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During and immediately after the First World War, there was a merging of Christian and nationalist traditions of martyrdom, expressed in the design of war cemeteries and war memorials, and the state funeral of the Unknown Warrior in 1920. John Wolffe explores the subsequent development of these traditions of 'sacred' and 'secular' martyrdom, analysing the ways in which they operated - sometimes in parallel, sometimes merged together and sometimes in conflict with each other. Particular topics explored include the Protestant commemoration of Marian and missionary martyrs, and the Roman Catholic campaign for the canonization of the 'saints and martyrs of England'. Secular martyrdom is discussed in relation to military conflicts especially the Second World War and the Falklands. In Ireland there was a particularly persistent merging of sacred and secular martyrdom in the wake of the Easter Rising of 1916 although by the time of the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' in the later twentieth-century these traditions diverged. In covering these themes, the book also offers historical and comparative context for understanding present-day acts of martyrdom in the form of suicide attacks.
Engaging study exploring the impact of the deaths of 'the Great' in the UK. Concentrates on the period between the 1840s and the First World War, but sets it within a wider perspective from the seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth.
Recent debates about the definition of national identities in Britain, along with discussions on the secularisation of Western societies, have brought to light the importance of a historical approach to the notion of Britishness and religion. This book explores anti-Catholicism in Britain and its Dominions, and forms part of a notable revival over the last decade in the critical historical analysis of anti-Catholicism. It employs transnational and comparative historical approaches throughout, thanks to the exploration of relevant original sources both in the United Kingdom and in Australia and Canada, several of them untapped by other scholars. It applies a 'four nations' approach to British history, thus avoiding an Anglocentric viewpoint.
As one of Victorian Britain's pre-eminent social reformers, Lord Shaftesbury (1801-85) exerted a lasting impact surpassing all of his parliamentary contemporaries. Despite being born into one of England's aristocratic families, a combination of early childhood deprivation, an earnest Evangelical faith, and an abiding sense of noblesse oblige made him a champion of the poor. His seminal contribution to the Victorian factory reform movement represented just one of his manifold legacies. This contextual study of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury probes the mind behind the man to evaluate the religious and philosophical ideas, and their leading figures, that ignited his lifelong activism in the pu...
Contrary to its popular image as dull and stodgy, the Victorian period was one of revolutionary change. In its politics, its art, its economic aff airs, its class relationships, and in its religion, change was constant. A half-century after Queen Victoria's death, it was said that she was born in one world and died in another. Th e most interesting and valuable studies of the period take the long view, as does Schlossberg, in his fascinating analysis of religious life in this period. For the Victorians, religion was not cordoned off from the push and shove of real life. Th e early evangelicals got off to a shaky start, beset by hostility, but the movement spread within the churches despite t...
This volume documents the evolution and impact of one of the most enduring sources and symbols of sectarian conflict in Ireland - Protestant millennialism. The volume explores new sources and offers new conclusions, setting a new research agenda and emphasizing the vitality of religious discourse in Irish studies.
The extraordinary story of St. Paul's Churchyard--the area of London that was a center of social and intellectual life for more than a millennium St. Paul's Cathedral stands at the heart of London, an enduring symbol of the city. Less well known is the neighborhood at its base that hummed with life for over a thousand years, becoming a theater for debate and protest, knowledge and gossip. For the first time Margaret Willes tells the full story of the area. She explores the dramatic religious debates at Paul's Cross, the bookshops where Shakespeare came in search of inspiration, and the theater where boy actors performed plays by leading dramatists. After the Great Fire of 1666, the Churchyard became the center of the English literary world, its bookshops nestling among establishments offering luxury goods. This remarkable community came to an abrupt end with the Blitz. First the soaring spire of Old St. Paul's and then Wren's splendid Baroque dome had dominated the area, but now the vibrant secular society that had lived in their shadow was no more.
This book is the first comprehensive investigation of the National War Aims Committee, providing detailed discussion of the establishment, activities and reception of the British domestic propaganda organisation, together with a careful and extensive analysis of the patriotic content of its propaganda.
This edited collection brings together varying angles and approaches to tackle the multi-dimensional issue of anti-Catholicism since the Protestant Reformation in Britain and Ireland. It is of course difficult to infer from such geographically and historically diverse studies one single contention, but what the book as a whole suggests is that there can be no teleological narration of anti-Catholicism – its manifestations were episodic, more or less rooted in common worldviews, and its history does not end today.
The Evangelical Age of Ingenuity in Industrial Britain argues that British evangelicals in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries invented new methods of spreading the gospel, as well as new forms of personal religious practice, by exploiting the era's growth of urbanization, industrialization, consumer goods, technological discoveries, and increasingly mobile populations. While evangelical faith has often been portrayed standing in inherent tension with the transitions of modernity, Joseph Stubenrauch demonstrates that developments in technology, commerce, and infrastructure were fruitfully linked with theological shifts and changing modes of religious life. This volume analyzes...