Rector’s Reflections
Friday 13th December 2024
In the Bleak Midwinter: A Victorian View of Christmas
In yesterday’s reflections, I shared some thoughts on the importance of story-telling, especially for sharing the Christian faith. The Victorians loved a good story well-told, and Christina Rossetti was no exception.
The Victorians also loved to master problems. This was the age of engineering. We think above all of the steam engine. But there were other experiments in engineering as well, for example in the use of iron and steel, and in the use of electricity. The Victorians loved the challenge of identifying a problem and finding a practical solution to it. By the later Victorian period, it was increasingly accepted that this engineering approach could also be applied to the problems of society as well.
Hand in hand with the development of engineering came significant advances in scientific knowledge. The development of science and engineering fed off each other, with the result that by the end of the Victorian era, much of the modern world as we know it had arrived. Mysteries had been debunked. Problems still remained, but there was the spirit of optimism around. The human mind had brought most things under human control, and very soon humans would be masters of the Universe. This spirit of optimism remained largely unchallenged until the 1920s.
So where did this leave religion? Where did this leave God? Was God to be left outside the world of science and engineering, and if so, did this consign God to the realm of antiquated irrelevance?
Christians still face this question today. Personally, I would very much wish to place God at the centre of the world of science and engineering. I do not see any tension between Good Religion and Good Science. The tension is between Bad Religion and Bad Science. However, other Christians have different views on the relationship between Science and Religion. Indeed, many Churches choose not to engage with the topic at all.
For Christina, lack of engagement with the newly emerging world of science and technology was not an issue. But her approach was a subtle one.
The second verse of In the Bleak Midwinter reads as follows:
“Our God, heav’n cannot hold him nor the earth contain,
Heav’n and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable sufficed
The Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ.”
I think Christina is making two points here. The first is that there is a world beyond the physical world investigated by scientists and engineers: the “heavens” investigated by astronomers and the various forces and life forms found on, in and under the earth. God is at work within this physical world, but He lies beyond it, as well – “heav’n cannot hold him nor the earth contain”. Science and engineering have their role and their value, but there is a whole dimension of life which lies beyond their scope. And this further dimension of life is of greater worth and greater significance : “Heav’n and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign”.
Christina’s second point is that science and engineering will always be subordinate to the story we wish to tell. The story is what counts. Science and engineering are some of the means by which we live out the stories and visions which govern our lives. And for a Christian, this means that our understanding of God must always return to the story of Jesus: his birth, life, death and resurrection, and ongoing life in and through the Church. And so Christina finishes her verse by returning to the Christmas story:” In the bleak midwinter a stable sufficed The Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ”.
In short, Christina is saying that the mystery of God is not something which can be fully tamed by the scientists and engineers of the world. Human beings know much already , and everyday they learn more. But they will never know everything. We cannot hold God in our hand, or put Him on display in some great Museum of Curiosities. We cannot treat God as a thing. God is a person, who engages with each one of us on a personal basis. We should return the favour.
What might this mean in practice? We shall explore this further in the next reflection.