The 1890s

The 1890s were a difficult decade for the Clemens as they dealt with the death of their daughter Susy at age twenty-four and financial struggles that brought them nearly to bankruptcy and led Twain to undertake a world lecturing tour to pay off their debts. More positively, by the mid-1890s, Twain was a global celebrity whose opinions were solicited on many matters and who enjoyed friendships with numerous political, business, and literary luminaries. In earlier works, Twain had spoofed religious tracts, pompous preachers and grandstanders, and pretentious moralizing, but during the 1890s, his criticism of Christianity, God, and the Bible became harsher. In 1896, however, Twain published his most enigmatic book—Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc—a glowing portrait of the fifteenth-century French warrior-saint who played a pivotal role in liberating France from long-standing British domination but was captured and burned at the stake for her alleged heresy.

1835–1860

Twain was reared in Hannibal, a very religious small town in Missouri by a Presbyterian mother and a freethinking father. The “Presbyterian conscience” he developed as a youth deeply affected him throughout his life. Twain’s experiences in Sunday school and church and difficult childhood that included the loss of his father and two older siblings, fear of dying, and observations of drownings, murder, and mayhem are featured in many of his writings. Both Twain and many scholars have misrepresented the Calvinism that was preached and taught in antebellum Hannibal by portraying it as denying human free agency, preaching a prosperity gospel, damning the vast majority of people to perdition, and focusing on hell. Twain was especially affected by the death of his younger brother Henry as a result of a steamboat explosion when Twain was 22.

The 1880s

The 1880s were a productive decade for Twain as four of his books—The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)—were published. Huckleberry Finn is replete with religious themes. During the 1880s, Twain promoted social reform through his writing, speaking, and activities in Hartford and condemned racial discrimination. Although he did not share all their theological convictions, Twain applauded and supported the efforts of Social Gospelers to curb industrial ills, decrease poverty, and assist immigrants. Twain especially strove to improve politics, reduce racism, and improve the opportunities and status of women, and he denounced materialism, avarice, and fraudulent business practices.

Conclusion

Understanding what Twain believed about religious matters is complicated by his desire not to hurt Livy, her censorship of some of his writings, his wanting to avoid being attacked for his skeptical positions, and his wish to not tarnish his reputation or hinder the sale of his books. Twain withheld many religious views he thought his Hartford neighbors would consider outrageous or heretical. Examining Twain’s own statements, comments by his family, friends, and acquaintances, his funeral and obituaries, and the conflicting views of scholars, the author rejects both the arguments that Twain was an atheist, an agnostic, or a heretic and that many of his views accorded with conventional Christian faith. Instead, he argues that the religious views he expressed throughout his life are complicated and often contradictory; they convey his strong desire to make sense of the universe and his own life.

The 1860s

During the 1860s, Twain worked as a journalist in Virginia City, Nevada, and San Francisco and traveled to Europe and the Middle East (most notably Palestine) on an excursion with a group of Americans, which enabled him to write his best-selling Innocents Abroad. Twain met Olivia (Livy) Langdon through her brother, a fellow traveler. His courtship of the religiously devout Livy prompted Twain to reassess his relationship with God and his understanding of Christianity, prayer, and Providence and to declare himself to be a Christian. During this decade, Twain developed friendships with several ministers, battled depression, and struggled to determine his vocation. He also strove to adopt Eastern mores and conventional ethical practices and reinvent himself as a Christian husband who could provide financial security and spiritual guidance for his family. Scholars debate whether his conversion was genuine, self-deluded, or fabricated to please his future wife and her parents.

The 1870s

The 1870s were generally happy and successful ones for Twain and his family as they became part of a congenial community in Hartford, Connecticut, and writings flowed from his pen. During this decade, Twain wrote Roughing It (1872), The Gilded Age (1873), and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He lampooned greed and corruption in The Gilded Age and numerous essays. Tom Sawyer contains several stories about Sunday school escapades and revival meetings based on Twain’s childhood. Twain’s friendship with Joseph Twichell, the pastor of the Asylum Hill (Congregational) Church in Hartford, was deep, meaningful, and long-lasting. Their relationship as well as an examination of Twain’s view of Christ, human nature, sin, salvation, Christianity, and the church helps illuminate Twain’s religious convictions during the 1870s.

The 1900s

During the final decade of his life, Twain received several devastating blows—the death of his beloved wife in 1904, the death of his daughter Jean in 1909, and his own declining health. These and other problems have led some scholars to portray him as a bitter, cynical, disillusioned codger who was hamstrung by his misfortunes and angry as his creative powers diminished and his health deteriorated. This, they say, led him to repudiate Christianity, adopt a deterministic worldview, and savagely rail against an implacable, depraved God, a hypocritical, heartless Christianity and the damned human race. Twain’s writings during his final decade allegedly displayed his relentless despair as he embraced social and spiritual nihilism. At the same time, his criticisms of various groups including missionaries, villains, especially Russian Czar Nicholas II and Belgian King Leopold II, and several ideologies—militarism, imperialism, anti-Semitism—became increasingly caustic.

Introduction

Twain is one of America’s most popular, renowned, and influential authors. He grappled with major theological concepts and issues and strove incessantly to find meaning in life. Twain extensively analyzed and criticized the biblical God, Christ, the Bible, and Christianity. His constantly changing views of these matters have led scholars to identify Twain as an agnostic, an atheist, a secularist, and a theologically liberal Christian. Twain functioned as a preacher, prophet, and social philosopher. He used his penetrating pen and the lecture platform to proclaim his understanding of the truth, attack a wide variety of social injustices, and present his views on numerous philosophical issues. Twain’s influence on American society extended well beyond providing entertaining, humorous novels, short stories, and essays as he addressed such major questions as is there a God, what is the nature of human beings, what is the purpose of life, and is there an afterlife.