Reading Religious Decline: Secularisation and Spiritual Self-Fashioning in the Fans of Malcolm Muggeridge, c. 1966-1982†

This article argues that Malcolm Muggeridge's fans used his religious writings to self-fashion their religious identity. This action was made in direct response to their belief, increasingly accepted in Britain and beyond during the 1960s and 1970s, that Christianity was in a state of inexorabl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Reagles, David G. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2020]
In: Journal of religious history
Year: 2020, Volume: 44, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-48
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Muggeridge, Malcolm 1903-1990 / Fan / Religious development / Spirituality / Secularism / History 1966-1982
IxTheo Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AG Religious life; material religion
CB Christian life; spirituality
KBF British Isles
KDE Anglican Church
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Summary:This article argues that Malcolm Muggeridge's fans used his religious writings to self-fashion their religious identity. This action was made in direct response to their belief, increasingly accepted in Britain and beyond during the 1960s and 1970s, that Christianity was in a state of inexorable decline. These letters provide near-unique access to non-elite readings of religion where readers crafted narratives of their spiritual lives, candidly disclosing their deepest apprehensions and concerns, hopes, and aspirations. They reveal the pervasive quality of the secularisation story regardless of social setting, and they illustrate the inchoate character of its popular reception. In this context, readers depended on Muggeridge's own presentation of a popularised secularisation thesis to crystallise the nebulous feelings about the vitality of religion that preoccupied their thoughts. Their concerns about the future of Christianity coalesced with their growing disenchantment with institutional Christianity, which they felt was either too ill-equipped or theologically bankrupt to engage adequately society's spiritual crisis. In response, readers sought alternative expressions of their faith that were unencumbered by the churches they held in suspicion. This analysis builds on recent attempts to historicise the "secularisation thesis" by showing it functioned as an agent in the events it purported to describe.
ISSN:1467-9809
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religious history
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12643