In Jane Austen and the War of Ideas ( 1975 ) , perhaps the most important of these works , Marilyn Butler argues that Austen was greatly influenced by the principal moral and political arguments of her time , and that she had a partisan , firmly conservative and Christian position in these arguments . In Jane Austen and the War of Ideas ( 1975 ) , perhaps the most important of these works , Marilyn Butler argues that Austen was steeped in , not insulated from , the principal moral and political controversies of her time , and espoused a partisan , fundamentally conservative and Christian position in these controversies .