News & Diary - 19.12.2025
Jane Austen and Religion: A blog by Anna Matthews
During Jane Austen’s formative years, her father was the rector of the Anglican parishes of Steventon and Dean, Hampshire (shown above is Steventon Rectory, where Jane grew up). Austen’s Christian faith was a deeply integral part of who she was. She was a Christian who lived a Christian life. Religion not only strongly influenced the manner in which Jane Austen lived but also how she wrote.
Religion was at the core of Jane Austen’s family life. She likely prayed each morning and evening, also joining her family in daily prayers which she penned. As noted by Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, ‘A whole family assembling regularly for the purpose of prayer is fine.’
Jane Austen’s brother Henry said she ‘was thoroughly religious and devout; fearful of giving any offence to God, and incapable of feeling it towards any fellow creature. On serious subjects she was well instructed, both by reading and meditation, and her opinions accorded strictly with those of our Established Church.’
One of Austen’s most treasured possessions was a topaz amber cross received from her brother Charles in 1801. The fact Charles chose a cross rather than a locket signified Jane Austen’s deep Christian faith. The significance of this gift to Jane Austen is reflected in Mansfield Park, when William Price bestows a similar cross on Fanny.
Mansfield Park is Jane Austen’s most religious novel, positively presenting the theme of religion and depicting the model clergyman Edmund Bertram, who is quite different to the comical clergyman Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice.
Austen referred to the failings of the nation’s manners and morals critically in her novels, for example through the character Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park, who speaks of adultery as ‘acceptable as long as it was discreet’ and furthermore speaks disparagingly of religion, opposing Edmund’s view of adultery as sin. Mary belittles Edmund, mockingly quipping that she will next hear of him as ‘a missionary or a Methodist’. The sin of gambling is used to convey the moral failings of Pride and Prejudice’s villain George Wickham, whilst John Thorpe’s boasting of excessive drinking in Northanger Abbey demonstrates his unsavoury character.
Jane Austen contrasts such behaviours with more wholesome characters such as Fanny Price and Mr. Knightley, presenting moral growth as compatible with Christian ethics. Jane Austen also demonstrates her expectation of moral decorum in Persuasion, such as through criticism by Anne Elliot of her cousin, Mr. William Elliot, for travelling on a Sunday and missing church.
Jane Austen’s Christian faith and wit charmingly blend in her poem regarding her fellow churchgoers, penned in 1807.
Happy the lab’rer in his Sunday cloathes!
In light-drab coat, smart waistcoat, well-darn’d hose,
And hat upon his head, to church he goes;
As oft, with conscious pride, he downward throws
A glance upon the ample cabbage rose
Which, stuck in button-hole, regales his nose,
He envies not the gayest London beaux.
In church he takes his seat among the rows,
Pays to the place the reverence he owes,
Likes best the prayers whose meaning least he knows,
Lists to the sermon in a softening doze,
And rouses joyous at the welcome close.
Jane Austen’s novels are globally recognised and are matched by the honest beauty within her three Evening Prayers, which demonstrate her gentle love and faith. As noted by Rachel Dodge, Austen’s prayers contain meanings ‘that reach far beyond elegant words or graceful phrases. They are personal and reflective, passionate and thorough.’ Her prayers illustrate devotion to the faith that defined her life and influenced the tropes of human goodness and morality which permeate her beloved novels.
…May we now, and on each return
of night, consider how the past
day has been spent by us, what have
been our prevailing thoughts,
words, and actions during it.
AMEN
