Prologue

What follows is a study in the history of religion in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. More specifically, it is a case study, presenting an interpretation of some of the characteristic forms of ecclesiastical organisation, liturgical practice and supernatural belief which thrived in three contiguous industrial towns, namely Halifax, Keighley and Denholme, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, between about 1870 and 1920. Self-consciously limited in geographical scope and chronological range, this book is nevertheless concerned with a central problem in the history of religion in the modern world. This is the problem of decline. The recent historical experience of religion, whether in West Yorkshire, in England generally, or indeed in any of the advanced societies, can scarcely be approached without confronting an almost overwhelming sense of decline. That sense is shared both by practitioners and by students of religion, and shared even if their respective explanations for its cause, and of its consequences, are at variance. To both, decline is unquestionably a problem: for the former, a disturbing trend which begs to be reversed; for the latter, a social phenomenon which demands to be explained.

For many, in both camps, an appreciation of decline is often accompanied by an assumption of decline. The evidence of associational membership, attendance at worship, and adherence to supernatural beliefs amongst the population allegedly proves it. Indeed, a proper understanding of the inexorable direction of decline – towards further decline – is presumed to follow from an intelligent appreciation of those facts.