Abstract

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Anglo-American civilization underwent a crisis of faith. In a world shaped increasingly by scientific and materialist standards of judgment and progress, intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic detected a weakening in the supernatural underpinning of Christianity. Fearing an erosion of standards of authority in a time of increasing democratization and social mobility, many were caught up in a search for a new "center" of authority capable of sustaining standards to provide a sense of direction and meaning amid the multiplicity of changes. ;Matthew Arnold articulates a persuasive case for "culture" to function as a governing ideal for the modern world. Associated by Arnold with the traditional moral values of Christianity as well as the liberal and humane standards of classical humanism, "culture" functions effectively in Arnold's rhetoric as a centering symbol. A close analysis of his attempt to use "culture" to reinvigorate Christianity, by purging it of supernatural elements he believed to be weakening its plausibility, reveals, however, the critical dependence of Arnold's doctrine of culture on the very supernatural Christianity it is meant to supplant. ;Henry James illustrates a different kind of reliance on culture as a surrogate for religion. Sharing Arnold's alarm at the threat to cultural standards posed by the gathering whirlwinds of democratic materialism most evident on the "American Scene," James has no program of reform or reconstruction to propose following his visit to America in 1904-1905. While he appreciates the beneficent historical contribution of Christianity to culture, he does not look to it for relief. James illustrates a more extreme response to the breakdown of traditional standards and to the absence of faith: the cultivation of a private appreciation of culture in consciousness to provide some of the comfort and hints of transcendence normally afforded by religious faith. ;James's value as a cultural critic is in dramatizing the devastation wrought by an unrestrained standard of materialism. Arnold, however inadequate his own standard of culture, offers even more valuable warnings against the danger of falling prey to vain dogmatisms in our eagerness today to find common standards of value