Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:19:56.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“What Would Jesus Do?”: Practical Christianity, Social Gospel Realism, and the Homiletic Novel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Gregory S. Jackson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay makes the historical case for an unrecognized genre of fiction–the homiletic novel. Drawing on traditional Protestant interpretive practices, Social Gospel authors fused forms of spiritual identification rooted in Protestant homiletic exercises (catechisms, interactive allegories, conversion dramas) with practical Christianity's emerging ethic of social intervention, attaching older modes of readerly identification to new sites of literary culture. Homiletic novels democratized pastoral guidance and legitimized fiction as a repository of ethical experience. Through interactive fictions offering virtual models of spiritual agency in the material world, evangelicals prepared for real forays into urban poverty to intervene in human suffering. The homiletic novel became the most popular literary form of the Progressive Era and continues to flourish in the present–day American political, cultural, and religious environment. In tracing its rise and pervasive influence, this study revises conventional histories of literary genre by suggesting an alternative origin for American literary realism. (GSJ)

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 121 , Issue 3 , May 2006 , pp. 641 - 661
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2006

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.)

References

Works Cited

Arthur, T.S. Ten Nights in a Bar-room, and What I Saw There. Philadelphia: Bradley, 1854.Google Scholar
Beecher, Henry Ward. The Life of Jesus, the Christ. New York: Ford, 1871.Google Scholar
Beecher, Lyman. Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance. New York: Amer. Tract Soc., 1827.Google Scholar
Boyer, Paul S. “In His Steps: A Reappraisal.” American Quarterly 23 (1971): 60–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth. Social Strugglers: A Novel. New York: Scribner's, 1893.Google Scholar
Bush, George. “President Delivers ‘State of the Union.‘” The White House: President George W. Bush. 28 Jan. 2003. 12 Apr. 2006 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html>. Caine, Hall. The Christian: A Story. London: Heinemann, 1897.Google Scholar
Campbell, Helen. Darkness and Daylight; or, Lights and Shadows of New York Life. Hartford: Hartford, 1895.Google Scholar
Cannon, Lou. Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power. New York: Public Affairs, 2003.Google Scholar
Caroll, James. “The Bush Crusade.” Nation 2 Sept. 2004. Chamberlin, James A. “If Jesus Were an Editor.” Kingdom 2 Apr. 1897: 820–21.Google Scholar
Clendenning, John. The Life and Thought of Josiah Royce. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1985.Google Scholar
Converse, Florence. Garments of Praise: A Miracle Cycle. New York: Dutton, 1921.Google Scholar
Crane, Stephen. “An Experiment in Misery.” New York Press 22 Apr. 1894: 2.Google Scholar
Davies, Wallace Evan. “Religious Issues in Late Nineteenth-Century American Novels.” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 41 (1959): 358–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeForest, Robert W., and Veiller, Lawrence. The Tenement House Problem: Including the Report of the New York State Tenement House Commission of 1900. 2 vols. New York, 1903.Google Scholar
Denning, Michael. Mechanic Accents: Dime Novels and Working-Class America. London: Verso, 1987.Google Scholar
Doran, George H. Chronicles of Barabbas. New York: Harcourt, 1935.Google Scholar
Edwards, Jonathan. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Sermons and Discourses, 1739–1742. Ed. Stout, Harry S. and Hatch, Nathan O., with Farley, Kyle P. New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. 404–17. Vol. 22 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards.Google Scholar
Elaw, Zilpha. Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels, and Labours of Mrs. Elaw. Sisters of the Spirit. Ed. Andrews, William L. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986. 53–160.Google Scholar
Elsing, William T. “Life in New York Tenement-Houses, as Seen by a City Missionary.” Scribner's Magazine June 1892: 697–721.Google Scholar
Flower, B.O. Civilization's Inferno; or, Studies in the Social Cellar. Boston: Arena, 1893.Google Scholar
Flower, B.O. “Jesus or Caesar.” Arena Mar. 1894: 522–33.Google Scholar
Flower, B.O. “Society's Exiles.” Arena June 1891: 37–54.Google Scholar
Flynt, Josiah. Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life. New York: Century, 1899.Google Scholar
Ford, Peter. “Europe Cringes at Bush ‘Crusade’ against Terrorists.” Christian Science Monitor 19 Sept. 2001.Google Scholar
Fox, John Jr. The Heart of the Hills. New York: Scribner's, 1913.Google Scholar
Fox, John Jr. The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. New York: Scribner's, 1903.Google Scholar
Gilman, Bradley. Ronald Carnaquay: A Commercial Clergyman. New York: Macmillan, 1903.Google Scholar
Gilman, Bradley. A Son of the Desert. New York: Century, 1909.Google Scholar
Hale, Edward Everett. How They Lived in Hampton: A Study of Practical Christianity Applied in the Manufacture of Woolens. Boston: Smith, 1888.Google Scholar
Hale, Edward Everett. If Jesus Came to Boston. Boston: Smith, 1894.Google Scholar
Haroutunian, Joseph. Piety versus Moralism: The Passing of the New England Theology. New York: Henry Holt, 1932.Google Scholar
The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments in the King James Version. New York: Nelson, 1972.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Charles Howard. The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism. New Haven: Yale UP, 1940.Google Scholar
Horton, J.B. In His Steps; or, The Rescue of Loreen. London: n.p., n.d.Google Scholar
