literature ... Dyck’s project is an analysis of formal and thematic appropriations ... Recommended [for a]dvanced undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE * This study contributes to the reassessment of historical and contemporary narratives of secularization by calling attention to wisdom literature as a vital, distinctive genre that animated the search for meaning within an increasingly ideologically diverse world. * British Association for Victorian Studies Newsletter * Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination challenges assumptions of the Victorian ‘crisis of faith’ by repositioning faith as a dialogic journey of questions, doubt and belief. Dyck transgresses the secular/sacred binary, revealing biblical criticism’s pervasive influence on nineteenth-century literature. * Professor Lesa Scholl, Dean of Queens College, University of Melbourne, Australia * Dyck offers a compelling account of the crucial place of biblical wisdom literature in shaping the Victorian literary imagination. She offers brilliant insights about the legacy of Schleiermacher and opens new approaches to thinking about the secular, hospitality, and dialogue. * Elizabeth Ludlow, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature, Anglia Ruskin University, UK * Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination is an original and important corrective to our usual ways of discussing the Bible in Victorian scholarship. Dyck’s argument is straightforward but also profound. She shows how a focus upon the wisdom literature of the Bible (such as the Protestant wisdom books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, as well as the Gospel parables) takes us beyond the usual questions about Biblical history, and thus she unfolds more of the rich complexity of Victorian religious culture. Indeed, Dyck shows us the special value of wisdom literature during an epoch when ancient history is widely acknowledged as a thorny and problematic concept. We have needed this book. * Charles LaPorte, Professor of English, University of Washington, USA *