Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Dickens’ Theology: A Hard Nut to CrackBrenda Ayres1 "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth": Dickens’ Non-Christian TheologyBrenda Ayres2 Consecrated Abominations: Pilgrimage and Churchyard Homage in Dickens’ Novels Daniel Stuart3 Dickens and the Specter of Materialism: The Spiritual Significance of Ghosts in the Christmas Books and Ghost Stories Christine Schintgen4 Dickens Demystified: The Jesuitical Journey of Ebenezer Scrooge Through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola Mary-Antoinette Smith5 "For Whom the Bell Tolls": Dickens’ Barnaby RudgeJulie Donovan6 "Gazing at All the Church and Chapel Going": Social Views of Religious Nonconformity in Dickens’ FictionLydia Craig7 Needful Things: Dickens, Social Justice, and the Meaning of Human WorkSusan Johnston8 The Gospel of Modernity: Idolatry as the Road to Grace in David Copperfield and Great ExpectationsMarie Heneghan9 Unheavenly and Broken Homes in Dickens’ NovelsBrenda Ayres10 Ghosts of Dickens’ Past: The Death of Judaism in Oliver Twist and Our Mutual FriendLindsay Katzir11 Theological Shifts in Dickensian Narratives Before and After Darwin’s Origin:Little Dorrit and Our Mutual FriendAaron K. H. Ho12 Teeming City, Tangled Web: Dickens’ Affinity with Darwin Tony Schwab13 Theology of the Street: Dickensian Characters for the Twenty-first CenturySARAH E. MAIER

This is the first collection to investigate Charles Dickens on his vast and various opinions about the uses and abuses of the tenets of Christian faith that imbue English Victorian culture. Although previous studies have looked at his well-known antipathies toward Dissenters, Evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews, they have also disagreed about Dickens' thoughts on Unitarianism and speculated on doctrines of Protestantism that he endorsed or rejected. Besides addressing his depiction of these religious groups, the volume's contributors locate gaps in scholarship and unresolved illations about poverty and charity, representations of children, graveyards, labor, scientific controversy, and other social issues through an investigation of Dickens' theological concerns. In addition, given that Dickens' texts continue to influence every generation around the globe, a timely inclusion in the collection is a consideration of the neo-Victorian multi-media representations of Dickens' work and his ideas on theological questions pitched to a postmodern society