After decades of neglect there has been a resurgence of interest in the history of the Church of England in 'the long eighteenth century'. This volume of essays brings together the fruits of some of this research. Most of the essays have been written, not by traditional ecclesiastical historians, but by political, social and cultural historians, a fact which reflects the diversity of approaches to the study of the Church of England in the eighteenth century. As a whole, the volume demonstrates that religion and the Church can no longer be regarded as a discrete subject in the history of eighteenth-century England, but are central to a full understanding of its life and thought.

This ambitious and generously illustrated study is an in-depth account of the architectural character of a vast range of ecclesiastical buildings, including the Anglican parish churches, medieval cathedrals repaired and modified during the period, Dissenting and Catholic chapels (as well as town-house, country-house, college and hospital chapels) and mausoleums. The first substantial study of the subject to appear in over half a century, it explores not only the physical aspects of these buildings, but church-going activities from the cradle to the grave, ranging from how congregations were accommodated and how vicars lived, to how the finances were organized and musical events were arranged.

The church of the eighteenth century was still reeling in the wake of the huge religious upheavals of the two previous centuries. Though this was a comparatively quiet period, this book shows that for the whole period, religion was a major factor in the lives of virtually everybody living in Britain and Ireland. Yates argues that the established churches, Anglican in England, Irelandand Wales, and Presbyterian in Scotland, were an integral part of the British constitution, an arrangement staunchly defended by churchmen and politicians alike. The book also argues that, although there was a close relationship between church and state in this period, there was also limited recognition of other religions. This led to Britain becoming a diverse religious society much earlier than most other parts of Europe. During the same period competition between different religious groups encouraged ecclesiastical reforms throughout all the different churches in Britain.

At the beginning of this century, Canon A.M.W. Christopher of St. Aldate's, Oxford, declared that he turned to Ryle's book during every summer vacation for thirty years. It is time Christian Leaders was so read again.

div This original and persuasive book examines the moral and religious revival led by the Church of England before and after the Glorious Revolution, and shows how that revival laid the groundwork for a burgeoning civil society in Britain. After outlining the Church of England's key role in the increase of voluntary, charitable, and religious societies, Brent Sirota examines how these groups drove the modernization of Britain through such activities as settling immigrants throughout the empire, founding charity schools, distributing devotional literature, and evangelizing and educating merchants, seamen, and slaves throughout the British empire—all leading to what has been termed the “age of benevolence.”/DIV

This innovative book reveals how Enlightened writers in England, both lay and clerical, proclaimed public support for Christianity by transforming it into a civil religion, despite the famous claim of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that Christians professed an uncivil faith. This innovative book reveals how Enlightened writers in England, both lay and clerical, proclaimed public support for Christianity by transforming it into a civil religion, despite the famous claim of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that Christians professed an uncivil faith. In the aftermath of the seventeenth-century European wars of religion, civil religionists such as David Hume, Edward Gibbon, the third earl of Shaftesbury, and William Warburton sought to reconcile Christian ecclesiology with the civil state and Christian practice with civilized society. They built their arguments in the context of England's long Reformation, syncretizing 'primitive' gospel Christianity with ancient paganism as they attempted to render Christianity a modern version of Roman republican civil religion. They believed that outward observance of the reformed Protestant faith was vital for belonging to the Christian commonwealth of Hanoverian England. Uncovering a major theme in eighteenth-century intellectual and religious history that connected classical Rome with Italian Renaissance humanism and the Enlightenment, this deeply interdisciplinary book draws from recent post-secular trends in social and political theory. Combining intellectual history with the political and ecclesiastical history of the Church of England, it will prove as indispensable for historians as studentsof political theory, theology, and literature.