This article investigates how the SPCK, the Church of England's major nineteenth-century publ... more This article investigates how the SPCK, the Church of England's major nineteenth-century publishing house, encouraged what it saw as correct participation in church-administered rites of passage, by the mass production of tracts. SPCK's elaborate editorial policy meant that the tracts provide a rare glimpse into what can be assumed to be the Church of England's officially sanctioned voice, giving the tracts a significance beyond their survival as ephemeral religious literature. The article discusses tracts relating to marriage, baptism, churching and confirmation, the audience for which was mainly, although not exclusively, working-class adherents of the Church of England. It highlights the tangle between theological ideas and social expectations, as well as the echoes of some other theorists – from Malthus to Freud – which found their way into the Church of England's thinking at different times during this period.
By 1830, the effectiveness of the Church of England’s ministry was believed to have become seriou... more By 1830, the effectiveness of the Church of England’s ministry was believed to have become seriously compromised, because it still possessed no adequate means for disciplining its clergy. It had long been recognized that the Church’s structure, and in particular the strength of the parson’s freehold, made it impossible for it to exercise the same sort of authority over its ministers as the dissenting bodies, or even the Church of Scotland. The view that the inadequacy of disciplinary measures was detrimental to the standing of the Established Church was in fact shared both by those hostile to and those supportive of it. On the one hand, John Wade’s Extraordinary Black Book, published in 1831 and intended as an indictment of corruption, rapacity, and jobbery within the Establishment, made the exposure of abuses in Church discipline one of its principal objectives. Not unnaturally, loyal churchmen also expressed considerable anxiety at the spectacle of bishops almost powerless in the ...
This article discusses some of the ways in which ideas about the city influenced the thinking of ... more This article discusses some of the ways in which ideas about the city influenced the thinking of British Christians from 1840 to the early twentieth century. First, it explores nonconformist conceptions of the city, suggesting that, although the urban environment offered favourable circumstances for nonconformist growth, a desire to return to, or incorporate elements of, rural life was rarely far away. It explores why, when the garden city movement began, it found such fertile soil among Christian thinkers. Secondly, it considers some of the biblical paradigms that shaped late Victorian thinking about the city. Preachers and writers moved seamlessly from their well-stocked religious imaginations to contemplating the practicalities of the city, and back again. It is argued that the Christian evocation of medieval cities, biblical cities and garden cities shaped in important ways the conceptualizations of the urban world.
In the early years of the twenty-first century, ecclesiastical discipline in an Anglican context ... more In the early years of the twenty-first century, ecclesiastical discipline in an Anglican context has been very much a hot topic. Internationally, there has been intense debate over the decision by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America to ordain Gene Robinson, a continent yet avowedly homosexual priest, as one of its bishops, and over the decision of the diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorize liturgical services of blessing for same-sex couples. The Windsor Report of 2004 was commissioned in order to formulate a Communion-wide response to these developments,1 and although ‘discipline’ is a word which is very seldom in its pages, it is, in effect, a study of the disciplinary framework which its authors believe necessary in order for the Anglican Communion to hold together. At a local level, the Church of England’s clerical discipline procedures are being thoroughly overhauled, following the General Synod of the Church of England’s 1996 report on clergy discip...
In 1910, the Royal Commission on the Church of England and the Other Religious Bodies in Wales an... more In 1910, the Royal Commission on the Church of England and the Other Religious Bodies in Wales and Monmouth revealed that the Church of England was the largest religious body in Wales, and attracted over a quarter of all worshippers. This indicated a significant improvement in the Church’s fortunes in the previous half century, and a different picture from that which had emerged from the 1851 Census of Religious Worship, which had suggested that the established Church had the support of only twenty per cent of Welsh worshippers. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light upon the Church’s improving fortunes between 1851 and 1910 by exploring the liturgical patterns which were evolving in a particular Welsh county, Montgomeryshire, in the late nineteenth century. Montgomeryshire is part of the large rural heart of mid-Wales, bordered by Radnor to the south, Cardigan and Merioneth to the west, Denbigh to the north, and Shropshire to the east. The paper considers the annual, month...
