Theology and Religion

"Guest explores how evangelical congregations have appropriated the values and media of contemporary culture in the propagation of a Christian message, and how this process has shaped evangelical identity.


He builds on an ethnographic study of St Michael-le-Belfrey church in York - a recognized leader in charismatic renewal and evangelical innovation since the 1960's.


Guest shows how a persistent tradition of cultural engagement may generate growth, while at the same time bringing about significant changes in the structure and function of the evangelical congregation, and in the social construction of Christian identity itself."

"Christianity as a cultural force, whether rising or falling, has seldom been analysed through the actual processes by which tradition is transmitted, modified, embraced or rejected. This book achieves that end through a study of bishops of the Church of England, their wives and their children, to show how values fostered in the vicarage and palace shape family, work and civic life in a supposedly secular age.

Davies and Guest integrate, for the first time, sociological concepts of spiritual capital with anthropological ideas of gift-theory and, alongside theological themes, use these to illuminate how the religious professional functions in mediating tradition and fostering change. Motifs of distant prelates, managerially-minded fathers in God and rebellious clergy children are reconsidered in a critical light as new empirical evidence offers unique insights into how the clergy family functions as an axis of social power in an age incredulous to ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Bishops, Wives and Children marks an important advance in the analysis of the spirituality of Catholic, Evangelical and Liberal leaders and their social significance within a distinctive Christian tradition and all it represents in wider British society."

"This book presents the first comprehensive introduction to congregational studies in the UK. Through a series of innovative essays, it explores the difference that the increasingly post-Christian nature of British society is making to life in Christian congregations, and compares this to the very different scenario which exists in the USA.

Contributions from leading scholars in the field include rich case studies of local communities and theoretical analyses which reflect on issues of method and develop broader understandings. Congregational studies is revealed as a rich and growing field of interest to scholars across many disciplines and to those involved in congregational life."

This chapter addresses contemporary debates about the decline of religion and rise of spirituality through the concept of spiritual capital. It offers a review of the literature on ‘capital’ theory, leading up to Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology, which serves as a basis for a critical theorisation of spiritual capital. The capacity of spiritual capital to illuminate issues of power and the politics of identity is illustrated via a case study of Anglican clergy and their influence upon their children’s values and religious identities.

This article is a critical engagement with political scientist William Connolly’s book Christianity and Capitalism: American Style. Connolly’s analysis of the ways in which evangelical Christianity and capitalist agendas interrelate in the US context is outlined and critiqued in terms of its tendency to homogenise the US evangelical movement and overstate its incorporation of right wing political interests. Its theoretical framework is also critiqued, but developed in light of its potential to generate insights into the global context of evangelical influence, including as a vehicle for capitalist values. This is explored in terms of US influence upon British evangelicalism and what this reveals about the circulation of evangelical-capitalist ideas within a transatlantic context. A case study is offered of the Willow Creek sponsored Global Leadership Summit by way of illustration.

This chapter charts the development of congregational studies  - analyses of local Christian congregations - in the UK from the 1950s onwards. It draws comparisons with similar studies in the USA, and offers insights into how the evolution of dominant approaches and perspectives has been shaped by changes in the wider cultural climate.

This paper asks what the case of clerical families might teach us about the form and status of religion within present day Britain. The broad aim is to reflect on how religious ideas and values are negotiated within a family context: how they are learnt, transmitted, developed and challenged. Comments will build on an extensive empirical study of senior Anglican clergymen and their families, and draw from
wider sociological debates about religion as a form of capital in making sense of processes of identity formation.

This article explores new religious groups who build a distinctive vision of the 'emerging church' by drawing from a post-evangelical perspective. Specifically, we explore the ways in which two groups (a Baptist church in Auckland, New Zealand, and a group attached to a Church of England parish in York, UK) re-imagine church and reflexively reconfigure ideas of Christian religion, in light of their embrace of a 'post-modern' view of the world. Throughout, the focus remains on the question of how religious groups, which self-consciously embrace a post-modern worldview - emphasising detraditionalisation and individualism - sustain durable Christian communities.

"Building on debates in the sociology of knowledge, this chapter explores how the recent popularity of creationist ideas within contemporary western cultures may be explained with reference to social structural changes. A brief history of creationism within the twentieth century is followed by a discussion of how and why the claims associated with creationism are viewed as plausible by those who affirm them. 

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This chapter traces the different ways in which the social sciences have understood the transmission and reproduction of religious traditions and identities. This is followed by an examination of contemporary challenges facing those wishing to explore these issues, and a critical discussion of capital theory as a possible way forward.

