"Invaded by a Devilish Indian Diamond": Wilkie Collins's "Sermon for Sepoys", the Moonstone, and the Emergence of a Secular Modernity
Wilkie Collins's "A Sermon for Sepoys" appeared in Household Words in February of 1858, shortly after the Sepoy Rebellion, and The Moonstone appeared in All the Tear Round in 1868 on the tenth anniversary of the Rebellion and three years after the 1865 Jamaican Rebellion when public p...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2017
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| In: |
Religion & literature
Year: 2017, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-22 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture CG Christianity and Politics KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
COLLINS, Wilkie, 1824-1889
B Modernity B PREJUDICES; Religious aspects B SEPOY Rebellion, India, 1857-1858 B Freedom Of Religion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Wilkie Collins's "A Sermon for Sepoys" appeared in Household Words in February of 1858, shortly after the Sepoy Rebellion, and The Moonstone appeared in All the Tear Round in 1868 on the tenth anniversary of the Rebellion and three years after the 1865 Jamaican Rebellion when public passions were strongly divided regarding Britain's imperialist activities and the racial and religious prejudices that justified that imperialism as a "civilizing" mission. This essay argues that Collins structured "A Sermon for Sepoys" and The Moonstone to enlarge the public's concept of religion to include non-Western faith traditions. By doing so, Collins contributed his enormous popularity toward opposing religious intolerance and hatred. As a Christian who opposed creeds and dogmas because they led to persecution and war, Collins promoted a gradually emergent secularism that was reshaping Victorian culture, and that continues to be an essential component of religiously pluralistic, democratic societies around the world. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-6911 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & literature
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