Rival Jerusalems: The Geography Of Victorian Religion

Rival Jerusalems: The Geography of Victorian Religion K. D. M. Snell Paul S. Ell CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Rival Jerusalems This pioneering book results from a major project funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the ESRC. It is based upon very extensive analysis of the famous 1851 Census of Religious Worship and earlier sources such as the 1676 Compton Census. Its scope and modern analytical methods eclipse all previous British work on its subject, and it is a major step forward in the study of religious history. The book stresses contextual and regional understanding of religion. Among the subjects covered for all of England and Wales are the geography of the Church of England, Roman Catholicism, the old and new dissenting denominations, the spatial complementarity of denominations, and their importance for political history. A range of further questions are then analysed in even greater detail, using massive parish datasets of religious, socio-economic and demographic data for 2,443 English and Welsh parishes. Among the issues treated are regional continuities in religion, the growth of religious pluralism, Sundajy schools and child labour during industrialisation, free and appropriated church sittings, landownership and religion, and urbanisation and regional ‘secularisation’. Regional contrasts between denominations, and between Wales and England, are persistent themes. The long-term importance of the geography of religion is stressed, for it bears on many crucial modern questions of regional cultures and national identities. This book’s advanced methods and findings will have farreaching influence within the disciplines of history, historical and cultural geography, religious sociology, religious studies, and in the social science community in general. K. D. M. Snell is Reader in Regional Cultures in the Department of English Local History, University of Leicester. Paul S. Ell is Director of the Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis, School of Sociology and Social Policy, The Queen’s University of Belfast. This Page Intentionally Left Blank Rival Jerusalems The Geography of Victorian Religion K. D. M. SNELL A N D PA U L S . E L L PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING) FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 2000 This edition © Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing) 2003 First published in printed format 2000 A catalogue record for the original printed book is available from the British Library and from the Library of Congress Original ISBN 0 521 77155 2 hardback ISBN 0 511 00869 4 virtual (netLibrary Edition) Scarcely anything, indeed, is more curious or puzzling, than the attempt to trace the causes why particular doctrines or religious parties should find one soil favourable and another adverse to their propagation and success. But, at all events, as far as facts are concerned, England furnishes a striking picture of sects an