Religion in Victorian Britain: 1, Traditions,
Ed. Gerald Parsons
Manchester University Press, 1987. viii + 328 pages.
The Victorian church: was it sunk in formality, not to say hypocrisy, or was it a golden age of orthodoxy and church attendance? Many people would subscribe to one or other of these simplified views. This book effectively counters both of them, and portrays Victorian religious life 'as at once vital yet insecure, confident yet in crisis'.
Its vitality is demonstrated beyond doubt. An enormous number of new churches were built (5,500 in the Church of England 1830-1901, 1,800 built by the Church of Scotland and the Free Church 1843-1901). The number of clergy went up (by 11,000 in the C of E, by 500 among the Primitive Methodists and by 1,200 among the Wesleyan Methodists). Voluntary societies and agencies - both within denominations and interdenominational ones - mushroomed for all sorts of objects, especially evangelism at home and abroad. A new concern for training clergy and ministers resulted in the establishment of numerous ministerial training colleges.
The Church of England at last tackled the reform of its administration and finances, with far-reaching results. New dioceses were set up and huge parishes sub-divided, particularly in the newly-industrialised areas. Large numbers of independent evangelical missions and small gospel halls sprang up: in London by 1903 there were more of them than Congregation or Wesleyan churches. In all denominations, a great outburst of hymn-writing resulted in hymns taking a prominent place in worship. A remarkable quantity and variety of religious literature was produced: the Religious Tract Society, for example, published 33 million items a year during the 1860s. Non-conformists secured the removal of disabilities such as their exclusion from grammar schools and universities; non-conformists' births could now be registered, and their marriages and funerals performed outside the parish church. Protestant non-conformity 'enjoyed a degree of prominence in national life which it had not previously experienced'. The religious census of 1851 revealed that roughly equal numbers of Anglicans and non-conformists attended church, although the latter were divided into about 30 different groups. Throughout the reign, religious news provided headlines for newspapers and material for cartoonists.
Church and nation
Already, however, there was cause for growing concern at the state of the church and its impact in the nation. By the time of the 1851 census, it was apparent that 'a sadly formidable portion of the English people are habitual neglecters of the public ordinances of religion', particularly among 'the labouring myriads' of the large towns and cities. Despite enormous efforts by all sections of the Christian church, and despite the greater degree of success by the Salvation Army, the urban working classes as a whole remained outside the church. Moreover, although the numbers of churchgoers rose during the century, with the growth of population, by 1900 they represented a smaller proportion of the nation than in 1851. Alarmingly, too, there were indications that even the church-going middle classes were tending to regard involvement in church or chapel 'not as the central commitment in life but rather as one of a number of 'leisure' activities'.
Over the same period, most of the churches experienced 'a deep and ongoing theological turmoil'. This resulted in their becoming less precise and specific in their interpretation of their own doctrinal standards. In Anglicanism, this came about because of the rise of the Oxford Movement and the consequent development of evangelicals as a distinct and organised party. In Scotland, and in some English non-conformist denominations, it was the result of theological liberalism and the challenge of scientific discovery. By 1900, while the doctrinal stance of Roman Catholicism remained traditional, conservative and clear, those of most major denominations were becoming 'matters of studied ambiguity' in order to preserve denominational unity. At the individual level, piety showed a marked shift from objective faith to the experiential, as reflected in an abundance of personal and subjective hymns. Thus many of the problems of the church at the end of the 20th century were already in existence.
This book is one of a four-volume series, produced to accompany an Open University course on the Victorian church. The other volumes are Controversies, Sources (a collection of primary source material for the period) and Interpretations (essays and articles in the field).
Traditions has articles on the Church of England, non-conformity, Scottish Presbyterianism, ritualism and revivalism, the clergy, Jews and Freethought, all written by members of staff in the Faculty of Arts at the Open University. It has the usual characteristics of textbooks: it is instructive rather than inspiring. Useful bibliographies are provided. Its approach tends to be institutional and sociological, and its stance may be gauged by its few (and negative) allusions to J.C. Ryle and C.H. Spurgeon. And since it was published in 1987, many other books have been published, at least on some of the topics covered by Traditions by David Bebbington, John Briggs, Brian Stanley and John Wolffe, among others. As an overall picture, however, this book is undoubtedly useful and informative.
Joyce Horn
Institute of Historical Research,
University of London
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