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- Title
An ordinary God': the paradox of religion in contemporary Britain.
- Authors
Davie, Grace
- Abstract
This article discusses the paradox of religion in contemporary Great Britain. Religious statistics of all types are notoriously hard to handle. In Britain nominal allegiance is the most prevalent form of religious attachment; no allegiance is relatively rare. By looking at trends overtime it is undeniable that the membership of the principal Christian denominations in Britain is declining. A limited pluralism is probably the best way to describe the religious life in Britain, bearing in mind the geographical concentration of particular religious minorities. A number of other factors correlate with religious membership: social class, sex and age are the most obvious of these. If statistics about religious membership need careful interpretation, those concerned with religious beliefs are even more problematic. There is no reason to suppose that the relationship between popular belief and a more orthodox Christianity have clarified over the last twenty years. Curiously, the minority churches within Britain may well be better placed as institutions to play a significant part in Europe than the Church of England. The case of the Roman Catholics is particularly poignant. The Roman Catholic minority is a valued and permanent part of British society.
- Subjects
EUROPE; RELIGION; STATISTICS; CHRISTIANITY; MINORITIES; CATHOLICS; CHURCH &; state
- Publication
British Journal of Sociology, 1990, Vol 41, Issue 3, p395
- ISSN
0007-1315
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/590965