Book contents
- Daniel Defoe in Context
- Daniel Defoe in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Life and Works
- Part II Literary Context
- Part III Authorship and Copyright
- Part IV The Monarchy and Parliament
- Part V Social Structures and Social Life
- Chapter 23 The Penal System
- Chapter 24 Defoe and Religion
- Chapter 25 Social Status and Social Mobility
- Chapter 26 Education and Opportunity
- Chapter 27 Men and Women
- Chapter 28 Defoe and China
- Chapter 29 London, 1660–1731
- Chapter 30 The Environment
- Chapter 31 Marriage Law
- Chapter 32 Daniel Defoe and the Law of the Sea
- Chapter 33 Disability
- Chapter 34 Defoe and Colonialism
- Chapter 35 Defoe and Animals
- Chapter 36 Defoe and Slavery
- Chapter 37 Economics
- Chapter 38 Defoe and the Supernatural
- Chapter 39 Defoe and America
- Part VI Critical Fortunes and Literary Afterlife
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 24 - Defoe and Religion
from Part V - Social Structures and Social Life
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2023
- Daniel Defoe in Context
- Daniel Defoe in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Life and Works
- Part II Literary Context
- Part III Authorship and Copyright
- Part IV The Monarchy and Parliament
- Part V Social Structures and Social Life
- Chapter 23 The Penal System
- Chapter 24 Defoe and Religion
- Chapter 25 Social Status and Social Mobility
- Chapter 26 Education and Opportunity
- Chapter 27 Men and Women
- Chapter 28 Defoe and China
- Chapter 29 London, 1660–1731
- Chapter 30 The Environment
- Chapter 31 Marriage Law
- Chapter 32 Daniel Defoe and the Law of the Sea
- Chapter 33 Disability
- Chapter 34 Defoe and Colonialism
- Chapter 35 Defoe and Animals
- Chapter 36 Defoe and Slavery
- Chapter 37 Economics
- Chapter 38 Defoe and the Supernatural
- Chapter 39 Defoe and America
- Part VI Critical Fortunes and Literary Afterlife
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
While Defoe’s position as a Dissenter in a confessionally divided England is consistent and clear in his work, this chapter probes some of the shifts, contradictions, and complexities that characterized that position. These arose when Defoe wrote ‘about’ religion within specific generic forms, and unfolded in the context of religious controversies and against the rise of religious toleration and the taming of Dissent as Britain moved away from the religious wars of the mid 1600s, through the bitter religious politics of the Stuart Restoration, to the new détente conformity and Nonconformity that supported its identity as both a consolidating nation and a complacently ‘Christian’ empire. Alongside this, Defoe’s early writing as a Dissenting controversialist gave way to quasi-allegorical narrative fiction, home piety manuals, and popular studies of the supernatural. These transformations both reflect and played a key role in an Anglican nation’s transition from ’Old Dissent’ to ’New Dissent’. Yet Defoe’s own religion is ’hard to be found’, perhaps best understood as an ongoing experiment with form at a moment when debates about formal expression shaped English religious identity.
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- Daniel Defoe in Context , pp. 197 - 211Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023