Religious Vitality in Victorian London
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780192897404
Number of Pages: 368
Published: 17/09/2021
Width: 16.1 cm
Height: 24 cm
This innovative book challenges many of the widely held assumptions about the place of religion in Victorian society and in London, the world's first great industrial and commercial metropolis. Against the background of Victorian London it explores the religiosity of Londoners as expressed through the dynamic renewal of traditional faith communities, including Judaism and the historic churches, as well as fresh expressions of religion, including the Salvation Army,
Mormons, spiritualism, and the occult. It shows how laypeople, especially the rich and women were mobilised in the service of their faith, and their fellow citizens. Drawing on research in social, economic, oral, cultural, and women's history Jacob argues that religious motivations lay behind concerns
that subsequently preoccupied people in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These include the changing place of women in society, an active concern for social justice, the sexual exploitation of women and children, and provision of education for all classes and all ages. By examining religion broadly, in its social and cultural context and looking beyond conventional approaches to religious history, Religious Vitality in Victorian London illustrates the dynamic significance of
religion in society influencing even the expression of secularism.
Overall, Jacob has provided an excellent survey of religion in London through a time of huge change. This book is a valuable source of information for anybody interested in the churches in nineteenth-century Britain, including London's influence spread across the country and beyond into the Empire. It demonstrates the continued power of faith in all areas of life and challenges the notion of a society becoming secularized. Nineteenth-century London was a highly
religious city. * MARK D. CHAPMAN, newman studies journal * Jacob shows that the Church in London was committed to a "preferential option for the poor" a century before that maxim was coined - even though the well-off maintained a strict social distance from the destitute. * John Pridmore, Church Times *