The Gospel of Amy: Biblical Teaching and Learning in Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit

This article argues for a revised view of Charles Dickens as a more mature and profound Christian thinker than his reputation has suggested. The author disputes critic Janet Larson’s view that Little Dorrit increasingly reflects a “broken scripture,” a Bible that has lost meaning in an industrialized world. In contrast, this article argues that the figure of Amy Dorrit is one intended to engage the reader in addressing the moral and ethical concerns of this world, not to present the ominous shadow of a failed apocalypse. Dickens’ work represents not a decline in theology, but the development of a new kind of theology.