enae Dyck's Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination is a comprehensive look at how Biblical wisdom literature influenced the creative works of five different Victorian writers. Dyck clearly perceives the necessity of such a work at this time. There has been a recent surge of scholarly literature examining the relationship between religion and secularity, and she makes the significant point that it is not only within the field of literature that this conversation is occurring. There is multi-disciplinary disagreement concerning "once widely held assumptions about the overall decline of faith in the nineteenth century" (2). Narrowing her scope to 1840-1880, when the debate about higher criticism reached its peak, Dyck presents a comprehensive and well-researched study, including extensive examinations of each author as well as historical context and biographical information, as well as compelling arguments to show the pervasiveness of particular religious ideas throughout each writer's corpus.
Opening with a chapter titled "Introduction: Biblical Interpretation, Victorian Writers, and Wisdom Literature," Dyck begins by citing Oscar Wilde's The Critic As Artist (1891), in which Wilde argues for the legitimacy of criticism as an art form. In this work, he claims that Charles Darwin and the nineteenth-century religious scholar Ernest Renan are responsible for a crucial, critical juncture in their time, as the former is a critic of God, and the latter a critic of nature (1). This might seem a surprising point of departure, for while many would readily admit the significance of Darwin, few would consider Renan his equal in terms of influence. Yet Wilde's choice of Renan makes sense. Although scholars have devoted enormous effort to tracing evolutionary theory's effect on literature, Dyck argues that much of this research fails to consider the crucial religious context that biblical scholarship provides (1). She focuses specifically on wisdom literature, which "presents a strategic opportunity to explore the theory and practice of interpretation because so much of it is explicitly concerned with the search for order, purpose, and meaning" (3). The nature of wisdom literature allows its authors, particularly those re-evaluating their faith, to consider these works in their search for truth. Finally, she identifies the thesis of the book: "By both responding to critical findings and returning to exegetical traditions focused on contemplation and application, [Victorian wisdom writers] invite readers to participate in an ongoing work of forming wisdom—both as a textual experience and as an embodied practice" (4-5). While her introduction is compelling, Dyck only introduces Darwin's foil, Renan, briefly on first mention; a bit more information at this early point would have been helpful in establishing the general argument.
Dyck's first chapter, "Wisdom's Call: Poetic Dialogue and the Echoes of Job in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's A Drama of Exile," opens with an elucidation of the twentieth-century philosopher Paul Ricoeur's main themes of biblical wisdom literature: "solitude, the fault, suffering, and death." Dyck claims that these themes align with the central concerns of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry, most obviously with A Drama of Exile (1845; 31). Dyck sees this poem in particular as highlighting the repercussions of the Fall, instead of merely being yet another narrative about the Fall. This emphasis suggests that Browning is engaging with Biblical literature beyond Genesis, unlike other writers of Fall narratives who focus solely on the story in Genesis. Dyck maintains that viewing A Drama of Exile through a lens derived from biblical scholarship shows that the poem contributes to a pivotal event in Biblical exegesis, and that is viewing the Bible's author as man alone rather than specifically as someone inspired by the Holy Spirit. The significance, Dyck maintains, is that "through her reverent yet innovative engagement with biblical poetry as poetry, Barrett Browning questions the idea that religious revelation consists of a single and authoritative divine pronouncement." Revelation, in Barrett Browning's hands, becomes instead "a flexible concept" referring to "a dynamic process–a model that aligns in prescient and compelling ways with the work of later exegetical and hermeneutic thinkers such as Ricoeur" (34). Dyck additionally argues that the poet "adapts the book of Job's poetic dialogues to awaken new ways of perceiving the postlapsarian world" (59).
In the second chapter, "Wisdom's Footsteps: Heuristic Pathways and Proverbial Aphorisms in George Macdonald's Phantastes," Dyck turns a literary critical lens on MacDonald's 1858 fantasy novel, arguing that "As much as Phantastes is a story about character formation, it is also a story about becoming an attentive reader" (60). At the same time, Dyck goes to great lengths to establish the historical context in which Macdonald is writing, arguing that his "writings on the imagination take shape against the backdrop of a widespread Romantic recovery of wonder and mystery, as well as more specific theological controversies about biblical inspiration" (62). While Dyck's comparisons to other Romantic writers are thorough, such extensive consideration does not always add to her overall argument about what Macdonald is doing (63). Her main point about Macdonald is that he maintained an open mind. Dyck demonstrates Macdonald's "epistemic humility and disposition of openness he regarded as integral to wisdom writing" (68) that ultimately placed an "emphasis on cultivating wonder" (68). Calling this emphasis "a productive doubt," Dyck underscores two related points she makes throughout: That Victorians questioned longheld beliefs hardly means that they neglected them altogether, and these reconsiderations need not be viewed negatively.
