Religion in Victorian Britain

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We are too much accustomed to figure to ourselves what are called religious revivals, as a feature peculiar to Protestantism and to recent times. The phenomenon is universal. In no Christian church has the religious spirit flowed like a perennial fountain; it had ever its flux and reflux, like the tide. Its history is a series of alternations between religious laxity and religious earnestness. Monkery itself, in the organized form impressed upon it by St Benedict, was one of the incidents of a religious revival. — John Stuart Mill

“Modern Western cultural elites have a hard time grasping the profound influence of religion on supposedly secular societies.“ — George Bornstein, Times Literary Supplement (12 March 2010)

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General A Timeline of Religion and Philosophy Religious denominations in Victorian Britain The Warfare of Conscience with Theology in Victorian Britain Victorian Science and Religion Robertson on why money is not the root of all evil Reviews of books about Victorian religion The Church of England — the Anglican or Established Church An Introduction and Brief History The 39 Articles of Religion The Anglican Book of Common Prayer and Victorian Values The Book of Common Prayer: Its Literary and Cultural Influences "Parish": a definition What is a curate? Deaconess Isabella Gilmore (1842-1923) David "Navvy" Smith's Sermons (discussion) The Evangelical Movement Introduction Evangelicalism (Overview/Sitemap) Evangelical Doctrine The Evangelical Movement in the Church of England (extended discussion) The Olney Hymns Evangelical Popular Science Publishing Positive Influence on English Society Sabbatarianism, Sabbath Observance, and Social Class High Church (Tractarians, Oxford Movement) Sitemap Introduction The Tractarian Movement John Henry Newman John Keble Edward Pusey Isaac Williams' Tractarian Cathedral The Ritualist Movement The Broad Church, or Liberal Anglicanism Introduction Sitemap Thomas Arnold Dr. Arnold and the Meaning of Anglican Liberalism Frederick W. Robertson Essays and Reviews Muscular Christianity and Christian Socialism F. D. Maurice Charles Kingsley Muscular Christianity Roman Catholicism Introduction Catholicism in Britain: An Overview Old Catholics New Converts Papal Infallibility Reestablishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in Britain Dissenters and other Protestant denominations Introduction The Dissenting Ethos Baptists Congregationalists Covenanters Lutherans Nonconformity in Wales Methodism Introduction Life and Works of John Wesley George Whitefield The Cultural Influence of Methodism Moravians Plymouth Brethren Presbyterianism Henry Irving and the Catholic Apostolic Church Puritanism in England Puritanism in America Quakers, or the Society of Friends Politics and Theology in Victorian Dissent The Protestant Fight for Jewish Civil Liberties in Victorian England The Salvation Army Opposition to the Salvation Army: Questions in Parliament about the Torquay Harbour and District Act, 1886

Traditions, Alternative Agnosticism Arminianism Atheism Boehme Comteian Positivism Deism The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Gnosticism Judaism in Nineteenth-Century England Occultism William Paley and Natural Theology Philosophy (homepage) Secularization and Victorian Religion Socinianism Spiritualism Theosophy and Madame Blavatsky Anna Kingsford Emanuel Swedenborg and Swedenborgians Unitarianism Ethical Arguments against Religion in Victorian Britain The Bible, Interpretation, and Religious Symbolism Revelation defined Apocalyptics Victorian Apocalyptics Three Victorian Schools of Interpretation Historical Approaches Prophecy Sitemap The Four-part Pattern of Prophecy Thomas Scott on Prophecy Typology (Figuralism) Sitemap Moses Striking the Rock Pisgah Sight Ruskin and the Rainbow Broad Church, Historicist, and Rationalist Approaches The Higher Criticism The Higher Critics: An Annotated Chronology, 1710-1917 Bishop Colenso and Literal Truth of Bible Frederick Temple and Broad Church Conceptions of the Bible Liturgical Colors The Gutenberg Bible (British Library) Related Literary Genres and Modes Commentaries Hymns Religious poetry Sermons Tracts Bibliography Suggested Readings Victorian Religious Periodicals Some Pre-Victorian Religious Texts (Including Scripture) Available On-Line

Note: Neil Davie of the Université Lyon 2 pointed out on the discussion list Victoria that the official 1851 religious census report is available in digital form on the histpop web-site and that “an excellent analysis of the 1851 results can be found in K.D.M. Snell & Paul S. Ell, Rival Jerusalems: The Geography of Victorian Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2000).”

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Last modified 28 August 2022