Anglicans and the New Jerusalem: the Church of England and social reconstruction in Britain, 1945–1985

Abstract

ABSTRACT Reports of English Christian socialism’s death at the end of the Second World War were greatly exaggerated. Like their Catholic counterparts in much of western Europe, Anglican Christian socialists contributed to debates about post-war reconstruction, issuing warnings against an impersonal or bureaucratic state and experimenting with small-scale community initiatives such as industrial missions, parish meetings and housing associations. From the 1950s, the worldview inherited from Victorian Christian socialism began to be challenged by affluence, anti-colonialism, the decline of deference and eventually by the rise of identity politics. Criticism also came from radical Christian socialists like David Nicholls who found the incarnationalist tradition of Henry Scott Holland too comfortable and paternalistic. Nevertheless, Anglican ideas of national community retained some of their attraction into the late 20th century, particularly offering an alternative vision of society to Thatcherism in the 1980s. This article is based on a lecture given to the 2020 Scott Holland symposium.