The Nemesis of Faith
Encyclopedia
The Nemesis of Faith is an epistolary
philosophical novel
by James Anthony Froude
published in 1849
. Partly autobiographical
, the novel depicts the causes and consequences of a young priest's crisis of faith. Like many of his contemporaries, Froude came to question his Christian faith
in light of early nineteenth century developments in history, theology, and science. Froude was particularly influenced by the Catholic
teachings of the Oxford Movement
and by the new approach to religious scholarship developed by the German Higher Critics.
The novel consists primarily of protagonist Markham Sutherland's account of the development of his religious ideas and doubts, followed by a brief narrative in which Sutherland's lack of faith leads him and his lover to tragic ends. The novel was condemned by English religious figures and publicly burned by William Sewell
; this led to Froude's resignation of his fellowship at Oxford University.
The novel's reception amongst literary reviewers was mixed; while writers such as George Eliot
professed profound admiration, others such as Thomas Carlyle
were harshly critical. Although no longer widely read as a literary work, it remains significant in intellectual history for its accounts of Victorian skepticism and the Oxford Movement
.
and contemporary English Christianity in general. In particular, Sutherland is concerned about the depiction of God in the Old Testament
, God's patronage of the Israelites on non-moral grounds, the doctrine of Eternal Punishment
, and the supposed inerrancy of the Bible
. Sutherland was profoundly influenced by John Henry Newman in his early years, but was ultimately unable to accept Newman's doctrines. Sutherland also seeks guidance in the writings of Victorian historian and sage Thomas Carlyle
(who was Froude's chief intellectual influence in later years), but finds no solutions. Tormented by his doubts and subsequent alienation from his family, Sutherland becomes morbidly depressed.
On Arthur's advice, Sutherland takes orders, hoping that his doubts will eventually pass when he enters a more active life. Because of the selectivity of his sermons, however, his parishioners begin to suspect him of Socinianism
. When Sutherland is tricked into making a harsh criticism of the British and Foreign Bible Society
, claiming that the text of the Bible without clerical guidance is more likely to lead to wickedness than to Christian faith and virtue, his doubts are revealed, and he is forced to resign his position.
Sutherland travels to Como
to rest and recover from illness, indulging in free religious speculation while there. He befriends Helen Leonard, who sympathizes with his troubles and listens to his doubts. Helen's dull, unloving husband prefers to spend time away from his wife, and leaves her in Sutherland's company for the season. Helen and Sutherland fall in love, causing both great anxiety, although the relationship never becomes physical. The two consider eloping, but Helen decides she cannot leave her daughter, Annie. During this conversation, however, the unsupervised Annie dips her arm into the lake, causing her to fall ill and die soon after. Sutherland again becomes depressed, believing that his religious speculations have brought himself and Helen into sin
. He plans suicide, but is stopped at the last moment by an old friend, representative of John Henry Newman. Sutherland retires to a monastery, although his repentance is short lived, and he dies still in doubt. Helen, meanwhile, separates from her husband and retires to a convent, although she is unreconciled with the Church because she maintains that her love for Sutherland is holier than her marriage.
in his class at Exeter College
. Soon after, Froude resigned his fellowship at Oxford.
The Nemesis of Faith also drew criticism on literary grounds as being melodramatic and sentimental. Froude himself wrote to his friend Charles Kingsley
that "I cut a hole in my heart and wrote with the blood". Thomas Carlyle
complained of the novel "Froude ought to consume his own smoke and not trouble other people's nostrils." Although recent critics tend to be more positive about the novel's depiction of Sutherland's speculative crisis, they have maintained the weakness of the ending, attributing it to Froude's inability to come to terms with his own doubts.
By contrast, the novel was positively reviewed by such literary figures as George Eliot
and Mrs. Humphrey Ward
, whose 1888 novel Robert Elsmere
was significantly influenced by the novel and by Froude's life. In a review in the Coventry Herald Eliot wrote that in reading The Nemesis of Faith "we seem to be in companionship with a spirit who is transfusing himself into our souls, and so vitalising them by his superior energy, that life, both outward and inward, presents itself to us in higher relief, in colours brightened and deepened."
In an effort to reconcile with Oxford, Froude refused to allow republication of The Nemesis of Faith following its second edition, and in 1858 he formally repudiated the novel.
. Following the earlier German Higher Critics, who argued for a historical approach to religious texts, David Strauss
published Leben Jesu or The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined which argued that the events of the New Testament
were not historical but rather mythical. In 1846 George Eliot
published an English translation of Leben Jesu which became a source of religious doubts for Froude and many of his contemporaries. Critics have also identified Thomas Carlyle
's novel Sartor Resartus
and Spinoza as sources of Sutherland's doubts, and those of many of his contemporaries.
