Gradualist or Revolutionary Secularization? A Case Study of Religious Belonging in Inter-War Britain, 1918–1939

Abstract

The timing of secularization in Britain remains a contested topic among historians and sociologists, some regarding it largely as a post-Second World War phenomenon (with the 1960s a critical decade), others viewing it as a more gradual process commencing in the Victorian era. The inter-war years have been little studied in this context, notwithstanding a coincidence of social, economic, and political circumstances which might have been expected to trigger religious change. The extent of religious belonging during this period is reviewed, with reference to quantitative evidence, from two perspectives: churchgoing, and church membership and affiliation. Trends in church attendance are documented, including the demographic variables which shaped it and the effect of innovations such as Sunday cinema and Sunday radio broadcasts of religious services. A conjectural religious profile of the adult population of Britain, c. 1939 reveals that, while, relative to population, there was only marginal growth in professed irreligion and non-Christian faiths since c. 1914, there was accelerated decline in religious worship (notably in terms of regularity) and active affiliation to Protestant denominations. This shift to nominalism particularly impacted the historic Free Churches (the phenomenon had long existed in the Church of England). Examination of these two religious indicators for the inter-war years thus lends further support to the view that secularization in Britain is best seen as a progressive and protracted process.

Has the Church of England lost the English people?

“…4 The decline persisted, with an estimated 64 per cent of Britons Anglican by 1914, 5 and 55 per cent by 1939. 6 Polls constitute a source of affiliation data from the mid twentieth century. Questions were initially of the 'what is your religion?'…”

British Sunday Schools: An Educational Arm of the Churches, 1900–39

“…52 Clive Field estimates that there were 6,978,159 scholars in 1901, 53 but that by 1939 this number had fallen to 4,177,000. 54 The introduction of grading in 1906 made it an easy scapegoat for some teachers.…”