ABSTRACT
The opening chapter recaptures the meaning of idolatry in nineteenth-century British culture. Protestant authorities believed that the human heart persistently offends a jealous God by loving other humans too intensely. Jane Eyre, in which the heroine confesses that she has “made an idol” of her lover, provides an initial example of the impact of this belief on the Victorian domestic novel. Multiple examples of idolatry discourse, drawn from theological treatises, sermons, hymns, and religious poetry and narratives, establish a practice of deep contextualization. The chapter concludes by arguing that the historical convergence of Evangelicalism and the rise of the companionate marriage set the stage for ideological conflict between faith and love.
