TY - JOUR

T1 - The Limits of Orthodoxy in a Secular Age

T2 - The Strange Case of Marie Corelli

AU - Knight, Mark James

N1 - Published as The Limits of Orthodoxy in a Secular Age: The Strange Case of Marie Corelli Mark Knight Nineteenth Century Literature Dec 2018, Vol. 73, No. 1: 379-398. © 2018 by the Regents of the University of California. Copying and permissions notice: Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the Regents of the University of California for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® on [Caliber (http://caliber.ucpress.net/)] or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center, http://www.copyright.com.

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - This essay explores the eclectic spirituality of the late-nineteenth-writer Marie Corelli, with specific reference to her fiction. I look to her first novel, A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), as a case study with which to explore the relationship between Christian orthodoxy and heterodoxy in a secular age. In doing so, I draw on recent theoretical contributions to our understanding of the sacred and the secular in the late nineteenth century, and I question the tendency of many critics to presume that Corelli’s interest in spirituality has little or nothing to do with Christianity. Corelli wrote that her “creed has its foundation in Christ alone,” and although there are good reasons for investigating that claim more closely, these investigations do not have to result in a secular reading and/or an interpretation that breaks from Christianity. By situating Corelli’s fiction within the Christian tradition, I show how she helps us rethink the way in which we draw and redraw the boundaries of religious belief at the fin de siècle.

AB - This essay explores the eclectic spirituality of the late-nineteenth-writer Marie Corelli, with specific reference to her fiction. I look to her first novel, A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), as a case study with which to explore the relationship between Christian orthodoxy and heterodoxy in a secular age. In doing so, I draw on recent theoretical contributions to our understanding of the sacred and the secular in the late nineteenth century, and I question the tendency of many critics to presume that Corelli’s interest in spirituality has little or nothing to do with Christianity. Corelli wrote that her “creed has its foundation in Christ alone,” and although there are good reasons for investigating that claim more closely, these investigations do not have to result in a secular reading and/or an interpretation that breaks from Christianity. By situating Corelli’s fiction within the Christian tradition, I show how she helps us rethink the way in which we draw and redraw the boundaries of religious belief at the fin de siècle.

KW - Marie Corelli

KW - A romance of two worlds

KW - Christian orthodoxy

KW - secular and postsecular

KW - New Religious Movements at the fin de siecle

U2 - 10.1525/ncl.2018.73.3.379

DO - 10.1525/ncl.2018.73.3.379

M3 - Journal article

VL - 73

SP - 379

EP - 398

JO - Nineteenth-Century Literature

JF - Nineteenth-Century Literature

IS - 3

ER -