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the subject of Anglican identity in the period from a... more The purpose of this paper is to investigate the subject of Anglican identity in the period from about 1800 to about 1870. This is a complex topic, and it will be possible here only to highlight a few themes. It will be suggested that the understanding of who was and who was not a ‘real’ Anglican underwent several important shifts during the period, until by the 1870s the definition had become increasingly narrow and exclusive. The result was not unity, but an atmosphere of increasingly narrow sectarianism, which had the effect of repelling those who were on the fringes of Anglican allegiance, and thus narrowing the base of lay support for the Church of England in the country at large.
Ethics (see Theology, (May/June 2000), p. 229). Both are admirable, but represent polar opposites... more Ethics (see Theology, (May/June 2000), p. 229). Both are admirable, but represent polar opposites in terms of their approaches to English religion. Whereas Gill favours a statistical analysis, Jenkins offers an anthropological account of religion as it operates in the everyday lives of ordinary English people. Bearing this in mind, Jenkins' account softens, rather than emphasizes, the distinction between churchgoers and the community of which they are part, recognizing the myriad links which join one to the other whether these be personal (chains of relationships) or historical (with a firm emphasis on local rather than national history). The core of Jenkins' book can be found in two case-studies: that of a country church near Cambridge and a longer account of the Whit Walk in the parish of Kingswood, a district in East Bristol. Regarding the former, Jenkins puts paid to two stereotypes: (a) the thriving church in a lively and effective community and (b) the idea of the rural church in crisis and decay. This is a false antithesis both in terms of the present and in terms of a supposed past contrasted with the present. Each dimension is, in fact, a complementary aspect of a single whole; the ways in which this whole maintains itself form the core of the Cambridge case-study. The Kingswood Whit Walk has, once again, a strong emphasis on locality. A parallel theme emerges, however, in an understanding of 'respectability', emphasizing the collective rather than individual nature of this quality defined as the 'desire to be a full or complete person in the terms of the local society' (p. 78). Jenkins' in-depth analysis of respectability should once again be read alongside Gill; in the former the reader begins to appreciate the intricacies of local life and what these denote in terms of moral values (or ethics to use Gill's term). What you do, where you live and the voluntary organizations (including the churches and chapels) that you join are all important in this process. Not only is the Whit Walk the starting point in Jenkins' analysis, it forms in addition a defining moment in the creation and maintenance of respectability.
This article investigates how the SPCK, the Church of England's major nineteenth-century publ... more This article investigates how the SPCK, the Church of England's major nineteenth-century publishing house, encouraged what it saw as correct participation in church-administered rites of passage, by the mass production of tracts. SPCK's elaborate editorial policy meant that the tracts provide a rare glimpse into what can be assumed to be the Church of England's officially sanctioned voice, giving the tracts a significance beyond their survival as ephemeral religious literature. The article discusses tracts relating to marriage, baptism, churching and confirmation, the audience for which was mainly, although not exclusively, working-class adherents of the Church of England. It highlights the tangle between theological ideas and social expectations, as well as the echoes of some other theorists – from Malthus to Freud – which found their way into the Church of England's thinking at different times during this period.
By 1830, the effectiveness of the Church of England’s ministry was believed to have become seriou... more By 1830, the effectiveness of the Church of England’s ministry was believed to have become seriously compromised, because it still possessed no adequate means for disciplining its clergy. It had long been recognized that the Church’s structure, and in particular the strength of the parson’s freehold, made it impossible for it to exercise the same sort of authority over its ministers as the dissenting bodies, or even the Church of Scotland. The view that the inadequacy of disciplinary measures was detrimental to the standing of the Established Church was in fact shared both by those hostile to and those supportive of it. On the one hand, John Wade’s Extraordinary Black Book, published in 1831 and intended as an indictment of corruption, rapacity, and jobbery within the Establishment, made the exposure of abuses in Church discipline one of its principal objectives. Not unnaturally, loyal churchmen also expressed considerable anxiety at the spectacle of bishops almost powerless in the ...
This article discusses some of the ways in which ideas about the city influenced the thinking of ... more This article discusses some of the ways in which ideas about the city influenced the thinking of British Christians from 1840 to the early twentieth century. First, it explores nonconformist conceptions of the city, suggesting that, although the urban environment offered favourable circumstances for nonconformist growth, a desire to return to, or incorporate elements of, rural life was rarely far away. It explores why, when the garden city movement began, it found such fertile soil among Christian thinkers. Secondly, it considers some of the biblical paradigms that shaped late Victorian thinking about the city. Preachers and writers moved seamlessly from their well-stocked religious imaginations to contemplating the practicalities of the city, and back again. It is argued that the Christian evocation of medieval cities, biblical cities and garden cities shaped in important ways the conceptualizations of the urban world.
