IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN the image and nature of Christ was a prime site of ideological conflict. As the central figure in the dominant religious tradition, Christ was, perhaps inevitably, redefined and claimed by different social groups attempting to harness his remaining cultural influence. One of the dominant images of Christ, however, one that permeated Victorian Christianity, was distinctly feminized, emphasizing virtues and roles allotted to women according to “separate-spheres” gender ideology and often focusing on his passivity and suffering.