This chapter focuses on the different forms and functions which Christian congregations in Britain have adopted in recent years, faced with a cultural context characterised by a fragmentation of local communities and the elevation of consumerist values. In deliberate contrast to visions of post-Christian Britain which emphasise secularisation and the inexorable breakdown of tradition, the intention here is to highlight creative processes of reconfiguration which illustrate the capacity of Christian collectives to adapt to cultural change. Alternative forms of Christian community are then explored through the examples of cell churches, parachurches and web-based communities.

This book addresses the relationship between religion and knowledge from a sociological perspective, taking both religion and knowledge as phenomena located within ever changing social contexts. It builds on historical foundations, but offers a distinctive focus on the changing status of religious phenomena at the turn of the twenty-first century. Including critical engagement with live debates about intelligent design and the ‘new atheism’, this collection of essays brings recent research on religious movements into conversation with debates about socialisation, reflexivity and the changing capacity of social institutions to shape human identities. Contributors examine religion as an institutional context for the production of knowledge, as a form of knowledge to be transmitted or conveyed and as a social field in which controversies about knowledge emerge.

Drawing on qualitative interview research conducted with undergraduates at English universities, this article examines Christian students’ experiences of living out their religious identities at university. Noting the transitional nature of the higher education experience, which often destabilizes existing identities, we explore how, for students self-identifying as ‘Christian’, the enactment of faith helps to form experiences of continuity between pre-university home-life and their university career. Religious beliefs and practices foster a sense of familiarity and offer cultural resources that assist in the forging of relationships among like-minded students. However, university-based Christian gatherings and groups are presented as less stable resources, and can come to symbolize heightened social difference amongst Christian students from different social backgrounds, provoking some to question, modify or give up their religious identities. In keeping with recent scholarship that stresses the dynamic, lived, continually negotiated nature of religious identities, we trace these patterns as contours within Christian identity construction, illustrating how religious and non-religious social factors interact as individuals navigate a key transitional stage in the life-course.

The Left Behind novels, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, illustrate how rapture fiction has become established as a highly successful sub-genre of Christian literature. However, their public reception – within popular and scholarly contexts – reflects an instrumentalisation of the novel that obscures their significance as cultural expressions of evangelical identity.  This article challenges this tendency, drawing from social scientific research into reader negotiation of texts within the evangelical world, and argues that both processes of engaging with the novels, and the novels themselves, mirror an evangelicalism that is not simple, univocal or homogeneous, but is complex and conflicted.

""What impact does the experience of university have on Christian students? Are universities a force for secularisation? Is student faith enduring, or a passing phase? Universities are often associated with a sceptical attitude towards religion. Many assume that academic study leads students away from any existing religious convictions, heightening the appeal of a rationalist secularism increasingly dominant in wider society. And yet Christianity remains highly visible on university campuses and continues to be a prominent identity marker in the lives of many students.

Analysing over 4,000 responses to a national survey of students and nearly 100 interviews with students and those working with them, this book examines Christianity in universities across England. It explores the beliefs, values and practices of Christian students. It reveals how the university experience influences their Christian identities, and the influence Christian students have upon university life.

Christianity and the University Experience makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the survival and evolution of religion in the contemporary world. It offers fresh insights relevant to those working with Christian students, including churches, chaplaincies and student organisations, as well as policy-makers and university managers interested in the significance of religion for education, social responsibility and social cohesion.""

The low proportion of women within the subject areas of Theology and Religious Studies has long been observed, and is increasingly recognised as a serious problem for staff and students. In this new study, Mathew Guest, Sonya Sharma and Robert Song chart patterns of gender imbalance among staff and students across UK TRS departments, exploring why such patterns remain so persistent. Drawing on interviews with TRS academics across the country, the report examines the professional life of female university staff, and makes recommendations for how universities might address the inequalities of opportunity and practice that emerge.

This essay revisits the long-established debate about the relationship between religion and higher education, focusing especially on how the institutional cultures of universities might shape the religious identities of their students. The essay maps important contextual factors that have reconfigured popular understandings of campus-based religiosity - including recent debates about radicalisation - before  arguing how a focus on cultural - rather than cognitive - identity challenges facilitates an illuminating approach to this issue. An extended analysis of recent empirical research on Christian students in UK universities  serves to illustrate the benefits of this approach. Emerging conclusions are addressed within the context of recent scholarship on patterns of youth religiosity within late modern cultures.