Discuss the theme of religion in Jane Eyre in relation to the character St John Rivers.

St John Rivers represents to Jane a form of Christianity that enforces the suppression of deep human emotion, and the absolute devotion to the duty given by God without the interference of personal agency. St John embraces this form of devout and zealous Christianity, and devotes his life to God through denying any feelings he has of love or passion, and instead uses ambition and the strive for glory to provide him with a purpose. We can see this in his refusal to enact on his feelings for Rosamond Oliver, who he shows deep affection for, and his decision to marry Jane instead because she is better suited to become a 'missionary's wife' and will aid him in his duty rather than deter him from his mission. St John does not see marriage as a bonding of love unlike Jane, but rather as a way of attaining his ambitions.
St John considers the act of missionary work as God's duty, but we can see that he does not complete this work out of kindness or good intent. Rather, we can see through Jane's use of language that he considers the work as a form of 'warfare', his mission to civilise these foreign natives with the religion of Christianity through brute force and will. From a postcolonial approach, we can consider St John's views on the native people as a reflection of Eurocentric ideals in the Victorian period, a time in which colonialism was celebrated and many shared the belief that these native people were uncivilised and inhuman as they do not have Christianity to guide them. Therefore, there came the belief amongst missionaries that by spreading the religion and imposing European ideals such as culture and language onto the natives meant that they would be saved from their savage nature through God and through civility.