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Rector’s Reflections Thursday 19th December 2024
In the Bleak Midwinter: A Victorian View of Christmas
We have now reached the fifth and final verse of Christina’s well known carol:
“What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give him : give my heart”.
In this verse, Christina is making the point that Christianity is, at its core, a question of our personal response to God. “Yet what I can I give him: give my heart”.
In this instance, Christina is very much reflecting one of the dominant values of Victorian Christianity. The Victorians inherited the traditions of the Romantic movement, which placed an emphasis on the importance of feeling and emotion. This was in reaction to the dominant values of the Enlightenment, which tended to emphasise the importance of rational thought. It is significant that the last phrase in Christina’s poem is “ my heart”. It is not “my head” or “my mind”. The Victorians knew that religion is essentially a matter of the heart. They did not ignore the role of reason in the spiritual and religious life, but it was given a secondary role.
It was also a time when two particular movements dominated English Christianity, both of which emphasised the role of the heart rather than the mind. The first was the Evangelical movement; the second was the High Church movement, to which Christina herself belonged. Both movements had much in common, and indeed one of the great leaders in the High Church movement, John Henry Newman, had an Evangelical upbringing. Of course, Evangelicals and High Church folk did not agree about everything. Certainly not. But they both agreed about what was fundamental to the Christian faith : being a Christian was about entering into a whole-hearted, and life-changing, relationship with Jesus.
Being a Christian was about giving our all to Jesus. The more dramatic the gift, the better. In Evangelical circles, this led to the “cult” of missionaries, especially missionaries who went to convert the natives in far off places. In High Church circles, it led to the creation of religious orders in the Church of England, for men and for women.
Other Victorians were less convinced about the need to give our all to Jesus. Wasn’t it enough to go to Church or Chapel on a Sunday, and then try to apply Christian values within ordinary family life and in the workplace? And wasn’t the idea of giving our all to Jesus a bit excessive, indeed somewhat self-indulgent? Victorians had a strong sense of duty, and the idea of giving our all to Jesus could often only be achieved at the expense of our duty to other family members.
And wasn’t it all a bit too emotional? What about our minds as well as our hearts? Hadn’t God given us brains, and might it not be the case that we might best please God by thinking things through in a careful and logical manner? Such an emphasis on Reason had been accepted among Christians in the Age of the Enlightenment, back in the 18th Century, but it became suspect among many following the Age of Romanticism. The Victorians lived in the aftermath of the Romantic movement, and it was a time when “thinking things through” was often considered to be tantamount to Atheism. Some Christians challenged this, and said that it was perfectly possible to love God with both our mind and our heart; such Christians were often referred to as Liberals, or Broad Churchmen. They were largely distrusted, especially outside the Universities. The distrust survives to this day.
In the midst of these debates, Christina made her position clear. If we are to be true Christians, we need to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Anything else won’t cut it. Simply going to Church, and living a Christian life, is not enough. “What I can I give him: give my heart”. Some Church leaders would add that Jesus would also like our wallet, as well.
I shall finish this current series of reflections at this point. So many of the values of Victorian Christianity are the values of English Christianity in our own day. Most of the questions and challenges faced by the Victorians are the questions and challenges we face today.
And when it comes to the celebration of Christmas, the same issues and opportunities remain. What sort of God do we wish to proclaim? How challenging do we wish our Christmas message to be?
“Rector’s Reflections” will take a break for the next couple of weeks.