Defending Orthodoxy: Reviewing Robert Elsmere and Gladstone’s Works of Joseph Butler

Peterson, Stephen J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-97996-0_8

Stephen J. Peterson²

116 Accesses

Abstract

Gladstone’s review of Robert Elsmere, Mary Ward’s popular novel of lost faith, appeared in the May 1888 edition of the Nineteenth Century. Ward, the niece of poet Matthew Arnold, offered her readers a sympathetic view of skepticism and rationalistic German theology. Gladstone’s review gained wide readership and sparked an important debate in the United States over liberal theology. Julia Ward Howe was among the most provocative reviewers of his review and of the orthodox Christianity he was defending. Peterson also addresses American reviews of Gladstone’s final foray into the realm of religion, his 1896 magnum opus The Works of Joseph Butler. The evangelical press fervently praised the work. The secular press, however, was largely critical of the work because he had failed to address the bishop in the context of modern scholarship.

A Christianity without Christ is no Christianity; and a Christ not divine is one other than the Christ on whom the souls of Christians have habitually fed.

W.E. Gladstone (WEG, “‘Robert Elsmere’ and the Battle of Belief,” seventh edition. Nineteenth Century . [May 1888]: 15)

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Notes

1.
For a larger discussion of these issues see Gerlach, British Liberalism and the United States, 133–152.
2.
George Washburn Smalley , “Mr. Gladstone,” NY.Trib, March 18, 1894, 10.
3.
WEG, ““Robert Elsmere’ and the Battle of Belief,” seventh edition. Nineteenth Century . (May 1888).
4.
IND, May 3, 1888, 12.
5.
Gerald Parsons, “Biblical Criticism in Victorian Britain,” in Parsons, ed, Religion in Victorian Britain, vol 2, 239–247; and James Turner, Without God, Without Creed, 141–150.
6.
Mrs Humphry Ward, A Writer’s Recollections (London: W. Collins Sons & Co. LTD., 1918), 235.
7.
Ward, A Writer’s Recollection, 229.
8.
Gisela Argyle, “Robert Elsmere,” Literary Encyclopedia (website) accessed October 30, 2012, http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2330
9.
For a thorough examination see Peter Erb, “Politics and Theological Liberalism: William Gladstone and Mrs Humphry Ward.” Journal of Religious History 25:2 (June 2001): 158–172.
10.
John Sutherland, Mrs Humphry Ward: Eminent Victorian Pre-eminent Edwardian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 125, 126.
11.
Sutherland, Mrs Humphry Ward, 127.
12.
William S. Peterson, “Gladstone’s Review of Robert Elsmere: Some Unpublished Correspondence,” Review of English Studies 21 (1970), 444.
13.
Peterson, “Gladstone’s Review of Robert Elsmere,” 444.
14.
Peterson, “Gladstone’s Review of Robert Elsmere,” 452.
15.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 2.
16.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 12.
17.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 12.
18.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 12.
19.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 13.
20.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 8.
21.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 8.
22.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 13.
23.
Bebbington , Mind of Gladstone, 222.
24.
WEG, “Robert Elsmere,” 18.
25.
Sutherland, Mrs Humphry Ward, 128.
26.
Mary A. Ward, “The New Reformation,” Nineteenth Century , 25 (1889), 454–480.
27.
Sutherland, Mrs Humphry Ward, 128–29.
28.
“Novel of the Year,” CT, October 7, 1888, 27; “Mary Augusta Ward, Author of the Novel of the Year ‘Robert Elsmere,’” NYH, November 19, 1888, 8.
29.
“Mary Augusta Ward,” NYH, 8.
30.
Julia Ward Howe, “IV.,” NAR, 148 (1889), 109–116.
31.
Ward, Recollections, 248.
32.
