The Soul of a Bishop
A bishop's crisis of faith leads him from the Church.
The Soul of a Bishop is a 1917 novel by H. G. Wells. It explores a spiritual crisis that leads an Anglican bishop to abandon his diocese and the Church. The work reflects Wells's own religious questioning during World War I.
Quick Facts
- Author
- H. G. Wells
- Illustrator
- Charles Allan Gilbert
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- Cassell (UK); Macmillan (US)
- Released
- 1917
- Pages
- 341
Facts from the source article.
Plot summary
The Soul of a Bishop follows Edward Scrope, Lord Bishop of Princhester, as a spiritual crisis prompts him to give up his diocese in England's industrial heartland and leave the Anglican Church. During World War I, Scrope is troubled by doctrinal doubts, a sense of his Anglicism's irrelevance, nervousness, and insomnia. A visit to a wealthy parishioner's home introduces him to Lady Sunderbund, an extremely wealthy American widow, to whom he first speaks of his religious discontent. Shortly after, he takes a drug that, rather than easing his symptoms, gives him a new and more vivid apprehension of things. He experiences a mystical vision of the Angel of God and then God in the North Library of the Athenaeum Club, London. Convinced he must leave the Church, he is persuaded by an old mentor, Bishop Likeman, to wait three months, during which he continues his episcopal duties. Scrope keeps these developments from his wife, Lady Ella, and his four daughters until Lady Sunderbund arrives unannounced in Princhester, vowing to become his spiritual pupil. The strain leads him to take the drug a second time, resulting in a vision of the terrestrial globe in spiritual ferment, to which the world's clergy is not ministering. He delivers a heretical confirmation address in the cathedral and resolves to leave the Church. Lady Sunderbund wishes to fund a new church, but Scrope realizes in a third, drug-free vision that the new religion must have no pulpit or sustained mission. In a final epiphany, he understands that his refusal to trust his family to God has held him back, and that this distrust has been the flaw in all religious systems. Five years after it began, his crisis is resolved.
Themes
The Soul of a Bishop is a novelistic treatment of themes Wells developed in God the Invisible King, published the same year. In both works, Wells rejects the theological doctrine of the Trinity, which he attributed to the Council of Nicaea; the novel opens with Scrope dreaming about that council. Wells experienced a religious conversion during World War I, which his biographer David C. Smith reports did not last long and mirrored similar experiences provoked by the war. These beliefs proved a passing phase; essentially, Wells had tried Christianity in a much-altered version and found it wanting. Another biographer, Vincent Brome, wrote that within a few years Wells's natural anti-clericalism reasserted itself, and later in life he was uneasy about the lapse.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who illustrated The Soul of a Bishop?
The Soul of a Bishop was illustrated by Charles Allan Gilbert.
How many pages is The Soul of a Bishop?
The Soul of a Bishop has 341 pages.
More in Novels by H. G. Wells
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