The 1851 census of religious worship: Church, chapel and meeting place in mid-nineteenth century Warwickshire, ed.

摘要

Religion was central to Victorian society and was an integral part of public life and cultural and political debate, from concerns about social order to the unsettling advance of scientific ideas. The restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in 1850 led to disturbances in Liverpool and other cities against 'papal aggression' and had a direct political impact with the enactment of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act. In 1846 the young Marian Evans (later George Eliot) translated David Strauss's 'Life of Jesus' for the publisher John Chapman, which subjected the gospel accounts to historical criticism for the first time. At first sight Britain appeared to be a very religious nation, with Christianity suffusing every corner of national life, whether politics or scholarship. However, what was evidence that this was the case?