Christianity in Britain Since 1914: An Introduction

Christianity in Britain since 1914 focuses on the mass of local variations in British churches from the First World War to the present day. This introductory chapter summarises the chapters of the book and sets their findings in a wider context. It explores chronology, demography, secularisation, geography and the balance between national decline and local agency. The ethnic diversification of the British population and churches since the 1960s is a key theme. Taking the twelve chapters together, there is evidence both of secularisation and desecularisation in British Christianity since 1914. In recent decades change has been especially marked, with thousands of churches closing and thousands opening, too.