Sara Coleridge and the Oxford Movement: Selected Religious Writings(Anthem Nineteenth-Century Series)

Sara Coleridge and the Oxford Movement is the first book to be devoted entirely to Sara Coleridge’s religious writings. It presents extracts from important religious works which have remained unpublished since the 1840s. These writings represent a bold intervention by a woman writer in the public spheres of academia and the Church, in the genre of religious writing which was a masculine preserve (as opposed to the genres of religious fiction and poetry). They offer the most original and systematic critique of Tractarian theology to appear in the 1840s. Sara Coleridge’s assertion of religious inclusivity and liberty of conscience is based on a radically Protestant theology underpinned by a Kantian epistemology. The book also presents substantial extracts from her unpublished masterpiece Dialogues on Regeneration (the equivalent of her father’s Opus Maximum) which show her remarkable literary originality and the continuing development of her innovative religious thought.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction: ‘Sara Coleridge and the Contexts of Religious Division’; Part 1: Selections from Religious Writings, 1843–1848; Section 1. ‘On Rationalism’; Section 2. Introduction to ‘Biographia Literaria (1847)’; Section 3. ‘Extracts from a New Treatise on Regeneration’; Part 2: Selections from Dialogues on Regeneration, 1850–1851; Section 1. Introductory Dialogues; Section 2. On the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Relation to Time; Section 3. Scriptural Dialogues; Section 4. On the Idea of Personality in Reference to Our Lord Jesus Christ; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
Robin Schofield read English at Lincoln College, Oxford, UK, where he developed an abiding interest in Romantic literature and culture, with particular reference to the Wordsworth circle. A member of the Friends of Coleridge for twenty-fi ve years, Schofi eld became interested in the lives and work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s children, Hartley Coleridge and Sara Coleridge, particularly in the latter’s editorship of her father’s work. Schofi eld’s interest in C19 religion, especially the Oxford Movement, led him to study Sara Coleridge’s religious writings.

Review :
‘The volume carefully maps Coleridge’s imaginative and spiritual development through the influence of Wordsworth and Southey, Tractarianism and her eventual critique of Anglo-Catholicism, and her Kantian embrace of a practical rather than mystical Christianity. An outstanding scholarly edition of a profoundly infl uential but much neglected theological voice.’ —Emma Mason, Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK ‘This magnificent edition sheds new light on the controversies surrounding the Oxford Movement. Sara Coleridge’s literary gifts as well as philosophical erudition appear in her probing critique of the Tractarians and defence of her father, S. T. Coleridge. Her hitherto unpublished Dialogues on Regeneration, finely annotated in this book, is a major addition to the Victorian canon.’ —James Vigus, Senior Lecturer in English, Queen Mary University of London, UK ‘This excellent volume continues the retrieval of an important Victorian voice. Robin Schofield has gathered Sara Coleridge’s fugitive religious writings and a selection from her major unpublished manuscripts.’ —Peter Swaab, Professor of English Literature, UCL, UK