In the early years of the twenty-first century, ecclesiastical discipline in an Anglican context ... more In the early years of the twenty-first century, ecclesiastical discipline in an Anglican context has been very much a hot topic. Internationally, there has been intense debate over the decision by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America to ordain Gene Robinson, a continent yet avowedly homosexual priest, as one of its bishops, and over the decision of the diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorize liturgical services of blessing for same-sex couples. The Windsor Report of 2004 was commissioned in order to formulate a Communion-wide response to these developments,1 and although ‘discipline’ is a word which is very seldom in its pages, it is, in effect, a study of the disciplinary framework which its authors believe necessary in order for the Anglican Communion to hold together. At a local level, the Church of England’s clerical discipline procedures are being thoroughly overhauled, following the General Synod of the Church of England’s 1996 report on clergy discip...
In 1910, the Royal Commission on the Church of England and the Other Religious Bodies in Wales an... more In 1910, the Royal Commission on the Church of England and the Other Religious Bodies in Wales and Monmouth revealed that the Church of England was the largest religious body in Wales, and attracted over a quarter of all worshippers. This indicated a significant improvement in the Church’s fortunes in the previous half century, and a different picture from that which had emerged from the 1851 Census of Religious Worship, which had suggested that the established Church had the support of only twenty per cent of Welsh worshippers. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light upon the Church’s improving fortunes between 1851 and 1910 by exploring the liturgical patterns which were evolving in a particular Welsh county, Montgomeryshire, in the late nineteenth century. Montgomeryshire is part of the large rural heart of mid-Wales, bordered by Radnor to the south, Cardigan and Merioneth to the west, Denbigh to the north, and Shropshire to the east. The paper considers the annual, month...
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the subject of Anglican identity in the period from a... more The purpose of this paper is to investigate the subject of Anglican identity in the period from about 1800 to about 1870. This is a complex topic, and it will be possible here only to highlight a few themes. It will be suggested that the understanding of who was and who was not a ‘real’ Anglican underwent several important shifts during the period, until by the 1870s the definition had become increasingly narrow and exclusive. The result was not unity, but an atmosphere of increasingly narrow sectarianism, which had the effect of repelling those who were on the fringes of Anglican allegiance, and thus narrowing the base of lay support for the Church of England in the country at large.
Ethics (see Theology, (May/June 2000), p. 229). Both are admirable, but represent polar opposites... more Ethics (see Theology, (May/June 2000), p. 229). Both are admirable, but represent polar opposites in terms of their approaches to English religion. Whereas Gill favours a statistical analysis, Jenkins offers an anthropological account of religion as it operates in the everyday lives of ordinary English people. Bearing this in mind, Jenkins' account softens, rather than emphasizes, the distinction between churchgoers and the community of which they are part, recognizing the myriad links which join one to the other whether these be personal (chains of relationships) or historical (with a firm emphasis on local rather than national history). The core of Jenkins' book can be found in two case-studies: that of a country church near Cambridge and a longer account of the Whit Walk in the parish of Kingswood, a district in East Bristol. Regarding the former, Jenkins puts paid to two stereotypes: (a) the thriving church in a lively and effective community and (b) the idea of the rural church in crisis and decay. This is a false antithesis both in terms of the present and in terms of a supposed past contrasted with the present. Each dimension is, in fact, a complementary aspect of a single whole; the ways in which this whole maintains itself form the core of the Cambridge case-study. The Kingswood Whit Walk has, once again, a strong emphasis on locality. A parallel theme emerges, however, in an understanding of 'respectability', emphasizing the collective rather than individual nature of this quality defined as the 'desire to be a full or complete person in the terms of the local society' (p. 78). Jenkins' in-depth analysis of respectability should once again be read alongside Gill; in the former the reader begins to appreciate the intricacies of local life and what these denote in terms of moral values (or ethics to use Gill's term). What you do, where you live and the voluntary organizations (including the churches and chapels) that you join are all important in this process. Not only is the Whit Walk the starting point in Jenkins' analysis, it forms in addition a defining moment in the creation and maintenance of respectability.
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