For generations, actually—from Jane’s grandfather on her mother’s side, to her father and brothers and several nephews—the Austens were known for being devout and faithful in a time when it would have been very easy to be otherwise.

Jane had no desire to write tracts disguised as fiction, and it seems she was occasionally criticized for not making her faith more overtly part of her writing.  But still, it comes through in a very gentle way. Her stories clearly have a moral heart. If she knew that others fell short, I believe it was in part because she was aware of her own failings. She crafted stories about lovely, smart, intelligent women—and men—who were blind to their own faults. Pride. Immaturity. Self-centeredness. These were not small, but impurities of character to be worked out with the help of those who loved you enough to tell you the truth.

For Jane, this working out was genuine faith, this triumph over faulty character as much to be celebrated as the excellent romantic conclusions of her novels. Jane is never heavy-handed with this, but I believe the triumph of the books, for her, in the end, is not only that the relationships come together, but the kind of people who are allowed to come together—two people with characters that have been hammered out a bit, with faults that have been recognized and corrected. They are wise and humble enough to help each other work out their faults, and appear guaranteed of some success in that regard.

Her nephew James Edward wrote about her spiritual reserve, about how she was “more inclined to think and act than to talk” about her faith.  I think this comes through clearly in her stories as well.  She was reserved, uncomfortable with the “noise” of the new Evangelical movement.  She simply wanted to live her faith, and she created characters who live out Christian principles without discussing them explicitly.

In spite of her reticence to discuss her faith, there are three Evening Prayers of Austen’s which survive.  They are beautiful, asking God for wisdom, thanking him for blessings, praying for a repentant heart. 

“May we now, and on each return of night, consider how the past day has been spent by us,” Austen says, “what have been our prevailing thoughts, words, and actions during it, and how far we can acquit ourselves of evil.  Have we thought irreverently of thee, have we disobeyed thy commandments, have we neglected any known duty, or willingly given pain to any human being?  Incline ourselves to ask our hearts these questions oh! God, and save us from deceiving ourselves by pride or vanity.”

It’s a prayer Elizabeth or Darcy or Marianne at their best could echo.

Adapted from A Walk with Jane Austen.  Copyright © 2007 by Lori Smith.  Used by permission.  WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO.  All right reserved. 

Lori Smith is a full-time freelance writer whose first book, The Single Truth received widespread acclaim and was featured in a front page story in The New York Times. She has covered religion writing for Publishers Weekly since 2004, and her writing has been featured on Breakpoint.org and in Washingtonian magazine, Christian Single, and Discipleship Journal.  

Her second book, A Walk with Jane Austen (WaterBrook Press), will be available in Ocotber 2007.  Tracing the steps of her literary hero Jane Austen, Lori explores universal themes of love, heartache, community, independence, creativity, a woman’s place in the world, and the rarely primed subject of Jane’s faith—and Lori’s own.