THE DEATH OF CHRISTIAN BRITAIN
By Callum G. Brown.
Routledge. 257 pages. £12.99
ISBN 0 415 24184 7
This book offers an alternative to the accepted theory of secularisation and gleefully pronounces the death of the culture of Christianity in Britain.
The usual understanding of secularisation is of a gradual decline in faith which begins at the Enlightenment. The author of this book believes that the facts do not fit this scenario. Rather, instead of a slow process, he posits a kind of catastrophe theory approach with the crucial turning point taking place in the 1960s. The fact that with events like the Billy Graham crusades 'the late 1940s and 1950s witnessed the greatest church growth that Britain had experienced since the mid-19th century' is part of his rebuttal of the accepted wisdom.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …