Nigel Genders, Chief Education Officer for the Church of England, What is religious education for?
The Churchwarden Church Buildings Review: A Churchwarden’s Rant
Andrew Lightbown Why the church needs its revisionists
Linda Woodhead Why ‘no religion’ is the new religion – a lecture at the British Academy [45 minute video]
I think anyone who cares about the Church of England and its future should take the time to listen to Linda Woodhead’s lecture on the the religious “Nones” becoming the majority in England. Yes, it’s 45 minutes long but it is well worth the time. If you simply won’t take the time, here are two articles that give some hint of what she says (at least one of which has been previously cited on Thinking Anglicans — http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/20/no-religion-britons-atheism-christianity and http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Society/article1657457.ece . Her basic points: Half or more of English people now say they have no religion. Most of the loss… Read more »
The Prof. Linda Woodhead’s lecture is fascinating. Counter intuitively, I found it a breath of fresh air in the wake of the Primates’ meeting and the follow up avalanche of spin and punditry.
Perhaps it is possible to live in church land without buying into the increasing sectarianism of one’s denomination?
In some ways the British scene she analyzes would appear to share some traits with Quebec’s Revolution Tranquille.
I would also urge TA readers to watch Prof. Woodhead’s lecture. It is most important, and I look forward to her new book (co-authored by Andrew Brown) with eager anticipation. However, I disagree with her in two respects, which are of some significance. She argues that this country has “always” been unenthusiastic about religion. This is thoroughly bad history: the English were strikingly religious by European standards until relatively recently – this was remarked upon in the fourteenth century as in the nineteenth; we were ‘a people of one book’ from the sixteenth until the early twentieth centuries. She also… Read more »