Enemy Within? The Appeal of the Discipline of Sociology to Religious Professionals in Post-War Britain

Abstract

This article explores the contingencies shaping a particular moment in post-war British theology, a time when sociological descriptions of contemporary society were given new authority by church leaders and theologians anxious to discover a new way through the challenges facing their churches. Attention focuses on the history of religious sociology in Britain, and on industrial mission, social history, and theological radicalism as they converged in the work of a number of British commentators in the 1950s and 1960s. The article also considers the significance of this development for the theory and historiography of secularisation.