Table Of ContentTHE RELIGIOUS CRISIS OF THE 1960
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The Religious Crisis
of the 1960s
HUGH MLEOD
1
3
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Acknowledgements
Thisbookbeganasthe2004VonhoffLecturesattheUniversityofGroningen.
I would like to thank all those whose attendance at the lectures, participa-
tion in discussion, and provision of generous hospitality helped to make it
suchanenjoyableexperienceforme.Inparticular,IwouldliketothankMr
HenkVonhoff,whoasQueen’sCommissionerintheProvinceofGroningen
was instrumental in the establishment of the lectures and after whom they
are named; Jan Bremmer and Arië Molendijk, who as, respectively, Dean of
the Faculty of Theology and Professor of Church History, were principally
responsibleforinvitingmeandfororganizingthelectures;andMathildevan
Dijk,whointroducedmetotheprovinceofGroningen.
TherearethreeotherindividualsorgroupsofpeopleIwouldlikeespecially
tothank.First,Iwanttoacknowledgetheinspirationandstimulusprovided
by Callum Brown: we have often reached different conclusions, but without
the stimulus derived from Callum’s books and from conversations with him
it is quite possible that the book would never have been written. Second, I
have been greatly helped by Jeff Cox, Moira Harnett, and Mike Snape, who
read and commented on drafts. Third, I have been very fortunate in having
had an outstanding set of colleagues, past and present, at the University of
Birmingham,mostofthemintheDepartmentsofModernHistoryorTheol-
ogyandReligion,butsomefromotherdepartmentstoo,whohavediscussed
the book with me or lent me their own books. They include, as well as
MikeSnape,alreadymentioned,MikeButler,AndrewChandler,HeraCook,
CliveField,IanJones,GordonLynch,PeterMarsh,StephenPattison,Werner
Ustorf,MarkusVinzent,SarahWilliams,andallthemembersoftheHistory
ofReligionSeminar.
Ialsoowealottothemanyotherfriendsandcolleagueswhohavediscussed
thebookwithmeorsentcopiesofunpublishedpapers.HereIwouldspecially
liketomentionDanielAlvunger,AshleyRogersBerner,JimBjork,SteveBruce,
Hilary Carey, Wilhelm Damberg, Grace Davie, Janet Eccles, Stefan Gelfgren,
Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Angela Hager, Paul Heelas, Mary Heimann, David
Hempton, David Hilliard, Gerd-Rainer Horn, Anders Jarlert, Aila Lauha,
HartmutLehmann,BeatriceMartin,DavidMartin,JimObelkevich,Thomas
Schmidt-Lux, Erik Sidenvall, Jo Spaans, Pamela Taylor, Peter van Rooden,
GrahamWillett,LindaWoodhead,BenjaminZiemann.Sectionsofthebook
have been presented as papers at the universities of Birmingham, Boston,
vi Acknowledgements
Chichester, Lancaster, Leipzig, Paris, and Umeå, at the Church of England
RecordSociety,attheArbeitskreisfürSozialgeschichteinBochum,atconfer-
ences held at the Evangelische Akademie in Tutzing and at the Katholische
Akademie in Weingarten, at a workshop held by the Lund-based ‘Religion
and Masculinity’ project, at a conference in Wuhan University and at the
InternationalHistoricalCongressinOslo(2000)andSydney(2005).Iwould
liketothankallthosewhomadehelpfulcommentsontheseoccasions.
IwouldliketothankDavidLodgeforpermissiontoquotefromhisnovel,
HowFarCanYouGo?andforthepleasureIgotfromrereadinghisnovelswhile
working on this book. I would also like to thank Robert Perks, Director of
theNationalSoundArchive,forpermissiontoquotefromtranscriptsoforal
history interviews in the archive; Elizabeth Roberts for permission to quote
fromtranscriptsofinterviewsbyherselfandLucindaBeierattheCentrefor
North-West Regional Studies; Paul Heelas, Linda Woodhead, and Benjamin
Seelforallowingmetoconsultandquotefrominterviewsconductedaspartof
theKendalproject;theMistressandFellows,GirtonCollege,Cambridge,for
permissiontorefertoinformationcontainedinthe‘UniversityandLifeExpe-
rience’questionnaires,andKatePerryandPatThanefortellingmeaboutthe
projectandassistingmeintheuseandinterpretationofthequestionnaires.
Contents
ListofTables viii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1. TheDeclineofChristendom 6
2. LateChristendom 31
3. TheEarly1960s 60
4. Aggiornamento 83
5. Affluence 102
6. NewWorlds 124
7. 1968 141
8. Sex,Gender,andtheFamily 161
9. TheCrisisoftheChurch 188
10. From‘ChristianCountry’to‘CivilizedSociety’ 215
11. TheEndofChristendom? 240
Conclusion 257
Bibliography 266
Index 283
List of Tables
1.ChurchofEnglandEastercommunicants,1934–1973 39
2.ChurchofEnglandconfirmations,1934–1974 40
3.ChurchofEnglandSundaySchoolenrolments,1934–1960 63
4.ChurchofEnglandinfantbaptisms,1934–1973 63
5.ChurchofEnglandelectoralrolls,1934–1964 65
6.MembershipofNonconformistchurchesinEngland,1934–1970 66
Abbreviations
ALRA AbortionLawReformAssociation
BBC BritishBroadcastingCorporation
BC ‘BirthControl’,transcriptsofinterviews,NationalSoundArchive,British
Library
FSMA ‘Families, Social Mobility and Ageing, a Multi-Generational Approach’,
NationalSoundArchive,BritishLibrary
IVF Inter-VarsityFellowship
MP MemberofParliament
MPNSA Millennium Project, recordings held at National Sound Archive, British
Library
SCM StudentChristianMovement
SFL ‘Social and Family Life 1940–1970’, Oral History Archive, Centre for
North-WestRegionalStudies,UniversityofLancaster
SGR ‘1968:AStudentGenerationinRevolt’,transcriptsofinterviews,National
SoundArchive,BritishLibrary
SNCC StudentNon-ViolentCoordinatingCommittee
WSCF WorldStudentChristianFederation
YMCA YoungMen’sChristianAssociation
YWCA YoungWomen’sChristianAssociation
Description:The 1960s were a time of explosive religious change. In the Christian churches, it was a time of innovation, from the "new theology" and "new morality" of Bishop Robinson to the evangelicalism of the Charismatic Movement, and of charismatic leaders such as Pope John XXIII and Martin Luther King. But
