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Enemy Within? The Appeal of the Discipline of Sociology to Religious Professionals in Post-War Britain
In: Journal of Religion in EuropeThis article explores the contingencies shaping a particular moment in post-war British theology, a time when sociological descriptions of contemporary society were given new authority by church leaders and theologians anxious to discover a new way through the challenges facing their churches. Attention focuses on the history of religious sociology in Britain, and on industrial mission, social history, and theological radicalism as they converged in the work of a number of British commentators in the 1950s and 1960s. The article also considers the significance of this development for the theory and historiography of secularisation.
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1
N. Birnbaum, ‘Nuffield Conference on the Sociology of Religion 24–27 March 1961’, Archives de sociologie des religions, 6e année, no. 11 (1961), 147–8.
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2
M. Hill, A Sociology of Religion (London: Heinemann, 1973), 9.
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9
I. Jones, The Local Church and Generational Change in Birmingham 1945–2000 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012), 62–9.
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10
C.D. Field, ‘Gradualist or Revolutionary Secularization? A Case Study of Religious Belonging in Inter-War Britain, 1918–1939’, Church History and Religious Culture, 93 (2013), 57–93.
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12
Cf. H. Kaye, The British Marxist Historians – an Introductory Analysis (Cambridge: Polity, 1984).
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14
K.A. Thompson, ‘Religion: the British contribution’, British Journal of Sociology, 41 (1990), 531–5; his prime targets were Roy Wallis and Steve Bruce. Thompson was the author of a Weberian study of the bureaucratic development of the Church of England in the twentieth century: ibid., Bureaucracy and Church Reform: the Organizational Response of the Church of England to Social Change 1800–1965 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970).
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15
S. Fuller, ‘A Very qualified success: the case of Anthony Giddens and British sociology’, Canadian Journal of Sociology, 25 (2000), 507–16.
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16
On Chadwick, see S.E. Finer, The Life and Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (London: Methuen, 1952).
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17
Cf. J. Harris, Unemployment and politics: A study in English social policy, 1886–1914 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972).
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18
Cf. A.D. Gilbert, Religion and Society in Industrial England. Church, Chapel and Social Change 1740–1914 (London: Longmans, 1976), 76–81.
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22
C.F.G. Masterman, The Condition of England (London: Methuen, 1909), 266.
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25
F.E.E. Bell, At the Works. A Study of a Manufacturing Town (London: Edward Arnold, 1907), 10.
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27
See N. Hubble, Mass Observation and Everyday Life (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2006).
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32
V.A. Demant, Theology of Society. More Essays in Christian Polity (London: Faber, 1947), 45.
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33
Cf. C.F. Rogers, ‘Sociology and Pastoral Theology’, in The Economic Review, 21 (1911), 41.
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35
R. Lloyd, The Church and the Artisan Today (London: Longmans, 1952), 1.
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38
D.H. McLeod, Class and Religion in the Late Victorian City (London: Croom Helm, 1974).
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39
C. Calhoun, ‘History and Sociology in Britain. A Review Article’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 29 (1987), 615.
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41
E.R. Wickham, Church and People in an Industrial City (London: Lutterworth, 1957), 14; ibid., Encounter with Modern Society (London: Lutterworth, 1964), p. 35. For a historical critique, see J.N. Morris, ‘Church and People Thirty-Three Years on: A Historical Critique’, Theology, 94 (1991), 92–101.
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44
Cf. K.S. Inglis, The Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England (London: Routledge, 1963), 326–7; E. R. Norman, Church and Society in England 1770–1970. A Historical Study (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 463.
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45
Cf. M.A. Smith, Religion in Industrial Society. Oldham and Saddleworth 1740–1865 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), pp. 2–3.
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50
Cf. M. Northcott, The church and secularisation : urban industrial mission in north east England (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1989); also P. Bagshaw, The church beyond the church: Sheffield Industrial Mission, 1944–1994 (Sheffield: Industrial Mission in Yorkshire, 1994).
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54
S. Brewitt-Taylor, ‘The Invention of a “Secular Society”? Christianity and the Sudden Appearance of Secularization Discourses in the British National Media, 1961–4’, Twentieth Century British History, 24 (2013), 337.
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55
Brewitt-Taylor, ‘The Invention of a “Secular Society”?’, 337–8.
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58
Brewitt-Taylor, ‘”Christian Radicals”’, 100–1; John Robinson made this assertion of himself, in Honest to God (London: scm, 1963), 21–2.
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68
T. Beeson, The Church of England in Crisis (London: David-Poynter, 1973), 23.
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74
D. Sheppard, Built as a City. God and the Urban World Today (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974), 36–7 & 43–4.
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Enemy Within? The Appeal of the Discipline of Sociology to Religious Professionals in Post-War Britain
In: Journal of Religion in EuropeThis article explores the contingencies shaping a particular moment in post-war British theology, a time when sociological descriptions of contemporary society were given new authority by church leaders and theologians anxious to discover a new way through the challenges facing their churches. Attention focuses on the history of religious sociology in Britain, and on industrial mission, social history, and theological radicalism as they converged in the work of a number of British commentators in the 1950s and 1960s. The article also considers the significance of this development for the theory and historiography of secularisation.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 267 | 55 | 7 |
| Full Text Views | 212 | 5 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 58 | 11 | 3 |