Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 5: The Novel (part one)

It was not only in the field of Welsh poetry that Welsh Nonconformity made a distinctively Christian cultural contribution. Taking the example of Pantycelyn and Bunyan’s allegorical writing and adding a liberal dash of Dickens, Welsh Nonconformity added the Christian novel to its bookshelf.

The decision of certain ministers that the writing of novels might be a means of influencing the public seems to have had a part of its roots in the temperance movement. Writing a novel in which an innocent (often female) is degraded through alcohol, ending with their redemption (or untimely end) was thought to have a greater effect in some quarters than sermonizing, like the ‘social message’ film or TV show today. The most obvious example of such a novel is Gruffydd Rhisiart’s Jeffrey Jarman (content obvious), of 1855.[1]

The popularity among English nonconformists of the stories of Emma Jane Worboise, a prolific and largely forgotten authoress,[2] showed Welsh Nonconformists that sentimental, romantic religious novels had a ready audience among evangelicals. In addition, the capture of a popular form of reading for the church would allow Nonconformists to join the popular passion for novels without compromising their faith and example. [3]

[1] Jones, Congregationalism, p.181.
[2] R. Tudur Jones, Congregationalism in England 1662-1962 (London, 1962), p.292.
[3] For a discussion of modern Christian novels, see http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2006-07-07