Jesus and Jane Austen: Tracing a Christian model, or more than meets the eye, in 'Mansfield Park', 'Persuasion', 'Emma', and 'Pride and Prejudice'

As recorded in her biographies, Jane Austen was a devout Christian. Her Christian spirit is revealed in her novels: Mansfield Park Persuasion, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice. The heroines illuminate a spirituality based on Christian principles which is arrived at through reasonable thinking and self-knowledge. The characters may be said to imitate Christ. This aspect of Austen's classics contributes to their current popularity in both books and film.;To analyse spirituality in the heroines, eighteenth-century sermons of the Established Church and conduct books of Austen's time are examined. In Mansfield Park Fanny Price is seen to have all the traits of the scriptural fruits of the spirit, the spirit of Christ as was sermonized at the time. Anne Elliot in Persuasion presents a similar Christ-like image. These heroines demonstrate incredible patience, humility, charity, and loving relationships. They are allegorical figures of the practising Christian. Emma in Emma and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice , with the help of Knightley and Darcy respectively, follow the Christian journey from flawed individuals to repentance, forgiveness and redemption, to arrive at a place of love, and harmony.