In her third chapter, "Wisdom's Turn: Historical Recovery, Narrative Possibility, and the Direction of Biblical Parables in George Eliot's Romola," Dyck argues against the prevailing interpretation of the story, found in J. Russell Perkin's Theology and the Victorian Novel, as representing Mary Anne Evans' decision to neglect her faith and become the atheist George Eliot. On Dyck's view, this interpretation is inaccurate because the novels of George Eliot "do not align with tidy models of secularization." Rather, Eliot's "creative responses to nineteenth-century debates in biblical interpretation are a vital aspect of this narrative complexity." To neglect to account for Eliot's inclusion of biblical elements, "from verbal echoes to ethical insights," is therefore, according to Dyck, to misinterpret Eliot's creative expression (87). Throughout the chapter, Dyck effectively presents a more nuanced interpretation of the relationship between Eliot's personal faith and her writing. Her analysis, which includes Eliot's influences, traces this point in Eliot's works besides Romola (1862), including her poems, "The Legend of Jubal" (1869) and "The Death of Moses" (1875), as well as her novel, Daniel Deronda (1867; 93). According to Dyck, an important aspect of Eliot's orientation is that morality is a matter of interpretation; Deronda's famous lack of certainty ultimately reflects Eliot's point as it applies to the human condition as a whole (94-95). Even though one cannot doubt that Eliot contests certain aspects of Christian doctrine, Dyck argues that this stance does not prevent Eliot from valuing "the artistic qualities of religious texts" (103). Rather than discounting the complexity of Eliot's relationship to religious faith, Dyck's adept approach sheds light on aspects of her faith journey that have not yet been fully addressed by scholars.
In Chapter 4, "Wisdom's Reach: Mythmaking, Incarnational Poetics, and Interpretive Limits in John Ruskin's The Queen of the Air," Dyck links Eliot and Ruskin, connecting Eliot's presentation of uncertainty in Romola with Ruskin's emphasis on the inability to know in The Queen of the Air (1869). Ruskin's familiarity with biblical criticism, including John William Parker's Essays and Reviews (1860) and Bishop John William Colenso's The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined (1862), informs Dyck's analysis of his main character, Athena, and of the work's didactic message of how to read and teach well (117). Dyck again provides thorough historical context, this time by explaining that Ruskin's The Queen of the Air appeared at a "defining moment within nineteenth-century intellectual history: the advent of comparative religious study, a field with close ties to the work of biblical higher critics" (114). Dyck claims Ruskin "approaches the stories about Athena in an imaginative mode: not as claims to be proved but as mysteries to be pondered" (110). Dyck argues that Ruskin, like Eliot, believed in a more nuanced view of the Bible, and after detailing his Biblical knowledge, argues that Ruskin believed the Bible could be in conversation with other religions (119). Significantly, Ruskin's work emphasizes "epistemic limitation" (127) and "calls for reorientation toward all life, not just human life" (132). Again, even though Dyck focuses mainly on The Queen of the Air, she supports her thesis with Ruskin's other works in order to show the wider ramifications of her analysis. She is not merely pointing out an anomaly within this one work (137).
Dyck turns next to Olive Schreiner, examining her work through the lens of wisdom literature in a fifth and final chapter, "Wisdom's Breath: Revelation, Concealment, and the Energy of Ecclesiastes in Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm." As in her analysis of Eliot, Dyck is here again concerned to show how any full and accurate interpretation of Schreiner's work must take into account her personal religious beliefs and understand them appropriately in context. Dyck notes that while Schreiner was raised as a Christian, by the time she was an adult, she identified as a "freethinker," a label for detractors of organized faith (143). However, her personal beliefs did not mean that she did not continue to study the Bible, especially Ecclesiastes, and allow it to inform her creative work (144). Interestingly, Dyck argues that applying the phrase "crisis of faith" to writers like Schreiner is an unfortunately one-dimensional way to framing of a much more complex issue (147).
The Story of an African Farm is an example of how, rather than rejecting the Bible altogether, Schreiner uses this story to bring wisdom literature to the forefront of the conversation (145). Dyck notes the autobiographical nature of this work, which was informed by Schreiner's time "on a Wesleyan mission station near Wittebergen, South Africa" (147). In providing this personal context and highlighting Schreiner's nuanced view of wisdom literature, Dyck hopes to "help Victorian studies to move beyond a eductive concept of religion according to a faith/doubt dichotomy and pursue more robust explorations of religious discourse for both its tensions and its many-sided textures" (163). Schreiner provides the perfect culminating example since while she may question religious doctrine, she still considers wisdom literature in order "to catalyze an ongoing process of spiritual searching" (166).
It is fitting that Dyck chooses to end her monograph with a Coda, rather than a typical conclusion or epilogue, since she explicitly leaves the conversation open for further discussion. She notes that this point is indicative of the nature of wisdom literature itself, as no matter how hard one studies it, "the design of the universe remains hidden" (175). Dyck emphasizes the significance of this study today, exploring opportunities for further research in this vein and emphasizing the need for peaceful inquiry (176-78). She also provides the reader with a list of other works to consider (180). Most importantly, she concludes by reminding readers that even as the authors she examines "wrestle with wisdom literature's abiding tension between finitude and fullness, they extend this unending searching toward their readers. They remind us that there is a time to interrogate and a time to uphold, a time to search and a time to savor, a time to criticize and a time to create" (183).
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
[book under review] Dyck, Denae. Biblical Wisdom and the Victorian Literary Imagination. London: Bloomsbury, 2024. Hbk. 216 pages. ISBN 978-1350335370. $103.50.
Perkins, J. Russell. Theology and the Victorian Novel. Montréal and Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queens University Press, 2009.
Created 27 October 2025
Last modified 12 November 2025