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Certainly, the critics have their ammunition. The Victorians on both sides of the Atlantic indulged a naive materialism, blind to the complex web of systemic sin that supported their comfortable lifestyles. In their crusading Protestantism, they sometimes slipped into an unpleasant ethnic and cultural insularity. And they had a maddening habit of oversimplifying moral issues, as they stuck their noses in every social nook and cranny in search of vice to purge and souls to uplift.

But Louisa May Alcott's warm tale points to all that was good about that earnest century. It was the age the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) first provided young men newly arrived in the burgeoning industrial cities a haven from those cities' too-available and destructive social vices. It was the time when thousands of Christians worked tirelessly to bring about the abolition of slavery, while others campaigned successfully for thoroughgoing reform of prisons and local government. And it was the era of the successful reversal—by the massive, woman-led temperance movement—of a destructive national trend of drunkenness.

The Victorians did—there's no getting around it—change their society for the better. The reason? The transforming power of the little books under their pillows.

Theirs was, in fact, the last thoroughly Christian society in Western history.

The wars, social problems, and (most damagingly) material prosperity of the 20th and 21st centuries have so far birthed no comparable public Christian culture. We seem more distant than ever from the Victorians, whose celebration of stronger, purer virtues still cheers and challenges us from the poignant pages of Little Women.

This Christmas, let's reawaken to the Victorians' vision of families and societies healed by a gospel not just read, but lived.

Merry Victorian Christmas, everyone.

Chris Armstrong is managing editor of Christian History magazine.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More Christian History, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net.Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

No Humbug | A Christmas Carol remains the quintessential holiday story, but why? (Dec. 20, 2002)

'Tell Billy Graham the Jesus People Love Him.' | How evangelism's senior statesman helped the hippies "tune in, turn on to God." (Dec. 13, 2002)

Advent—Close Encounters of a Liturgical Kind | 'Tis the season when even the free-ranging revivalist pulls up a chair to the table of historic liturgy. (Dec. 6, 2002)

Dig that Billy Graham Cat! | How the grand old man of evangelism helped create Christian youth culture in the zoot-suit era. (Nov. 22, 2002)

From Swamped Creatures to Separated Brethren | Non-Catholics' spiritual status improved dramatically from Unam Sanctam to Vatican II, but where are we now? (Nov. 15, 2002)

An 'Ordinary Saint' in Wartime | William Wilberforce saw two long charitable campaigns through, even in war's distracting shadow. (Nov. 8, 2002)

Just War, Just Nation? | World War II preacher points America back to the nation's soul. (Nov. 1, 2002)

No Sex (Before Marriage), Please … We're Christian | Miss America preaches a 2000-year-old message. (Oct. 25, 2002)

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December (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46