The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century ed. by Elizabeth Ludlow (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century ed. by Elizabeth Ludlow Alison Jack (bio) The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century, edited by Elizabeth Ludlow; pp. xvii + 276. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020, £79.99, $119.99, $89.00 ebook. The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century is a rich collection of responses to the complex question of the significance of Jesus Christ in creative contexts across the long nineteenth century. The interdisciplinary range is extensive, covering multiple genres of literature and the visual arts, and the critical tools used to explore the topic are equally diverse. Throughout, contributors resist easy responses to the question and chart shifting, nuanced positions in illuminating ways. Elizabeth Ludlow offers an overview of her edited volume in the first chapter, which highlights the structure and approach of what is to follow. The chapters are organized roughly in chronological order, under eight thematic sections made up of two chapters each. The themes covered offer a clear indication that this volume is seeking understandings of Christ in contexts that are both well-trodden and novel. The eight sections are entitled: "William Blake and Visionary Revelation"; "Textual and Visual Fragmentation and the Form of the Vortex"; "The Incarnation and the Redemptive Role of Art"; "The [End Page 325] Figure of Christ in Tractarian Theology"; "The Ecological Jesus and the Good Shepherd"; "Figures of Christ in the Victorian Novel"; "Renewing the Social Order and Imagining the Church of the Future"; and "Christological Fictions of the Late Nineteenth Century." Within these sections, the work of canonical figures such as George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell is well represented, but so too is the less well-known work of writers such as Felicia Hemans ("Casabianca" [1826]), Gerald Massey (Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love [1851]), Marie Corelli (The Master-Christian [1900]), and Edmund Gosse (The Secret of Narcisse: A Romance [1892]). Many of the chapters draw on the recently published work of major scholars of Victorian studies. A good example of this is Emma Mason's chapter on Christina Rossetti's ecological perspective, which offers an accessible and focused development of aspects of her 2018 volume, Christina Rossetti: Poetry, Ecology, Faith. Here Mason argues persuasively that Rossetti's fascination with Christ's Sermon on the Mount, and the phrase "consider the lilies" (Matthew 6:28) in particular, offers a case study that illuminates Rossetti's ahead-of-her-time approach to Christ as ecological hero (149). As Mason asserts, in her poetry, "Rossetti ultimately elevates Jesus as a being who is both human and lily, and who directs the former to consider the latter as an epitome of compassion and peace" (151). The language of flowers is transformed into a Christological call to defend the weak against those in power. A particular strength of the volume is its determinedly dialogical rather than oppositional approach across its contributions. Multiple chapters refer to aspects of other chapters in the volume, which indicates an impressive logistical effort on the part of the editor. A particularly noticeable thread for this intravolume discussion is the synthesis of the feminine and masculine in the portrayal of Jesus in William Holman Hunt's painting The Light of the World (1851–53). The image adorns the cover of the book, and the enigmatic face of Jesus presented there captures strikingly the compelling but illusive representation of the incarnate Christ with which the nineteenth-century and current writers are grappling together. There is little attempt to reach a settled view, and the multiplicity of perspectives is celebrated rather than contested. Leanne Waters, in her chapter on "Christly Children, Affect, and the Melodramatic Mode in Late-Victorian Fiction," both highlights and demonstrates that one of the volume's functions is to explore the diverse and significant range of Christologies in the nineteenth century and to recognize that, "rather than a time of doubt and apostasy, the nineteenth century was defined by its competing, heterogeneous belief (and active non-belief) systems." The chapters here allow the reader to explore what Waters terms is the "religious renegotiation" that was underway throughout the nineteenth century in all its messiness and complexity, without being forced into an...