Conflict and Crisis in the Religious Life of Late Victorian England

by Herbert Schlossberg

Overview

Contrary to its popular image as dull and stodgy, the Victorian period was one of revolutionary change. In its politics, its art, its economic aff airs, its class relationships, and in its religion, change was constant. A half-century after Queen Victoria's death, it was said that she was born in one world and died in another. The most interesting and valuable studies of the period take the long view, as does Schlossberg, in his fascinating analysis of religious life in this period.

For the Victorians, religion was not cordoned off from the push and shove of real life. The early evangelicals got off to a shaky start, beset by hostility, but the movement spread within the churches despite the suspicion in which it was held. Evangelicals, frequently called Puritans by those who opposed them, called for fundamental reforms in both the Church and the society; a social ethic was part of their program of religious renewal. Th eir moral sense explains the social activism of both Church of England Evangelicals and Dissenters, including the half-century crusade for the abolition of slavery.

Schlossberg shows how religion in England dealt with such issues as science and the eff ect of German scholarship on religious thinking. Church history cannot simply be explained by its response to external forces as much as by the internal responses to those challenges. The nature of the religious enterprise itself, its theologians, clergy, lay people—like all people and all institutions—all responded with alternatives. Schlossberg helps us understand the Victorian period, as well as the increasing secularity of English life today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138508446
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/06/2017
Pages:	331
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Dedicatory Note, Introduction, 1. The Setting for the Coming Struggles, 2. The Decay of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England, 3. The Waning of the Nonconformist Spirit, 4. The High Church on the Way to Ascendency, 5. Truth, Freedom, and the Fratricide of the Orthodox, 6. The Diffusive Religion of the Late Victorians, 7. Alternatives to Christianity, 8. Conclusions, Index

Editorial Reviews

An interesting book that explores the vibrant nature of religious life during this period. Limiting his study to Christianity and saying little about Roman Catholicism, Schlossberg does not offer a general history of Victorian religion or a study of doctrine or institutions, but instead seeks answers for the apparent success of secularism in Victorian England…Based on 19th-century sources and recent scholarship, this volume presents an insightful analysis of the world of late Victorian religion." –R. M. Kollar, Choice “Herbert Schlossberg’s brilliant and learned book… is a most lively and stimulating work of interpretative summary and synthesis by a master of the subject.” – Sheridan Gilley, Durham University “Richly detailed... weave(s) together an intricate tapestry of Victorian voices. His approach relies on juxtaposing contemporary reflections rather than superimposing secondary frameworks... This approach allows the reader to engage directly with the highly nuanced socio-religious climate of late Victorian England." —Sarah C. Williams, American Historical Review

From the Publisher