Howard, June. Form and History in American Literary Naturalism. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1985.Google Scholar
Howard, Milford W. If Christ Came to Congress. New York: Howard, 1894.Google Scholar
Jackson, Gregory S. “Cultivating Spiritual Sight: Jacob Riis's Virtual-Tour Narrative and the Visual Modernization of Protestant Homiletics.” Representations 83 (2003): 126–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, William. “Philosophical Conceptions and Practi-cal Results.” James, Pragmatism 255–70.Google Scholar
James, William. Pragmatism. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1975.Google Scholar
Jameson, Fredric. “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture.” Social Text 1 (1979): 130–48.Google Scholar
Jones, Jesse. The Christian Commonwealth. Commonwealth, 1900.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Amy. The Social Construction of American Realism. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1988.Google Scholar
Kengor, Paul. God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life. New York: Harper, 2004.Google Scholar
London, Jack. The People of the Abyss. New York: Macmillan, 1903.Google Scholar
May, Henry F. Protestant Churches and Industrial America. New York: Harper, 1949. New York: Octagon, 1963.Google Scholar
Meyer, Donald H. Democratic Enlightenment. New York: Putnam, 1976.Google Scholar
Miller, Perry. Jonathan Edwards. New York: Sloane, 1949.Google Scholar
Miller, Timothy. Following in His Steps: A Biography of Charles M. Sheldon. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1987.Google Scholar
Moore, R. Laurence. Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture. New York: Oxford UP, 1994.Google Scholar
Morris, Edmund. Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. New York: Modern Lib., 1999.Google Scholar
Mullin, Robert Bruce. The Puritan as Yankee. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.Google Scholar
Neander, August. The Life of Jesus Christ in Its Historical Connexion and Historical Development. London: Bell, 1880.Google Scholar
Noll, Mark A. America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart. The Gates Ajar. Boston: Fields, 1869.Google Scholar
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart. The Story of Jesus Christ. Boston: Houghton, 1897.Google Scholar
Pizer, Donald. The Theory and Practice of American Literary Naturalism: Selected Essays and Reviews. Carbondale: U of Illinois P, 1988.Google Scholar
Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1975.Google Scholar
“Ransom of a Slave-Girl at Plymouth Church.” Independent 9 Feb. 1860: 9–11.Google Scholar
Renan, Ernest. The Life of Jesus. London: Lévy, 1864. Riis, Jacob A. The Battle with the Slum. New York: Macmillan, 1902.Google Scholar
Renan, Ernest. How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York. New York: Scribner's, 1890.Google Scholar
Stefan, Saltar. A Church in History: The Story of Plymouth's First Hundred Years under Beecher, Abbott, Hillis, Durkee, and Fifield. Brooklyn: n.p., 1949.Google Scholar
Schaff, Philip. The Person of Christ: The Miracle of History. Boston: Amer. Tract Soc., 1865.Google Scholar
Schocket, Eric. “Undercover Explorations of the ‘Other Half’; or, The Writer as Class Transvestite.” Representations 64 (1998): 109–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. The Crucifixion of Phillip Strong. Chicago: McClurg, 1894.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. The Heart of the World. New York: Revell, 1905.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. “If I Were a Teacher.” Household Apr. 1936: 36.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. “If I Were President.” Christian Herald May 1936: 10+.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. “If Jesus Were Here Today.” Christian Herald Dec. 1945: 18+.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. In His Steps: “What Would Jesus Do?” Chicago: Advance, 1897.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. Jesus Is Here! New York: Hodder, 1914.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. John King's Question Class. Chicago: Advance, 1899.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. The Narrow Gate. Chicago: Advance, 1903.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. The Redemption of Freetown. Chicago: Advance, 1899.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and Its Consequences. Chicago: Advance, 1898.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. The Twentieth Door. Chicago: Advance, 1893.Google Scholar
Sheldon, Charles M. “What I Would Do If I Were a Farmer.” Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture. Vol. 24. Topeka: State Board of Agriculture, 1905. 210–15.Google Scholar
Sienkiewicz, Henryk. “Quo Vadis”: A Narrative of the Time of Nero. Trans. Jeremiah Curtin. Boston: Little, 1897.Google Scholar
Stead, W[illiam] T. If Christ Came to Chicago! A Plea for the Union of All Who Love in the Service of All Who Suffer. Chicago: Laird, 1894.Google Scholar
Strauss, David. The Life of Jesus: Critically Examined. London: Chapman, 1846.Google Scholar
Tourgée, Albion. Murvale Eastman: Christian Socialist. New York: Fords, 1890.Google Scholar
Trachtenberg, Alan. “Experiments in Another Country: Stephen Crane's City Sketches.” American Realism: New Essays. Ed. Sundquist, Eric. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1982. 138–54.Google Scholar
Tyler, Royal. The Algerine Captive. Hartford, 1816. Wallace, Lew. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. New York: Harper, 1880.Google Scholar
Woods, Katharine Pearson. Metzerott, Shoemaker. New York: Cromwell, 1889.Google Scholar
Wright, Harold Bell. The Shepherd of the Hills. Chicago: Book Supply, 1907.Google Scholar
Wright, Harold Bell. That Printer of Udell's. Chicago: Book Supply, 1903.Google Scholar
Walter, Wyckoff. The Workers: An Experiment in Reality: The East. New York: Scribner's, 1897.Google Scholar
Walter, Wyckoff. The Workers: An Experiment in Reality: The West. New York: Scribner's, 1898.Google Scholar