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The Death of Christian Britain

The Death of Christian Britain

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— Introduction —<br />

in ways no longer <strong>Christian</strong> – a ‘moral turn’ which abruptly undermined<br />

virtually all <strong>of</strong> the protocols <strong>of</strong> moral identity. Ironically, it was at<br />

this very moment that social science reached the height <strong>of</strong> its influence in<br />

church affairs and in academe. Secularisation theory became the universally<br />

accepted way <strong>of</strong> understanding the decline <strong>of</strong> religion as something <strong>of</strong> the<br />

past – <strong>of</strong> the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. <strong>The</strong> 1960s<br />

viewed itself as the end <strong>of</strong> secularisation. But by listening to the people<br />

themselves, this book suggests it was actually the beginning.<br />

15

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