Navigating cultural pluralism: Christian responses to radical unbelief in early nineteenth-century Scotland

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, popular unbelief acquired unprecedented visibility in Scotland’s towns and cities. Small but vocal communities of atheists, deists, and sceptics issued a damning critique of Christian theologies, clerics, and institutions, which they charged with promoting superstition and hypocrisy, hindering the advance of learning, and impeding social and political reform by perpetuating inequality, poverty, and distress. Radical freethought of this kind attracted only a very small minority of the Scottish population and support was largely restricted to male artisans, retailers, and apprentices. Yet this new and alarming development prompted substantial and diverse responses from Scotland’s Christian communities, a phenomenon that has yet to be explored in detail in existing scholarship. How did Christian clerics and lay believers respond to the new challenge of popular unbelief? Which aspects of freethought attracted particular attention and engagement? How did debates over unbelief intersect with wider concerns within the religious mainstream? And to what extent did shared concern over unbelief foster new forms of cross-denominational collaboration? By answering these questions, this chapter sheds new light on the ways in which the Scottish churches navigated the emergence of an increasingly pluralistic cultural landscape, one which now included small but persistent numbers of ‘conscientious unbelievers’. In doing so, it demonstrates that contrasting approaches to unbelief prompted new forms of critical engagement among Scottish Christians, while also exposing new areas of division and disagreement
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSocial Christianity in Scotland and Beyond, 1800-2000
Subtitle of host publicationEssays in Honour of Stewart J. Brown
EditorsAndrew Kloes, Laura M. Mair
PublisherEdinburgh University Press
Chapter2
Pages35-49
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781399515924, 9781399515917
ISBN (Print)9781399515894
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2024

Publication series

NameScottish Religious Cultures: Historical Perspectives

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Christianity
  • evangelism
  • unbelief
  • scotland
  • socialism
  • urbanisation
  • atheism

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