“The Author of ‘Robert Elsmere,’” Outlook, April 7, 1920, 583.
33.
“‘Robert Elsmere’ as a Controversial Novel,” ACQR, 54 (1889), 268.
34.
Lyman Abbott, “Robert Elsmere,” Chautauquan, 5 (1889), 291.
35.
Abbott, “Robert Elsmere,” 291.
36.
Lyman Abbott, CU, October 25, 1888, 450.
37.
“Robert Elsmere,” AR, 10 (1888), 306.
38.
B. W. Pennock, “Jesus Christ the Corner-Stone,” SR, April 21, 1889, 6.
39.
“Robert Elsmere,” NYH, November 12, 1888, 9.
40.
“Col. Ingersoll’s Opinion of ‘Robert Elsmere,’” Boston Investigator , December 5, 1888, 1.
41.
Howe, “IV.,” NAR, 110.
42.
Howe, “IV.,” NAR, 111.
43.
Howe, “IV.,” NAR, 111.
44.
Howe, “IV.,” NAR, 113.
45.
Howe, “IV.,” NAR, 113.
46.
WEG, Studies Subsidiary to the Works of Bishop Butler (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), 13.
47.
WEG, ed, The Works of Joseph Butler , D.C.L. Sometime Lord Bishop of Durham, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1896), vol. 1, 5
48.
Bebbington , Mind of Gladstone, 116.
49.
Bebbington , Mind of Gladstone, 117.
50.
WEG, Studies Subsidiary, 14.
51.
Jacob Cooper, Reformed Quarterly Review, April, 1896, 199.
52.
Jane Garnett, “Bishop Butler and the Zeitgeist: Butler and the Development of Christian Moral Philosophy in Victorian Britain,” in Christopher Cunliffe, ed, Joseph Butler ’s Moral and Religious Thought: Tercentenary Essays (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 63, 64.
53.
For a detailed historiographic essay, see Jane Garnett “Bishop Butler and the Zeitgeist,” 63–96.
54.
NYE, July 9, 1896, 9.
55.
NYE, July 9, 1896, 9.
56.
IND, November 19, 1896, 22.
57.
Outlook, April 4, 1896, 633–34.
58.
Outlook, April 4, 1896, 633–34.
59.
Outlook, April 4, 1896, 633–34.
60.
“Death List of a Day,” NYT, February 1, 1904.
61.
“Matters at Rutgers,” NYT, March 2, 1896, 10.
62.
Jacob Cooper, IND, March 12, 1896, 16.
63.
Jacob Cooper, Bibliotheca Sacra , July 1896, 495.
64.
Cooper, Bibliotheca Sacra , July 1896, 496.
65.
Cooper, Reformed Quarterly Review, April, 1896, 199, 200.
66.
Jacob Cooper, “Gladstone’s Studies in Butler,” Reformed Quarterly Review, October 1896; 4, 441.
67.
Richard A. Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” New World, 5 (1898), 692.
68.
Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” 692.
69.
Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” 694.
70.
Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” 696.
71.
Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” 696.
72.
Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” 703.
73.
Armstrong, “Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler,” 704–705.
74.
“Bishop Butler Edited by Mr. Gladstone,” Literary World, March 21, 1896, 87.
75.
“Mr. Gladstone’s Studies of Bishop Butler, Literary World, October 17, 1896, 345.
76.
“A Politician,” NY.Trib, November 18, 1896, 8.
77.
“Literature,” Critic , March 7, 1896, XLIIA.
78.
“Mr. Gladstone on Bishop Butler,” Critic , April 24, 1897, 283.
79.
“Mr. Gladstone on Bishop Butler,” Critic , 284.
80.
Nation, March 19, 1896, 241.
81.
“Amos K. Fiske, Journalist Dead,” NYT, September 22, 1921, 13.
82.
Amos Kidder Fiske, “New Publications,” NYT, August 30, 1896, 23.
83.
Fiske, “New Publications,” NYT, August 30, 1896, 23.
84.
Fiske, “New Publications,” 23.

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Tulsa Community College, Tulsa, OK, USA
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Peterson, S.J. (2018). Defending Orthodoxy: Reviewing Robert Elsmere and Gladstone’s Works of Joseph Butler. In: Gladstone's Influence in America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97996-0_8

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97996-0_8
Published: 03 October 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97995-3
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