Meanwhile, the Oxford Movement
, headed by John Henry Newman as well as Froude's brother Richard Hurrell Froude
, was attacking the Church's move towards liberalism and secularism
, advocating instead a greater emphasis on Catholic
doctrine. The Movement provided a serious challenge to Protestant beliefs
, with Newman later converting to Roman Catholicism. Although Froude was devoted to Newman for several years, and maintained a sentimental affection for the man (which he expressed in his essays on Newman and the Oxford Movement), he ultimately repudiated his beliefs.
The novel was influenced by Goethe's Elective Affinities
, which Froude later translated and published anonymously. Froude borrowed much of his novel's ending from Goethe, and also used the scientific metaphor underlying Goethe's novel to illustrate the relation of an individual to the church.
Epistolary novel
An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use...
philosophical novel
Philosophical novel
Philosophical fiction refers to works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the work is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of...
by James Anthony Froude
James Anthony Froude
James Anthony Froude , 23 April 1818–20 October 1894, was an English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of Fraser's Magazine. From his upbringing amidst the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Froude intended to become a clergyman, but doubts about the doctrines of the Anglican church,...
published in 1849
1849 in literature
The year 1849 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*La Tribune des Peuples, a pan-European romantic nationalist periodical, is published between March and November by Adam Mickiewicz.*Who's Who is published for the first time....
. Partly autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, the novel depicts the causes and consequences of a young priest's crisis of faith. Like many of his contemporaries, Froude came to question his Christian faith
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in light of early nineteenth century developments in history, theology, and science. Froude was particularly influenced by the Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
teachings of the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
and by the new approach to religious scholarship developed by the German Higher Critics.
The novel consists primarily of protagonist Markham Sutherland's account of the development of his religious ideas and doubts, followed by a brief narrative in which Sutherland's lack of faith leads him and his lover to tragic ends. The novel was condemned by English religious figures and publicly burned by William Sewell
William Sewell
William Sewell , English divine and author, was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, the son of a solicitor.He was educated at Winchester and Merton College, Oxford, was elected a fellow of Exeter College in 1827, and from 1831-1853 was a tutor there. From 1836-1841 he was White's Professor of Moral...
; this led to Froude's resignation of his fellowship at Oxford University.
The novel's reception amongst literary reviewers was mixed; while writers such as George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
professed profound admiration, others such as Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
were harshly critical. Although no longer widely read as a literary work, it remains significant in intellectual history for its accounts of Victorian skepticism and the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
.
Plot summary
The story of Markham Sutherland is presented through letters, journals, and the third-person account of the novel's supposed editor, Arthur. Sutherland, under pressure from his father to become a clergyman, confesses to Arthur his reservations about accepting the Thirty-Nine ArticlesThirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
and contemporary English Christianity in general. In particular, Sutherland is concerned about the depiction of God in the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, God's patronage of the Israelites on non-moral grounds, the doctrine of Eternal Punishment
Hell in Christian beliefs
Christian views on Hell vary, but in general traditionally agree that hell is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved suffer the consequences of sin....
, and the supposed inerrancy of the Bible
Biblical inerrancy
Biblical inerrancy is the doctrinal position that the Bible is accurate and totally free of error, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact." Some equate inerrancy with infallibility; others do not.Conservative Christians generally believe that...
. Sutherland was profoundly influenced by John Henry Newman in his early years, but was ultimately unable to accept Newman's doctrines. Sutherland also seeks guidance in the writings of Victorian historian and sage Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
(who was Froude's chief intellectual influence in later years), but finds no solutions. Tormented by his doubts and subsequent alienation from his family, Sutherland becomes morbidly depressed.
On Arthur's advice, Sutherland takes orders, hoping that his doubts will eventually pass when he enters a more active life. Because of the selectivity of his sermons, however, his parishioners begin to suspect him of Socinianism
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
. When Sutherland is tricked into making a harsh criticism of the British and Foreign Bible Society
British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply as Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world....
, claiming that the text of the Bible without clerical guidance is more likely to lead to wickedness than to Christian faith and virtue, his doubts are revealed, and he is forced to resign his position.
