Not of our race, nor yet wholly strangers: Race, religion and empire in some novels of early Christian Britain

Abstract

The small generic niche of nineteenth century historical novels set in early Christian Britain allows room for the expression of a variety of positions on such topics of popular concern as the racial origins and identity of the English, the form of Christianity proper to England, and the moral questions attending the status of England as an imperial power. Novels construct narratives which support views of the English as entirely Anglo-Saxon or as significantly Celtic in origin, visions of church history congruent with evangelical, broad church and Anglo-Catholic positions and attitudes to empire which range from openly jingoistic to ambivalent or critical.