Jane Austen's Religious Imagination: A Balance of Reason and Feeling

We cannot pretend to understand Austen's life and novels without acknowledging her Anglican faith; however, if religious critics wish to influence Austen studies, they are obliged to move within an established frame of what is clearly demonstrated and widely accepted. This means locating any religious interpretation of her novels within her well known dialectic of neoclassical reason and romantic feeling, and understanding how her faith influences the way she arranges her literary marriages. Michael Giffin discusses the religious aspects of Austen's six published novels and suggests that she makes a temperamental distinction between reason and feeling, depending on whether her heroines are destined to become first lady of a parish or first lady of an estate.