Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:41:09.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Anatomy of Change: Profiling Cohort Difference in Beliefs and Attitudes among Anglicans in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Andrew Village  and
Leslie J. Francis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Conservatism in theological belief, moral values and attitude toward ecclesiastical practices was measured in a sample of 5967 ordained and lay Anglicans in the Church of England. Average scores were compared between those who classed themselves as Anglo-catholic, broad church or evangelical, and by six different age cohorts. Overall, most measures of conservatism showed decline among more recent cohorts, but there were marked differences between traditions. Younger evangelicals showed little or no decline in theological or moral conservatism, and, in the case of Bible beliefs, were more conservative than their older counterparts. In ecclesiastical variables, however, Anglo-catholics were often more conservative and younger evangelicals showed less conservatism than other traditions or older evangelicals. The findings suggest that the divide between traditions is increasing among younger generations mainly because those in Anglo-catholic and broad-church traditions are becoming more liberal on theological or moral matters, whereas evangelicals are maintaining traditional conservative views of theology and morality but becoming less traditional in matters ecclesiastical.

Keywords

AnglicanismAnglo-catholicbroad churchChurch of Englandconservatismevangelicalliberalismsurvey
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , May 2010 , pp. 59 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

Department of Theology and Religious Studies, York St John University, York, United Kingdom.

2.

Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.

References

3. S. Bates, A Church at War: Anglicans and Homosexuality (London: I. B. Tauris, 2004); A. Crockett and D. Voas, ‘A Matter of Attitude: Homosexuality and Divisions in the Church’, Modern Believing 45.3 (2004), pp. 23–31; R. Eames, The Windsor Report 2004 (London: The Lambeth Commission on Communion, 2004).Google Scholar

4. R. Butt, Church Divided: Women Bishops an Obstacle to Unity, Vatican Warns (London: The Guardian, 9 July 2008); R. Gledhill, Church of England Votes to Ordain Women Bishops (London: The Times, 8 July 2008).Google Scholar

5. I. Jones, Women and Priesthood in the Church of England: Ten Years On (London: Church House Publishing, 2004); F. Sani and S. Reicher, ‘Identity, Argument and Schism: Two Longitudinal Studies of the Split in the Church of England over the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood’, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 2.3 (1999), pp. 279–300; F. Sani and S. Reicher, ‘Contested Identities and Schisms in Groups: Opposing the Ordination of Women as Priests in the Church of England’, British Journal of Social Psychology 39.1 (2000), pp. 95–112.Google Scholar

6. House of Bishops, Marriage in Church after Divorce (London: Church House Publishing, 2000); T. Woods, ‘Marriage after Divorce: The Challenge for the Church of England’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 17.3 (2006), pp. 343–54.Google Scholar

7. Church of England, Something to Celebrate (London: Church House Publishing, 1995).Google Scholar

8. A. Dyson, ‘The Bishop of Durham and All That’, Modern Churchman 27.3 (1985), pp. 1, 2; Harrison, T., The Durham Phenomenon (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985).Google Scholar

9. J. Bowden, Thirty Years of Honesty: Honest to God Then and Now (London: SCM, 1993); Robinson, J.A.T., Honest to God (London: SCM Press, 1963).Google Scholar

10. O. Chadwick, Hensley Henson: A Study in the Friction between Church and State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

11. Gore, C. (ed.), Lux Mundi. A Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation (London: John Murray, 1889).Google Scholar

12. Hylson-Smith, K., Evangelicals in the Church of England 1734–1984 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1989); K. Hylson-Smith, High Churchmanship in the Church of England from the Sixteenth Century to the Late Twentieth Century (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993); P.B. Nockles, The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship, 1760–1857 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); N. Scotland, Evangelical Anglicans in a Revolutionary Age, 1789–1901 (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2004).Google Scholar

13. Balleine, G.R., A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England (London: Church Bookroom Press, 1908).Google Scholar

