Victorian Engagements with the Bible and Antiquity
The Shock of the Old

A brilliant exposition of how the Bible and classical antiquity are central to the formation of Victorian self-understanding.

Simon Goldhill (Edited by), Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft (Edited by)

9781009306454, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 October 2023

472 pages, 20 colour illus.
25 x 17 x 3 cm, 0.98 kg

The nineteenth century was a period in which ideas of history and time were challenged as never before. This is the first book to explore how the study of classical antiquity and the study of the Bible together formed an image of the past which became central to Victorian self-understanding. These specially commissioned, multi-disciplinary essays brilliantly reveal the richness of Victorian thinking about the past and how important these models of antiquity were in the expression of modernity. In an age of progress, cultural anxiety and cultural hope was fuelled by the shock of the old – new discoveries about the deep past, and new ways of thinking about humanity's place in history. The volume provides a rich and readable feast which will be fundamental to all those seeking a greater understanding of the Victorians, as well as of the reception of classics and the Bible.

Part I. Victorian Engagements with the Bible and Antiquity: The Shock of the Old: 1. Introduction: history, god, and me Simon Goldhill and Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft
2. Genealogy, translation, and resistance: between the bible and the Greeks Simon Goldhill
3. Herodotus, historian of the Hebrew people, without knowing it Suzanne L. Marchand
4. The bible, classical antiquity, and the invention of Victorian art at the 1887 Manchester jubilee exhibition Kate Nichols
5. The classical and biblical in dialogue: a conversation in Victorian sculpture Caroline Vout
6. Dionysia in Bavaria: Greek Theatre, German Catholicism and the Cultural Uses of the Oberammergau Passion Play, 1830–1910 Robert D. Priest
7. Popes and Caesars: St Paul, protestant bible culture, and the building of the American episcopal church in Rome G. A. Bremner
8. Protestant travellers to Rome and the legacies of the apostolic church Dorothy M. Figueira and Brian H. Murray
9. HMS Bacchante: religion, time travel, and the Victorian monarchy Michael Ledger-Lomas
10. 'Whoso humbleth himself shall be exalted, whoso exalteth himself shall be abased': F. D. Maurice and the history of philosophy Jocelyn Paul Betts
11. 'The borderland of the bible': M. R. James, the apocrypha, and Christian antiquity in the late nineteenth century Alison Knight and Scott Mandelbrote
12. Words thrown out: Matthew Arnold's version of Isaiah Laura McCormick Kilbride
13. Hellenism, Hebraism and heathenism in nineteenth-century England: Connop Thirlwall, George Grote and the religions of antiquity Brian Young
14. Epilogue: bible, antiquity, and the shock of the old Ruth Jackson Ravenscroft
Acknowledgement
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]