The Decline of Christianity in Twentieth-Century Britain
The history of religion in Britain-as distinct from church or ecclesiastical history-is making an impressive comeback in the consciousness of historians, with important implications for British cultural and social history. Not least affected is the history of Britain in the twentieth century. Fifteen years ago, the well-known social historian Alan Gilbert published his The Making of PostChristian Britain, which soon became the standard account of the secularization of British society since the eighteenth century.' Taking off from careful statistical surveys of Christian church membership and participation that he had done in two earlier books, and looking for explanation to a very broad range of cultural, economic, and social factors, Gilbert presented an argument that has seemed so powerful as to be an aimost irresistible account of the apparent fact of the secularization of Britain.2 More recently, however, both religious historians and sociologists of religion have begun to question not only Gilbert's premises and argument, but also the very concept of secularization. The result of this questioning, exemplified by the books here reviewed, is a major controversy concerning the recent history of religion in Britain. To make sense of this controversy, we must begin with a clear understanding of Gilbert's concise but intellectually complex argument. Gilbert begins, appropriately enough, with social theory-that is, with definitions of religion and secularization. He defines religion as "any system of values, beliefs, norms, and related symbols and rituals, arising from attempts by individuals and social groups to effect certain ends, whether in this world or in any future world, by means wholly or partly supernaturarl (p. 5; italics in the original). The key to this concept is the reference to the supernatural, which excludes all naturalistic