14. Jones, T.E., The Broad Church: A Biography of a Movement (Lanham, Md: Lexington Books, 2003).Google Scholar

15. Scotland, N., ‘Evangelicalism and the Charismatic Movement (UK)’, in C.G. Bartholomew, R. Parry and A.V. West (eds.), The Futures of Evangelicalism: Issues and Prospects (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003), pp. 271–301.Google Scholar

16. Bethmont, R., ‘Some Spiritually Significant Reasons for Gay Attraction to (Anglo-)Catholicism’, Theology and Sexuality 12.3 (2006), pp. 233–249; D. Hilliard, ‘Unenglish and Unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism and Homosexuality’, Victorian Studies 25.2 (1982), pp. 181–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Atherstone, A., ‘The Incoherence of the Anglican Communion’, Churchman 118.3 (2004), pp. 235–255; S.J. Hunt, ‘The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in Britain: Mobilization and Opposition’, Journal of Religion & Society 4.1 (2002), pp. 1–19; S.J. Hunt, ‘Alpha and the Gay Issue: A Lesson in Homophobia?’, Journal of Beliefs and Values 26.3 (2005), pp. 261–71.Google Scholar

18. Francis, L.J.Lankshear, D.W., ‘The Comparative Strength of Evangelical and Catholic Anglican Churches in England’, Journal of Empirical Theology 9.1 (1996), pp. 5–22; R. Manwaring, From Controversy to Co-Existence: Evangelicals in the Church of England, 1914–1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. Francis, L.J., Robbins, M.Astley, J., Fragmented Faith? Exposing the Fault-Lines in the Church of England (Milton Keynes: Paternoster Press, 2005); A. Village and L.J. Francis, ‘Attitude toward Homosexuality among Anglicans in England: The Effects of Theological Orientation and Personality’, Journal of Empirical Theology 21 (2008), pp. 68–87; A. Village and L.J. Francis, The Mind of the Anglican Clergy (Lampeter: Mellen Press, 2009).Google Scholar

20. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?Google Scholar

21. Likert, R., ‘A Technique for the Measurement of Attitudes’, Archives of Psychology 140 (1932), pp. 1–55.Google Scholar

22. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?; Village and Francis, The Mind of the Anglican Clergy.Google Scholar

23. Randall, K., Evangelicals Etcetera: Conflict and Conviction in the Church of England’s Parties (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005).Google Scholar

24. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?; A. Village, ‘Factors Predicting Relationship with Society among Anglicans in England’, in H.-G. Ziebertz (ed.), Public Significance of Religion (Wurzburg, Germany: ISERT, in press); Village and Francis, ‘Attitude toward Homosexuality among Anglicans in England’; Village and Francis, The Mind of the Anglican Clergy.Google Scholar

25. Randall, Evangelicals Etcetera; Village and Francis, The Mind of the Anglican Clergy.Google Scholar

26. Aiken, L.S., West, S.G.Reno, R.R., Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1991); C.E. Lance, ‘Residual Centering, Exploratory and Confirmatory Moderator Analysis, and Decomposition of Effects in Path Models Containing Interactions’, Applied Psychological Measurement 12.2 (1988), pp. 163–75.Google Scholar

27. Burton, L., ‘The Anglican-Methodist Covenant: Differences in the Belief Patterns of Anglican Clergy and Methodist Ministers’, Journal of Beliefs and Values 26.3 (2005), pp. 273–287; The Church of England and The Methodist Church, An Anglican–Methodist Covenant (London: Church House Publishing, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?Google Scholar

29. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?; Village and Francis, The Mind of the Anglican Clergy.Google Scholar

30. Krosnick, J.A.Alwin, D.F., ‘Aging and Susceptibility to Attitude Change’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57.3 (1989), pp. 416–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?Google Scholar

32. Francis, Robbins and Astley, Fragmented Faith?Google Scholar

33. Cronbach, L.J., ‘Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests’, Psychometrika 16 (1951), pp. 297–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar