The Decline of Christian Britain?
Evidence of statistics
• 1851: between 40% and 60% of British
population attended church
• 1900: 30%
• 1979: 12%
• 1999: 7.5%
• Estimated that by 2040: 2% (65% of this over
65)
Protestantism and the Making of the
Nation
• The Making of the nation 16th/17th/18th
century: patriotism linked to Protestantism;
context of anti-Catholicism; persistence via
Irish question. What happens to this meaning
of the nation?
• Religion as something that divides 19th
century society: non-conformity vs
Anglicanism. But also provides a unity (closely
tied to ‘Victorian values’
Inventing Secularisation
• The sociology and history of the post-war era (in context of
increased interest in social divisions of society and changing
values) looks back to discover secularisation in the 19th
century
• Mid-century census creates contemporary concern about
decline of religiosity: a reflection of declinist concerns?
• Sociological interest in impact of industrialisation and
urbanisation (Peter Berger, David Martin, Bryan Wilson):
social dislocation theory (Durkheim)
• Use of statistics: membership, attendance, use for rites
• But problem of equating figures on attendance with
secularisation; and in tension with 19th century centrality of
religion in life and vigour of non-conformity
Late 19th Century Acceleration?
• Darwinism and challenge to historical and
moral basis of bible-based Christianity
• Role of church as mid-wife less important in
mature industrial world
• Mass society and consumerism creates
alternative attractions and hits nonconformity especially
First World War
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Horrors encourage loss of faith?
Disruption of religious practice?
Criticism of church for support of war?
Losses kindle spiritual revival
Church of England given national role in acts of
memorialisation
• Church of England attendance rises slightly from
8.9% of population in 1900 to 9.3% in 1924
Second World War
• Church leaders to the fore in support of a
‘new Jerusalem’ eg Archbishop William
Temple
• Again attendance at church holds up; in fact
increases in 1950s.
• But Simon Green argues that by 1950 we see
The passing of Protestant England (2011)
Callum Brown, The Death of Christian
Britain (2001)
• ‘This book is about the
death of Christian Britain –
the demise of the nation’s
core religious and moral
identity. As historical
changes go, this has been
no lingering and drawn-out
affair. It took several
centuries (in what historians
used to call the Dark Ages)
to convert Britain to
Christianity, but it has taken
less than forty years for the
country to forsake it.’ (p. 1)
‘Discursive Christianity’
• Criticism of analysis based on statistics
• Shift to self-subscription to protocols of
personal identity deriving from Christian
expectations of discourses
• Ritual, economic activity, dress, speech …
Decline from the 1960s?
• Anglican attendance 6.2% in 1960, falls to 3.7%
by 1980
• C. 1963 ‘something very profound ruptured the
character of the nation and its people, sending
organised Christianity on a downward spiral to
the margins of social significance’
• Particular emphasis on collapse of support
among women (feminism/sexual revolution
leading to rejection of Protestant evangelicalism):
the ‘Jackie generation’
Jane Garnett et al (eds.), Redefining
Christian Britain (2006)
• Accept importance of Brown’s shift to discourse /
questioning of reliance on statistics: move beyond churchgoers/non-goers
• Welcome Brown’s argument about persistence to 1950s
• Question his reintroduction of the secularisation argument
for 60s and his crude view of sexual revolution and its
impact
• Argue for ongoing importance. Draws on sociology of Grace
Davie and idea of ‘believing without belonging’
• New ways of understanding significance: search for
authenticity (private rather than public frame); role of
generational transmission; search for sources of virtue
Persistence of Christian Britain?
• Church of England maintains position as state religion
• 1988 still 2/3 married in Church
• Northern Ireland link of religion to national identity
remains central for longest
• Significance of religion in politics (North America); UK –
Liza Filby, ‘God and Mrs Thatcher: The Tory Party at
Prayer’ (Warwick PhD, 2010)
• Challenge of Church adjusting to moral change
• Highest rise in 2011 census is non-believers: 14 m; only
59% identity themselves as Christian
Multi-Religious Britain?
• Travel and interest in Eastern religions creates interest
in eg Buddhism
• Immigrant groups bring religion (mid-wife role as in
19th century off-setting the strains of dislocation)
• High % of Christians among immigrant groups
• By 1980 as many in new religions as Anglican
• 2011 Census: muslim 4.8%
• Immigration counteracts secularisation, but also
complicates religion and reduces moral authority of
Anglican church
National implications
• Absolutist claims of
religious authority now
seen as dangerous for
freedom of a secular
society: eg tensions over
response to Salman
Rushdie’s novel The
Satanic Verses (1989)
• Challenge to questions of
what is British via eg
Sharia Law; terrorism?
• David Cameron – Britain a
Christian country 2011