Christianity In The Victorian Era

Christianity is a faith based religious tradition, of which the follower is considered to be a Christian adherent. Thus, being a living tradition, Christianity is continually subject to change in accordance to the needs of the adherent and reaffirming the Christian tradition within a contemporary context. The aspects, which attribute the present existence of Christianity and its dynamism therein, include sacred texts and writings, ritual and ceremonies, beliefs and believers, and ethics. Ultimately, the aforementioned characteristics strive to form and continually validate answers to the enduring questions of life through a process of change, which simultaneously highlights Christianity as a living tradition.

It is possible to perceive that England was torn apart by religious revolution as a consequence of the public risings in the response to the changes. After their introduction, the country suffered

During the constant changes of Europe’s religious stances in the 16th century, many countries were fighting for a their own religious standpoint. This unrest lead to revolts and wars and because of the subject’s religious differences in a socially unstable society, these conflicts came between and divided the country. This issue was greatly shown in England, where new governmental policies made participants of the Pilgrimage of Grace to worry for the well being of the commoners in the country. These participants also started to work towards punishing Thomas Cromwell, the head of the King’s council. Those opposed to the movement worried for order, and continued to work for a successful commonwealth.

The entirety of King’s piece is written carefully to appeal to the pathos of the clergymen of the church whom wrote the open letter. His piece is centered around the relation of current events to the past. King relates his situation to the position in which Jesus was in. Due to the fact that both King and Jesus Christ were considered non-violent extremists, and that both were sentenced to unnecessary punishments, King is able to force the clergymen to second guess their Christianhood and judgement of right from wrong. An example of so is when King purposefully

Even prior to the Renaissance era, religion was the pivotal and integral attribute to many, if not everyone’s lives from that time period. The lives of these people revolved completely around religion because it was the sole reason they believed they had come into existence and were solely on the face of the Earth to follow their holy book, as their deity intended them to do in order to get a chance at eternal life with him. Nevertheless, religious freedom in New England was almost nonexistent with a king that imposed his beliefs on the whole country. However, due to statutory neglect, the colonies were allowed to do what they wished in the societies and government of their new territories as long as they remained loyal to Britain. Therefore, religious freedom was extremely permissive in the colonies and ranged from the strictness of the separatists to the lenient-ness of the Quakers.

In the 1730s and the 1740s, religious revival swept through the New England and Middle Colonies. Through these revivals, the colonists came to view religion as a discrete and personal experience between God and man which, “undermined legally established churches and their tax supported ministers.” (Henretta, P. 112) Joseph Tracey was the first person to describe this period of revivalism as, ‘the Great Awakening.’ In 1841, Joseph Tracy wrote The Great Awakening: a History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield summarizing this period and cementing its name as ‘the Great Awakening’ for future generations. Of the Great Awakening, he asserts, “Its

In the last few hundred years there have been three new views on Christianity to take root in society and impact the world and they were; Neo-Orthodox, Evangelism and Liberalism. These three had quite the impact of the faith throughout Europe and the United States. The three had varying ideals, but it some case overlapped. However, Neo-Orthodoxy seems to be the most effective when communicating with Scripture.

Since its beginnings, Christianity has been guided by the concepts of humbleness and good morals. However, there exists evidence that in the Middle Ages, Church officials in western Europe used Christianity as a cover for corrupt acts, such as war and torture, as well as financial extortion and bribery. The medieval Roman Catholic church began with the fall of Rome in 476 CE. With Roman emperor Constantine’s moving of Rome’s capital to the ancient city Byzantium in eastern Europe, which he renamed to Constantinople, Rome’s ability to enforce its rule in the west declined greatly, allowing Germanic invaders to successfully take rule.

During sixteenth century Europe a wave of religious dissatisfaction swept the European continent. There were cries for the restructuring of the Catholic Church. These cries grew into more than just a simple remodeling of the Catholic faith they grew into the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther is credited for the reformation movement against the Catholic Church that began in 1517.

Queen Elizabeth the first totally transformed England’s religious views. During the Elizabethan Era the majority of the country seemed to be some branch of Protestantism. This is still true today, England's main religion is Christianity which is one of many branches from Protestantism. Throughout history England has been at odds with Spain and France and this all is dated back from the Elizabethan Era because of the religious turmoil. Also ever since Queen Mary died and England converted to Protestantism tensions have been higher than ever. It almost seems the more Protestant England becomes the more Catholic Ireland becomes just to spite each other. Evidence of Protestantism and religious issues have been found in some of Shakespeare's

This paper will highlight some of the historical points of division in Christianity and reflect on ways the church succeeded and failed in practicing professed beliefs. Christianity has become so diverse that some theologians have called it “Christian Pluralism”(Melton, 2007). In 1982 Anglican theologian David Barrett estimated that there were 20,800 denominations in Christianity across the globe (McGavran, 2012).

The church became too distracted in its own quest for survival to care about the current spiritual needs of its members. The political concerns of the civil government and the quest for power and authority in the church were one and the same. In fact, in some cases, the leadership of one was simultaneously the leader of the other, creating an obvious conflict of interests. Little, if any, separation of church and state existed (p. 154).

Home of the Baguette, Eiffel Tower, and Ratatouille, France is one place where my family originated from. In the 16th century my ancestors, the LeVan’s, were Huguenots of the time that fled France during the War on Religion and traveled to Holland, then Philadelphia later on. When King Henry IV was in rule he signed the Edict of Nantes, giving my family some freedoms. After seeing hatred towards their religion, they ended up having to flee France (Brumbach 1).

During the Victorian Era, England was a Christian country. The only big non-Christian faith was Judaism. During the Victorian era everyone read the Bible and went to church on Sunday. The Bible was taken as the literal truth and was the foundation of virtuous behavior which became known as Victorianism.

Because the Victorian Era was an age so heavily influenced by religion, it is hardly surprising, that Bram Stoker’s Dracula is written with may religious references. The Victorian Era was a time period from 1837 to 1901, during which Queen Victoria reigned in the United Kingdom. During this time, women were expected to be quiet, proper, and pure. All people were expected to attend church, and sexuality was incredibly censored. Religion played an influencing role in Victorian art including visual and literary. Likewise, the fear of being sinful, or not following the Bible was still a fear from the undereducated members of society. The prominent branches of Christianity in this era were Protestants and Catholics. Protestants Given the religious context of the Victorian Era, Vampires in Bram Stoker’s Dracula represent sin and have inherently sinful behavior, whereas the humans represents goodness and religion, no matter which kind.