The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
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— <strong>The</strong> <strong>Death</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> <strong>Britain</strong> —<br />
phenomenon. 143 By contrast, Pentecostalism is becoming better understood<br />
– a movement which in <strong>Britain</strong> is predominantly black, and strongly reliant<br />
on immigrants from West Africa and the Afro-Caribbean community; this<br />
fits with David Martin’s recent description <strong>of</strong> world Pentecostalism as ‘the<br />
religious mobilization <strong>of</strong> the culturally despised, outside any sponsorship<br />
whatever, whether <strong>of</strong> their own local intelligentsias, or <strong>of</strong> the clerical secular<br />
intelligentsias <strong>of</strong> the West’. 144 But it is probably too dismissive to say that, as<br />
a cultural revolution, Pentecostalism has no political implications. It is inherently<br />
conservative and is drawn inexorably to share a political influence with<br />
other religious conservatives in British <strong>Christian</strong>ity, Islam and Judaism. Each<br />
<strong>of</strong> these developments was outwith the purview <strong>of</strong> this book and, though I<br />
have written about some <strong>of</strong> them elsewhere, religions in the context <strong>of</strong> a secularising<br />
society await the gaze <strong>of</strong> the cultural historian. 145<br />
If the cultural historian is cautious about researching the present, others<br />
are bolder. An increasing number <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> sociologists and historians<br />
place emphasis on <strong>Christian</strong>ity in Europe (including <strong>Britain</strong>) undergoing<br />
‘mutation’ into new forms, rather than decline. Most <strong>Christian</strong> commentators<br />
accepted the truth <strong>of</strong> the decline <strong>of</strong> the churches in <strong>Britain</strong>, but defended<br />
this in different ways as ‘not secularisation’. 146 One group <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> scholars<br />
has stated <strong>of</strong> <strong>Britain</strong> that ‘the closure <strong>of</strong> churches should not be seen as<br />
synonymous with decline’. 147 This may be a difficult proposition for the evidence-based<br />
historian to agree with; the last forty years have seemed incontrovertibly<br />
decades when closing churches went hand-in-hand with loss <strong>of</strong><br />
members, declining <strong>Christian</strong> rites, the overturning <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> influence in<br />
the state, and the loss <strong>of</strong> a culture <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong>ity in British communities. This<br />
is not to deny that new forms <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> worship have been emerging for<br />
some time: the house church movement and mega-churches are two examples.<br />
But arguments are becoming more conceptually elaborate. Sociologist<br />
Grace Davie has argued that European religion is mutating, and in this the<br />
churches remain important in specific roles (such as education and philanthropy,<br />
retaining what she sees as a vital ‘memory’ for <strong>Christian</strong>ity in Europe).<br />
So, the collapse <strong>of</strong> the churches is thus positive, not negative; even the<br />
collapse <strong>of</strong> state churches is, she says, not due to ‘religious causes’ but is ‘part<br />
<strong>of</strong> the renegotiation <strong>of</strong> European society as a whole’. 148 In this argument,<br />
<strong>Christian</strong> institutions are stronger than their weakness or disappearance<br />
would suggest, and, though active <strong>Christian</strong> numbers go down, they have a<br />
disproportionate impact in charitable and ethical endeavour. Though she<br />
notes that this mutation is ‘very unlikely’ to result in a significant increase in<br />
churchgoing in modern Europe, Davie claims that unchurched Europeans<br />
‘remain grateful to rather than resentful <strong>of</strong> their churches’ for these ‘vicariously’<br />
performed tasks – which include rites like funerals and national celebrations<br />
– which ‘carry’ the continent’s <strong>Christian</strong> memory. From this, Davie<br />
follows a number <strong>of</strong> other <strong>Christian</strong>s in proposing that the very definition <strong>of</strong><br />
religion is widening (to include individual and social health and, to resurrect<br />
230