The book takes a wide-ranging look at all of the main bodies — Anglican, Free Church, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic — which collectively make up ‘the Christian Church’. Their distinctive beliefs, attitudes, structures, and personalities receive attention, but all are firmly set in social, political, and cultural contexts. The comparisons, connections, and contrasts across England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales that raise issues of identity and allegiance, particularly at moments of political change and conflict, are emphasized. The book identifies a series of underlying tensions. In charting the ... More

The book takes a wide-ranging look at all of the main bodies — Anglican, Free Church, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic — which collectively make up ‘the Christian Church’. Their distinctive beliefs, attitudes, structures, and personalities receive attention, but all are firmly set in social, political, and cultural contexts. The comparisons, connections, and contrasts across England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales that raise issues of identity and allegiance, particularly at moments of political change and conflict, are emphasized. The book identifies a series of underlying tensions. In charting the stuttering development of ecumenism, it stresses a place between ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’, both within and between the Churches. In considering ideologies, it notes contrasting attitudes to liberal democracy, communism, and fascism. In analysing attitudes during the two world wars, the Cold War, and decolonization, it detects a place between patriotism and pacifism. In considering social welfare, it observes support for ‘the Welfare State’ and some apprehension about its implications. These and other cognate matters, particularly the control and content of education, are manifestations of a wider issue which pervades the book: the ambiguous ending of ‘Christendom’. The context in which the churches functioned at the beginning of the 20th century, in both Britain and Ireland, was very different from that at its close. The final concern, therefore, is with countries variously described as Christian, multi-faith, post-Christian, or secular. The book concludes with an exploration of the puzzling and unresolved uncertainties which this ‘pluralism’ presents, both for the Churches and the wider society.