Charles Kingsley: The 20th Century Critical Heritage

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Christensen, Allan Conrad. Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Contagion: Our Feverish Contact. London: Routledge, 2005.
This book is an examination of “how the contagion of the historical moment infiltrates human relationships in such activities as military struggles, clothes-making and dressing, medical practice, love affairs, financial transactions and the use of language. . . . Drawing on recent literary theorists, Christensen suggests the permeability of the boundaries between [the examined] texts, which merge into a single narrative or grand récit of history at work” (frontispiece). Christensen makes extensive reference to Kingsley’s novel Two Years Ago throughout the work and there are also a number of allusions to Alton Locke.
Sanitation; Two Years Ago; Health.

Haley, Bruce.  The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978).
Haley in discussing Kingsley's confrontation with Newman focuses on his complex relationship with the notion of muscular Christianity.  Kingsley disliked the term and found offensive such critics as T. C. Sanders and Fitzjames Stephen who stressed the "muscular" aspect of his Christianity. Still, Kingsley strongly believed that the spiritual life was very compatible with both a sexual and a vigorous, active, sporting life.  Haley declares that he found philosophical justification for this attitude in three of Carlyle's theories: "the body is an expression of spirit, and therefore the obedience to healthy impulse is a sign of constitutional harmony; the state of health is a knowledge of the laws of nature and a compliance with these laws; and heroism is a life of action made possible by observing the laws of health" (111-112).
Newman Controversy ; Muscular Christianity ; Sexuality ; Health ; Carlyle .

Meadows, A. J.  “Kingsley’s Attitude to Science,” Theology Vol. LXXVIII, No. 655 (January 1975): 15-22.
Meadows declares that Kingsley was unlike many of his religious contemporaries in his belief that science and even the theories of Darwin actually strengthened the truths of Christianity. He also states that Kingsley viewed science as a vehicle for improving society, for example the promotion of public health. In addition, Meadows writes that Kingsley though an enthusiastic practitioner of science was still an amateur in a field that was quickly becoming professional.
Science ; Religion ; Darwin ; Health .

Rose, Caroline. “Charles Kingsley Speaking in Public: Empowered or at Risk?” Nineteenth-Century Prose Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 2002): 133-150.
In her analysis of Kingsley’s rhetoric and its effects Caroline Rose examines the relationship with his audience, how he was received and his rhetorical strategies of self-legitimation. She also focuses on the mediatory role of Kingsley’s rhetoric, contending that a strong element of Kingsley’s sense of identity was endowed in his role of intermediary. In addition, Rose argues that much of Kingsley’s power as a public speaker was due to his popularizing and promulgating of the ideas and images of degeneration.
Lecturer, Kingsley as ;  Preacher, Kingsley as ; Health
 

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