Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T16:46:36.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
Get access

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.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • 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 Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

  • 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
×