Episode 83 - Dickens and “A Christmas Carol

Doubts Aloud Podcast

Show Notes
We start with the recent UK Parliament decision in favour of assisted dying and the religion and secular division that it brought out. Then we enjoy discussing Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at length. There’s a debate among academics on whether it is a fully secular story, or if it is a Christian allegory. We wade in. The question on what Dickens’ own beliefs were has relevance and it seems that he had a “works not faith” view of Christianity, especially with reference to A Christmas Carol (or in Ed’s words “a wishy washy Anglican”). We see a message similar to Jesus’ in Luke’s gospel in particular as well as the synoptics in general, which is in conflict with material in the rest of the NT.
Links:
The BBC documentary on assisted dying “Better Off Dead?” with actress Liz Carr
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z8wc
A short academic resource on Dickens and Christianity
https://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/religion.html
We recommend the wikipedia page on the novella
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
And the Melvin Bragg BBC Radio 4 “In Our Time” episode on it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012fl5
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