"How the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Victorian Church of England
overcame opposition to establish itself as a legitimate form of
Anglicanism."
A thorough, compelling, and often amusing account of how the
Anglo-Catholic movement in the Victorian Church of England overcame
vehement opposition to establish itself as a legitimate form of
Anglicanism.
From working class tenements to the pages of Punch to the very
Houses of Parliament, the Victorian Anglo-Catholic movement
provoked bitter debate and even violence throughout Victorian
times. Rotten vegetables were thrown at priests as they spoke from
their pulpits, and fistfights broke out among families over whether
dear departed ones would be buried "High Church" or "Low Church."
In this innovative critical study, John Shelton Reed provides the
first comprehensive treatment of the rise, growth, and eventual
consolidation of this controversial movement within the Victorian
Church of England.
Reed identifies Anglo-Catholicism as a countercultural movement, in
some ways not unlike the counterculture of the 1960s, one that
championed practices that were symbolic affronts to some of the
central values of the dominant middle-class culture of its time. He
identifies certain members of the clergy (including John Henry
Newman and his circle), the urban poor, women, and youth of both
sexes, expecially those who were put off by "muscular
Christianity," as those most attracted both to what the movement
had to offer and to the shock value it gave to the institutions,
classes, and individuals whom they despised. Each of these
component groups can be seen as culturally subordinate or in
decline--threatened, oppressed, or at least bored by the Victorian
values that the movement challenged--and thus ready to hear
subversive messages.
A distinguished sociologist, best known as a major interpreter of
the American South, Reed here explores new ground with
characteristic scholarly acumen, thorough and meticulous research,
fresh perspective and insight, and a remarkably engaging literary
style. He has uncovered and taken full advantage of a wealth of
largely untapped archival material, from the library of Pusey
House, Oxford, as well as the Bodleian Library and the British
Library, and has fashioned this into a cogent analysis that will
enhance understanding of the subject for both scholars and general
readers. His conclusions will shed light on many aspects of
Victorian studies and the related disciplines of history (social,
cultural, political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical), literary
studies, women's studies, and the study of social movements. All
future work on Anglo-Catholicism and related subjects will be
indebted to Reed's "Glorious Battle."
This book has been supported by a grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
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