Anti-Catholicism has been a feature of British history from the Reformation, but it has been little studied for the period since the Second World War, and rarely using quantitative methods. A thematically-arranged aggregate analysis of around 180 opinion polls among representative samples of adults since the 1950s offers insights into developing attitudes of the British public to Catholics and the Catholic Church. Anti-Catholicism against individual Catholics is found to have diminished. Negativity toward the Catholic Church and its leadership has increased, especially since the Millennium. Generic and specific explanations are offered for these trends, within the context of other manifestations of religious prejudice and other religious changes.
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Baker Paul, , Gabrielatos Costas, , & McEnery Tony, Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes: The Representation of Islam in the British Press (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
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——, Tony Glendinning, , Iain Paterson, , & Michael Rosie, Sectarianism in Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004).
Bush Jonathan, “Papists” and Prejudice: Popular Anti-Catholicism and Anglo-Irish Conflict in the North East of England, 1845–70 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).
Chaves Mark, “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority,” Social Forces 72/3 (1994), 749–774.
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——, “‘The Haemorrhage of Faith?’ Opinion Polls as Sources for Religious Practices, Beliefs, and Attitudes in Scotland since the 1970s,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 16/2 (2001), 157–175.
——, “Is the Bible Becoming a Closed Book? British Opinion Poll Evidence,” Journal of Contemporary Religion forthcoming.
——, “Islamophobia in Contemporary Britain: The Evidence of the Opinion Polls, 1988–2006,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 18/4 (2007), 447–477.
——, “John Bull’s Judeophobia: Images of the Jews in British Public Opinion Polls since the Late 1930s,” Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 15 (2006), 259–300.
——, “Measuring Religious Affiliation in Great Britain: The 2011 Census in Historical and Methodological Context,” Religion forthcoming.
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——, “Revisiting Islamophobia in Contemporary Britain, 2007–10,” in Helbling Marc (ed.), Islamophobia in the West (London: Routledge, 2012), 147–161.
——, & Ben Clements, “Public Opinion toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights in Great Britain,” Public Opinion Quarterly forthcoming.
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——, “Protestant-Catholic Divisions in Europe and the United States: An Historical and Comparative Perspective,” Politics, Religion & Ideology 12/3 (2011), 241–256.
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——, “What We Really Think,” The Tablet, 9 November 2013, 12–13.
John Wolffe (ed.), Protestant-Catholic Conflict from the Reformation to the Twenty-First Century: The Dynamics of Religious Difference (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); Yvonne Maria Werner & Jonas Harvard (eds.), European Anti-Catholicism in a Comparative and Transnational Perspective (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013). For a review of earlier writings, see Marjule Anne Drury, “Anti-Catholicism in Germany, Britain, and the United States: A Review and Critique of Recent Scholarship,” Church History 70/1 (2001), 98–131.
Mark Massa, Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2003); Philip Jenkins, The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Arthur Marotti, Religious Ideology and Cultural Fantasy: Catholic and Anti-Catholic Discourses in Early Modern England (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005); Leticia Álvarez Recio, Fighting the AntiChrist: A Cultural History of Anti-Catholicism in Tudor England (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2011).
Colin Haydon, Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England, c. 1714–80: A Political and Social Study (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993).
Edward Norman, Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England (London: Allen and Unwin, 1968); Robert Klaus, The Pope, the Protestants, and the Irish: Papal Aggression and Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Nineteenth Century England (New York: Garland Publishing, 1987); Frank Neal, Sectarian Violence: The Liverpool Experience, 1819–1914 – An Aspect of Anglo-Irish History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988); John Wolffe, The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain, 1829–1860 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991); Denis Paz, Popular Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Victorian England (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992); Frank Wallis, Popular Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Victorian Britain (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993); Jonathan Bush, “Papists” and Prejudice: Popular Anti-Catholicism and Anglo-Irish Conflict in the North East of England, 1845–70 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).
Steve Bruce, God Save Ulster: The Religion and Politics of Paisleyism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986); John Brewer with Gareth Higgins, Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600–1998: The Mote and the Beam (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1998). See also footnote 16, below, for British opinion polls on the Northern Ireland question.
Steve Bruce, No Pope of Rome: Anti-Catholicism in Modern Scotland (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1985); Tom Gallagher, Glasgow: The Uneasy Peace: Religious Tension in Modern Glasgow (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987); Joseph Bradley, Ethnic and Religious Identity in Modern Scotland: Culture, Politics, and Football (Aldershot: Avebury, 1995); Tom Devine (ed.), Scotland’s Shame? Bigotry and Sectarianism in Modern Scotland (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2000); Steve Bruce, Tony Glendinning, Iain Paterson, & Michael Rosie, Sectarianism in Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004); Michael Rosie, The Sectarian Myth in Scotland: Of Bitter Memory and Bigotry (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); Steve Bruce, Tony Glendinning, Iain Paterson, & Michael Rosie, “Religious Discrimination in Scotland: Fact or Myth?” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28/1 (2005), 151–168; Tom Gallagher, Divided Scotland: Ethnic Friction and Christian Crisis (Glendaruel: Argyll Publishing, 2013); Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services, An Examination of the Evidence on Sectarianism in Scotland (2013), http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/ 0042/00424891.pdf (accessed 14 March 2014).
Trystan Owain Hughes, “Anti-Catholicism in Wales, 1900–1960,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 53/2 (2002), 312–325; Paul O’Leary, “When was Anti-Catholicism? The Case of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Wales,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 56/2 (2005), 308–325 (with response by Hughes at 326–333).
Clive Field, “Islamophobia in Contemporary Britain: The Evidence of the Opinion Polls, 1988–2006,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 18/4 (2007), 447–477 and “Revisiting Islamophobia in Contemporary Britain, 2007–10,” in Marc Helbling (ed.), Islamophobia in the West: Measuring and Explaining Individual Attitudes (London: Routledge, 2012), 147–161.
Edward Norman, Roman Catholicism in England: From the Elizabethan Settlement to the Second Vatican Council (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 126.
Simon Green, The Passing of Protestant England: Secularisation and Social Change, c. 1920–1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Clive Field, “John Bull’s Judeophobia: Images of the Jews in British Public Opinion Polls since the Late 1930s,” Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 15 (2006), 259–300.
John Wolffe, “Protestant-Catholic Divisions in Europe and the United States: An Historical and Comparative Perspective,” Politics, Religion & Ideology 12/3 (2011), 241–256.
Mark Chaves, “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority,” Social Forces 72/3 (1994), 749–774.
Linda Woodhead, “What We Really Think,” The Tablet, 9 November 2013, 12–13 and “Endangered Species,” The Tablet, 16 November 2013, 6–7.
Clive Field, “Is the Bible Becoming a Closed Book? British Opinion Poll Evidence,” Journal of Contemporary Religion forthcoming.
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Anti-Catholicism has been a feature of British history from the Reformation, but it has been little studied for the period since the Second World War, and rarely using quantitative methods. A thematically-arranged aggregate analysis of around 180 opinion polls among representative samples of adults since the 1950s offers insights into developing attitudes of the British public to Catholics and the Catholic Church. Anti-Catholicism against individual Catholics is found to have diminished. Negativity toward the Catholic Church and its leadership has increased, especially since the Millennium. Generic and specific explanations are offered for these trends, within the context of other manifestations of religious prejudice and other religious changes.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 564 | 102 | 10 |
Full Text Views | 173 | 3 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 41 | 9 | 0 |