The second of this three-volume history of the churches in England covers the period from the Glorious Revolution to 1833, the year which marks the beginning of the Oxford Movement. It stands as an independent work, but takes up the story from where the first volume finished, and leads on to the third, due to be published in 1998.
Six themes help to give the book coherence and structure. The first is the way in which the English religious scene became increasingly complex with the emergence or consolidation of High Churchmanship, Evangelicalism and Liberalism within the Church of England; the transformation into Nonconformity; the emergence of new denominations such as Methodism, the Catholic Apostolic Church and the Brethren, and the transformation in the status and standing of Roman Catholicism. The second is the extent to which the churches were able to come to tams with unprecedented urbanization and industrialization. The third is the origin, development, character and effects of the Evangelical revival. The fourth is the extent to which the
Protestants in England contributed to the growing sense of Britishness among the population. The fifth is the emergence of overseas missionary work. The sixth is the increasing importance of such rivals and enemies of orthodox Christianity as
secularization, rationalism, radicalism, Unitarianism, Socinianism and atheism.