The Christian Year

Last updated

The Christian Year is a series of poems for all the Sundays and some other feasts of the liturgical year of the Church of England written by John Keble in 1827. The book is the source for several hymns.

It was first published in 1827, and quickly became extremely popular. Though at first anonymous, its authorship soon became known, with the result that Keble was in 1831 appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry, a post that he held until 1841.

In his book Heaven, Hell, and the Victorians, Victorian scholar Michael Wheeler calls The Christian Year simply "the most popular volume of verse in the nineteenth century". [1] In his essay on "Tractarian Aesthetics and the Romantic Tradition," Gregory Goodwin claims that The Christian Year is "Keble's greatest contribution to the Oxford Movement and to English literature." As evidence of that, Goodwin cites E. B. Pusey's report that ninety-five editions of this devotional text were printed during Keble's lifetime, and "at the end of the year following his death, the number had arisen to a hundred-and-nine." By the time the copyright expired in 1873, over 375,000 copies had been sold in Britain and 158 editions had been published. Despite its widespread appeal among the Victorian readers, the popularity of Keble's The Christian Year quickly faded in the twentieth century.

Related Research Articles

The Apostles' Creed, sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith".

<i>Divine Comedy</i> Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of Western literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it existed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

<i>Paradise Lost</i> Epic poem by John Milton

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books with minor revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bunyan</span> English Christian writer and preacher (1628–1688)

John Bunyan was an English writer and Puritan preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henry Newman</span> English cleric and cardinal (1801–1890)

John Henry Newman was an English theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and cardinal, who was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s, and was canonised as a saint in the Catholic Church in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Keble</span> English Anglican priest and poet (1792–1866)

John Keble was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, is named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renn Hampden</span> English bishop of Hereford and theologian

Renn Dickson Hampden was an English Anglican clergyman. His liberal tendencies led to conflict with traditionalist clergy in general and the supporters of Tractarianism during the years he taught at the University of Oxford (1829–1846) which coincided with a period of rapid social change and heightened political tensions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Edward Manning</span> English Catholic archbishop and cardinal (1808–1892)

Henry Edward Manning was an English prelate of the Catholic Church, and the second Archbishop of Westminster from 1865 until his death in 1892. He was ordained in the Church of England as a young man, but converted to Catholicism in the aftermath of the Gorham judgement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apocalypse of Peter</span> 2nd-century Christian apocalyptic text

The Apocalypse of Peter, also called the Revelation of Peter, is an early Christian text of the 2nd century and a work of apocalyptic literature. It is not included in the standard canon of the New Testament, but is classed as part of New Testament apocrypha. The Apocalypse of Peter is mentioned in the Muratorian fragment, a 2nd-century list list of books thought to be canonical in Christianity. The Muratorian fragment expresses some hesitation on the work, saying that some authorities would not have it read in church. The text is extant in two incomplete versions based on a lost Koine Greek original, a later Greek version and an Ethiopic version, which diverge considerably. It is influenced by both Jewish apocalyptic literature and Hellenistic ideas from Greek philosophy. The Apocalypse of Peter is the earliest-written extant document depicting a Christian version of heaven and hell in detail.

"Joy to the World" is an English Christmas carol. It was written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnwriter Isaac Watts, and its lyrics are a Christian reinterpretation of Psalm 98 and Genesis 3. The carol is usually sung to an 1848 arrangement by the American composer Lowell Mason.

<i>De Officiis</i> 44 BC philosophical work by Cicero

De Officiis is a 44 BC treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations. The work discusses what is honorable, what is to one's advantage, and what to do when the honorable and private gain apparently conflict. For the first two books Cicero was dependent on the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, but wrote more independently for the third book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Bray</span> British preacher

William Trewartha Bray, known as Billy Bray, was an unconventional Cornish preacher.

Essays and Reviews, edited by John William Parker, published in March 1860, is a broad-church volume of seven essays on Christianity. The topics covered the biblical research of the German critics, the evidence for Christianity, religious thought in England, and the cosmology of Genesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apocalypse of Paul</span> 4th-century Christian text

The Apocalypse of Paul is a fourth-century non-canonical apocalypse and part of the New Testament apocrypha. The full original Greek version of the Apocalypse is lost, although fragmentary versions still exist. Using later versions and translations, the text has been reconstructed, notably from Latin and Syriac translations, the earliest being a seventh-century Iranian Syriac codex known as Fonds Issayi 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bart D. Ehrman</span> American biblical scholar (born 1955)

Bart Denton Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including three college textbooks. He has also authored six New York Times bestsellers. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The New Church (Swedenborgian)</span> Several historically related Christian denominations influenced by theologian Emanuel Swedenborg

The New Church can refer to any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed under the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). The Swedenborgian tradition is considered to be a part of Restorationist Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hell</span> Abode of the dead in various cultures

In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations, the biggest examples of which are Christianity and Islam, whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the Dharmic religions. Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife destinations include heaven, paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld.

<i>Hymns Ancient and Modern</i> English hymnal

Hymns Ancient and Modern is a hymnal in common use within the Church of England, a result of the efforts of the Oxford Movement. The hymnal was first published in 1861. The organization publishing it has now been formed into a charitable trust, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd, and as of 2022 it publishes a wide range of hymnals as well as other theological and religious books and magazines, under imprints such as the Canterbury Press and SCM Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Praise, my soul, the King of heaven</span> 19th century Christian hymn

"Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" is a Christian hymn. Its text, which draws from Psalm 103, was written by Anglican divine Henry Francis Lyte. First published in 1834, it endures in modern hymnals to a setting written by John Goss in 1868, and remains one of the most popular hymns in English-speaking denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Apostasy</span> 1833 sermon by John Keble

"National Apostasy" was a sermon preached by John Keble at the University Church of St Mary, Oxford, on 14 July 1833. The sermon has traditionally been considered as the beginning of the Oxford Movement of high church Anglicans, also known as the Tractarians.

References

  1. Michael Wheeler, Heaven, Hell, and the Victorians (Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 60.