Sutherland travels to Como
Como
Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
to rest and recover from illness, indulging in free religious speculation while there. He befriends Helen Leonard, who sympathizes with his troubles and listens to his doubts. Helen's dull, unloving husband prefers to spend time away from his wife, and leaves her in Sutherland's company for the season. Helen and Sutherland fall in love, causing both great anxiety, although the relationship never becomes physical. The two consider eloping, but Helen decides she cannot leave her daughter, Annie. During this conversation, however, the unsupervised Annie dips her arm into the lake, causing her to fall ill and die soon after. Sutherland again becomes depressed, believing that his religious speculations have brought himself and Helen into sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
. He plans suicide, but is stopped at the last moment by an old friend, representative of John Henry Newman. Sutherland retires to a monastery, although his repentance is short lived, and he dies still in doubt. Helen, meanwhile, separates from her husband and retires to a convent, although she is unreconciled with the Church because she maintains that her love for Sutherland is holier than her marriage.
Major themes
The novel's primary interest comes from its depiction of Sutherland's religious doubts, which arise from the weakness of a faith based on empirically false historical claims, "old-wives' tales" taken for truth. Instead, Sutherland aims to follow "not the Christian religion, but the religion of Christ," spirituality without dogma. However, Froude was not fully satisfied with this formulation, and the Sutherland-Helen plot illustrates the idea that religious speculation and infidelity inevitably lead to immorality.Reception
The Nemesis of Faith raised a scandal at its first release, being referred to as "a manual of infidelity" in the Morning Herald. It was publicly burned by William SewellWilliam Sewell
William Sewell , English divine and author, was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, the son of a solicitor.He was educated at Winchester and Merton College, Oxford, was elected a fellow of Exeter College in 1827, and from 1831-1853 was a tutor there. From 1836-1841 he was White's Professor of Moral...
in his class at Exeter College
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
. Soon after, Froude resigned his fellowship at Oxford.
The Nemesis of Faith also drew criticism on literary grounds as being melodramatic and sentimental. Froude himself wrote to his friend Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley was an English priest of the Church of England, university professor, historian and novelist, particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire.-Life and character:...
that "I cut a hole in my heart and wrote with the blood". Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
complained of the novel "Froude ought to consume his own smoke and not trouble other people's nostrils." Although recent critics tend to be more positive about the novel's depiction of Sutherland's speculative crisis, they have maintained the weakness of the ending, attributing it to Froude's inability to come to terms with his own doubts.
By contrast, the novel was positively reviewed by such literary figures as George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
and Mrs. Humphrey Ward
Mary Augusta Ward
Mary Augusta Ward née Arnold; , was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.- Early life:...
, whose 1888 novel Robert Elsmere
Robert Elsmere
Robert Elsmere is a novel by Mrs. Humphrey Ward published in 1888. It was immediately successful, quickly selling over a million copies and gaining the admiration of Henry James...
was significantly influenced by the novel and by Froude's life. In a review in the Coventry Herald Eliot wrote that in reading The Nemesis of Faith "we seem to be in companionship with a spirit who is transfusing himself into our souls, and so vitalising them by his superior energy, that life, both outward and inward, presents itself to us in higher relief, in colours brightened and deepened."
In an effort to reconcile with Oxford, Froude refused to allow republication of The Nemesis of Faith following its second edition, and in 1858 he formally repudiated the novel.
Historical context and allusions
The 1840s were a turbulent decade in the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. Following the earlier German Higher Critics, who argued for a historical approach to religious texts, David Strauss
David Strauss
David Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and writer. He scandalized Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus," whose divine nature he denied...
published Leben Jesu or The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined which argued that the events of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
were not historical but rather mythical. In 1846 George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
published an English translation of Leben Jesu which became a source of religious doubts for Froude and many of his contemporaries. Critics have also identified Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
's novel Sartor Resartus
Sartor Resartus
Thomas Carlyle's major work, Sartor Resartus , first published as a serial in 1833-34, purported to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh , author of a tome entitled "Clothes: their Origin and Influence" , but was actually a poioumenon...
and Spinoza as sources of Sutherland's doubts, and those of many of his contemporaries.
Meanwhile, the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
, headed by John Henry Newman as well as Froude's brother Richard Hurrell Froude
Richard Hurrell Froude
Richard Hurrell Froude was an Anglican priest and an early leader of the Oxford Movement.-Life:He was the son of Archdeacon R. H...
, was attacking the Church's move towards liberalism and secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
, advocating instead a greater emphasis on Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
doctrine. The Movement provided a serious challenge to Protestant beliefs
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, with Newman later converting to Roman Catholicism. Although Froude was devoted to Newman for several years, and maintained a sentimental affection for the man (which he expressed in his essays on Newman and the Oxford Movement), he ultimately repudiated his beliefs.
The novel was influenced by Goethe's Elective Affinities
Elective Affinities
Elective Affinities , also translated under the title Kindred by Choice, is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference...
, which Froude later translated and published anonymously. Froude borrowed much of his novel's ending from Goethe, and also used the scientific metaphor underlying Goethe's novel to illustrate the relation of an individual to the church.