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Association, Community and the Origins of Secularisation: English and Welsh Nonconformity, c. 1850–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2004

PETER YALDEN
Affiliation:
c/o Professor John Gascoigne, School of History, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia; e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The revisionism which has marked the secularisation debate in recent decades has modified in various respects the traditional view that Christianity in Britain has been in almost constant decline for at least the last century or so. As a contribution to the debate, this article revisits the changes which developed in the internal dynamics of English and Welsh Nonconformity during the period from about 1850 to 1930. It argues that the secularisation of Nonconformity at the institutional level was primarily due to the fact that it became more associational and less communal in character. Indeed, Nonconformist Churches almost certainly contained the seeds of secularisation from their inception, as they were the first widespread voluntary associations in Britain with the concept of formal membership.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank David Bebbington, John Gascoigne, Simon Green and an anonymous reader for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.