英国19世纪宗教与小说创作关系研究

A Study of the Relation Between the 19th Century English Novels and Religion

人高于动物的一个重要原因是其作为精神的社会存在,人必然是要寻求精神依托的,而宗教就是其中一个重要选择。在维多利亚时代,由于工业革命及科学的发展,人们可能已经不再相信传统的宗教,但他们依然需要宗教作为精神的依托,因而虔诚信教依然是那个世纪的一个重要标志,无论是普通百姓还是社会精英,甚至是科学家和进化论支持者都是宗教的信仰者。这一时期的宗教体现出一种世俗化的倾向,它反映在人们的日常道德行为之中,成为一种社会公众性的意识形态以及智性生活的中心,成为人们生活的核心和空洞信仰的能量来源。身为维多利亚时代一分子的作家也必然受到那个时代宗教情势的影响。作为时代敏感的晴雨表,他们体验并感知着宗教的变革,并自觉不自觉地用自己的笔将其反映出来,文学与宗教呈现出一种密切的关联。

Because of his/her spiritual being, human is superior to other creatures. Therefore, human consequentially pursues certain spiritual supports,while religion is one of the refined and available choices. In the Victorian Age, because of the Industrial Revolution and the fast development of science, people might not believe in the traditional religion-Christianity any longer, but they still deeply relied on religion, for it was the strongest spiritual support at that time. Hence, religious piety was one of the obvious marks of the age. Not only the mass but also the elites-even the scientists and Darwinists were all religion believers. Besides, the religion of the Victorian Age bad no longer limited itself within the church, namely, the institutional religion was declining. The religion of the age showed an orientation of secularization, that is, it was rather reflected in people＇ s daily life instead of the church life,and became the ideology of the public, the center of intellectual life, the core of public life and the energy against the empty and tiresome life. Living in the Victorian society, writers were inevitably influenced by the condition of the Victorian religious change as other Victorians. They sensed and experienced religious reforms and various religious movements of the age with their insight and wisdom, and tried to reflect these changes in their novels as well. Consequently, the literature and religion of the time showed a kind of fusion.