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Chapter 2 - Religion

from Part I - Contexts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2023

Daniel Cook
Affiliation:
University of Dundee
Nicholas Seager
Affiliation:
Keele University
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Summary

Jonathan Swift was a High Church clergyman and Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in the established (Anglican) Church of Ireland. However, Gulliver displays no Christian devotion. His Christianity is simply assumed in a narrative which presupposes a largely Christian readership. The chapter considers Gulliver’s witness of religious practices in the countries he visits. Gulliver’s Travels is predominantly a secular book, but its philosophical, political, and historical perspectives are refracted through the lens of Swift’s religious confession. In these voyages to remote nations of the world, Gulliver encounters or discusses religio-political issues that were highly controversial back home in Gulliver’s England. The book draws upon religious history and polemic. The satire’s treatment of European religious controversy and its view of human nature attracted charges of blasphemy and irreligion, as had Swift’s earlier satiric masterpiece A Tale of a Tub.The chapter examines these charges and comments on some modern critical views of the religious implications of Gulliver’s Travels. It indicates some significant parallels between Swift’s Houyhnhnms and Thomas More’s Utopians.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Religion
  • Edited by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee, Nicholas Seager, Keele University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>
  • Online publication: 05 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108909488.004
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  • Religion
  • Edited by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee, Nicholas Seager, Keele University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>
  • Online publication: 05 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108909488.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Religion
  • Edited by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee, Nicholas Seager, Keele University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>
  • Online publication: 05 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108909488.004
Available formats
×