Did the Labour Party, in Morgan Phillips' famous phrase, owe 'more to Methodism than Marx'? Were the founding fathers of the party nurtured in the chapels of Nonconformity and shaped by their emphases on liberty, conscience and the value of every human being in the eyes of God? How did the Free Churches, traditionally allied to the Liberal Party, react to the growing importance of the Labour Party between the wars? This book addresses these questions at a range of levels: including organisation; rhetoric; policies and ideals; and electoral politics. It is shown that the distinctive religious setting in which Labour emerged indeed helps to explain the differences between it and more Marxist counterparts on the Continent, and that this setting continued to influence Labour approaches towards welfare, nationalisation and industrial relations between the wars. In the process Labour also adopted some of the righteousness of tone of the Free Churches. This setting was, however, changing. Dropping their traditional suspicion of the State, Nonconformists instead increasingly invested it with religious values, helping to turn it through its growing welfare functions into the provider of practical Christianity. This nationalisation of religion continues to shape British attitudes to the welfare state as well as imposing narrowly utilitarian and material tests of relevance upon the churches and other social institutions. The elevation of the State was not, however, intended as an end in itself. What mattered were the social and individual outcomes. Socialism, for those Free Churchmen and women who helped to shape Labour in the early twentieth century, was about improving society as much as systems.

There have been Baptist churches in the Midlands since at least 1626. This book describes their story from Stoke-on-Trent in the north, to Droitwich in the south, and from Rugby in the east, to Oswestry in the west, and covers the whole of the large West Midland conurbation surrounding Birmingham.This volume includes the whole range of Baptists who have arisen from different sources over the generations, whether or not they have been in organised Association life. Local historians will gain an insight into a vital aspect of their community’s story. Original texts have been used to let people and their churches speak for themselves. The story has been divided into periods of time, reaching 2009 when the office of the Heart of England Baptist Association (which covers most of the Baptist churches in this account) made a significant move to a new location in Selly Oak. Within each period important topics are highlighted, such as worship, social impact, church planting, etc. in this way considerable growth and important changes over the years are detailed. Some exciting stories emerge, such as the leading role Baptists had in the campaign to abolish slavery. The publication of Deep Roots, Living Branches is a contribution to the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the start of the world’s first Baptist church among English émigrés in Amsterdam in 1609. The book includes numerous line-drawings by the talented artist, the late Violet Kennard of Coventry.