The Death of Christian Britain

Matthew Huish
December 7, 2011

I recently submitted a book review as coursework for my MA studies. I want to share it with you – all 1499 words of it. It's quite self-explanatory, but hopefully you'll find it mildly interesting:

If the Christian community in Britain were to take a step back and attempt to make sense of contemporary British culture, many may feel alarmed at how divorced from Christianity British culture has become. In many ways it is true that a division between 'the sacred' and 'the secular' has grown, with greater cultural, business and media emphasis on what can be regarded as secular rather than on what can be regarded as sacred. This phenomenon is largely a recent one. Since 1945, postmodernism has been prevailing as the leading philosophy through which the reality of the world may be interpreted. The abandonment of Enlightenment thought and modernist rational has presented a departure from scientific method and objective analysis. While there is disagreement about whether postmodernism actually proposes a unified philosophical statement about reality – with many labeled as postmodernists actually contradicting each other – what can be agreed is that postmodernists aim to liberate themselves from the constraints of the Enlightenment era.

This should be of interest to Christians today. The future of Christianity, as a community and as the vehicle through which God, in Christ, will bring salvation to the world, is at stake. If one truly believes that God needs the Christian community to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, the future of the world is bleak when the salt loses its flavor or the light is hidden. Does history teach us any lessons that will help today's Christian prepare for the uncertain future that lies ahead?

Callum G. Brown's Second Edition of The Death of Christian Britain offers a valuable and thorough analysis of the way in which Britain has morphed suddenly from a nation with a predominantly Christian culture to a nation whose identity as a Christian nation should be in question. Brown is an historian of religion, although (as revealed in the book's postscript) he himself is not religious. His evaluation of Britain's culture is performed quite objectively and neutrally. The language of the book does not lament the eponymous death not does the language celebrate it. If this book can be considered as an obituary to Christian Britain, it seems to eulogize the impressive way in which Christianity diffused into every aspect of British society in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

Brown challenges the notion, predominant amongst social scientists, that secularization has been a steady process since the middle ages. Rather than beginning to fade with the dawn of the industrial revolution and the Enlightenment, post-reformation Christianity thrived between 1800 and 1950. Ironically, Brown analyses the statistics gathered by Christian clergy – early social scientists who wished to demonstrate statistically the threat to Christianity – and demonstrates that instead of weakening, Christian culture was actually growing stronger during the nineteenth century. Brown challenges the methods by which other historians and sociologists have examined the same data, using the latest advanced techniques to unlock their likely meaning. Key to the increase of church membership and church attendance, Brown discovers, was the manner in which women became empowered as the champions of Christian virtue and piety. By celebrating the holiness of being a good wife and mother, women were called to bring their men – husbands and sons who were considered sinful by default – to repentance in Christ. Statistics show that the rise of Christianity in Britain was spearheaded by the vanguard of Christian women raising the standards of British society, regardless of class and denomination.

Brown's analysis, however, is not restricted to numerical statistics Despite being a useful window into the quantitative reality of Christianity over the last two centuries, the reliability of the means by which they were gathered could be called into question. Brown gains useful insight into the cultural past of Britain by analyzing the conversations that took place, in written media and from recorded oral testimony. Through an incredibly thorough investigation, trawling through a great volume of varied written publications, Brown reveals that the discursive narrative in Victorian and Edwardian Britain elevated female piety. This contrasts with Christianity prior to 1800, when masculinity was considered holy and femininity unholy. The literature and media of the nineteenth century demonstrate that the cultural voice of Britain was overwhelmingly Christian, promoting characteristics of feminine piety as desired behavior.

This reader had keenly anticipated the statistical analysis promised by the book's introduction in premature preference to discursive analysis, but eventually appreciated the fact that the statistical figures were largely reserved for only a single chapter in the book. I was seduced unexpectedly by the human stories retold by Brown. Many of these human stories came from the literature through which he had meticulously sifted, but the most emotionally moving stories came from the transcribed oral testimony from various sound archives across the country. These recordings of interviews conducted in the late twentieth century survey the responses of several generations of interviewees, all of whom have lived through the 1960s, the decade that Brown identifies as the time during which Christian Britain suffered its mortal wound. Men and women born in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century relate how their early lives were strongly influenced, usually prohibitively, by the predominant Christian culture surrounding them. Brown notices how this generation is familiar with religious vocabulary, a vocabulary which is less fluently articulated by the generation growing up in the middle of the twentieth century before 1960. These men and women would have referenced their religious symbols and images from their parents, who in form at least appeared religious. Brown interestingly notes how this is usually the language of the interviewer, a social scientist who is not religious but wishes to understand their subject by using religious terms in the questions they ask. The generation growing up during or after the 1960s is completely unfamiliar with religious vocabulary, thoroughly cleansed of the religious references familiar to their parents and grandparents. The monosyllabic answers given by such subjects in response to questions of religion posed by an interviewer reveal the vacuum of religious culture and identity in the generation that has grown up since the 1960s.

Why were the 1960s so fatal for Christian Britain? Amongst the many movements of the decade, the relaxation of attitudes towards sexuality and the feminist movement had the most profound impact. Women, who had been the cornerstone of Christian Britain, shifted away from conservative views on pre-marital sex, abortion and contraceptives. Coupled with the legalization of homosexuality and the religious crisis regarding gender identity, Christianity in Britain could not keep up with the social changes taking place around it.

This is the reality we find ourselves in now in 2011. While it may be frightening to consider the widespread absence of religious piety in several generations of today's population, Brown's work may inadvertently provide some suggestions by which this apparent tragedy can be transformed into a golden opportunity for today's Christian evangelist.

Brown notes that Christianity in the nineteenth century adopted an Enlightenment approach, aiming to marry spirituality with rationality. The manner in which Christian clergy attempted to objectively evaluate the reality around them and suggest proposals to implement change can be seen as modernist. While there was significant success in making Christianity relevant and applicable to every person in society, regardless of social position, there were some failures, such as the emasculation of men and the prohibition of sport. Christianity, if it were to remain relevant to God's providence, could not remain as it were. Progress was and is needed, thus the regression in the influence that Christianity has had in Britain can be seen as an opportunity for Christianity in Britain to prayerfully reflect and remold itself in preparation for the future. While postmodernism, in its rejection of absolutes, may be seen by some as a threat to Christianity, contemporary Christians need to understand the postmodernist worldview and attempt to invent a brand of Christianity that is able to appeal to a population influenced by postmodernist thought.

Reading The Death of Christian Britain led this reader to develop a patriotic pride in the religious history of this nation and the degree to which it had been prepared by God. The collapse of the Christian culture that existed up until the 1950s is something to be regretted, as I believe an opportunity was missed to capitalize on Britain's global position to bring God's blessings to the world. Nevertheless, the current gap that exists in the spirituality of British people today presents an opportunity for Christianity to quietly get its house in order before reintroducing itself to the nation. Callum G. Brown may be an unexpected herald, prophesying the imminent revival of Christianity in Britain that may occur once Christianity discovers God's plan behind the development of postmodernist thought. Every Christian who cares about the future of Britain and the future of religion should read this book, meditate on the warning that it presents to the future of religion and seek a way to offer a path to salvation that promises both the sacred and the secular in harmony.