Virginia Woolf was not a religious person in any traditional sense, yet
she lived and worked in an environment rich with religious thought,
imagination, and debate. From her agnostic parents to her evangelical
grandparents, an aunt who was a Quaker theologian, and her friendship
with T. S. Eliot, Woolf's personal circle was filled with atheists,
agnostics, religious scholars, and Christian converts. In this book,
Stephanie Paulsell considers how the religious milieu that Woolf
inhabited shaped her writing in unexpected and innovative ways.
Beginning with the religious forms and ideas that Woolf encountered in
her family, friendships, travels, and reading, Paulsell explores the
religious contexts of Woolf's life. She shows that Woolf engaged with
religion in many ways, by studying, reading, talking and debating,
following controversies, and thinking about the relationship between
religion and her own work. Paulsell examines the ideas about God that
hover around Woolf's writings and in the minds of her characters. She
also considers how Woolf, drawing from religious language and themes in
her novels and in her reflections on the practices of reading and
writing, created a literature that did, and continues to do, a
particular kind of religious work.
A thought-provoking contribution to the literature on Woolf and
religion, this book highlights Woolf's relevance to our post-secular
age. In addition to fans of Woolf, scholars and general readers
interested in religious and literary studies will especially enjoy
Paulsell's well-researched narrative.
