British Gods

Abstract

Abstract The product of a forty-year career of sociological research, British Gods is a comprehensive survey of contemporary Britain’s faith climate. Bruce has returned to a number of towns and villages that were the subject of detailed community studies in the 1950s and 1960s to see how the status, nature, and popularity of religion have changed. Those restudies—supported by a large body of survey data and statistical evidence on such measures of religious interest as baptisms, church weddings, church membership, and church attendance—provide a springboard for exploring such general issues as the status of the clergy, the churches’ attempts to find new roles, the growth of non-Christian religions, the changing nature of superstition, links between religion and violence, the impact of the charismatic movement, the ordination of women, New Age spirituality, arguments over moral issues such as abortion and gay rights, the effect of social class on belief, the impact of religion on British politics, and the ways that local social structures strengthen or weaken religion. The final chapter considers the obstacles to any religious revival and concludes that the current stock of religious knowledge is so depleted, religion so unpopular, and committed believers so scarce that any significant reversal of religion’s decline in Britain is unlikely.