Evangelicals in the Church of England

This blog has noted much about the rise of the evangelicals in the Church of England, and the latest volume of Studies in Church History has several contributions of interest: Alister Chapman on the hopes for and use of the term 'revival' in the 1950s; Andrew Atherstone on the near collapse of Wycliffe Hall in the 1960s, and Mark Smith on the vitality of 1950s parish life.

See earlier post on evangelicals in politics.

Henry Chadwick

I note some recent obituaries of Henry Chadwick, scholar and leading figure in Anglican-Roman Catholic discussion. See Rowan Williams in the Guardian, and another in the Telegraph.

1968 and all that

I've been keeping an eye on the coverage of the anniversary of the events of May 1968, and have been struck by how little attention has been given to the religious aspects of the period. Hugh McLeod's recent book on the religious crisis of the Sixties has an excellent chapter on '68; see my review of it for Reviews in History.

Bishop Nazir-Ali

I note the recent article on 'Breaking faith with Britain' by the Bishop of Rochester, which appeared in the inaugural issue of the new conservative monthly Standpoint. For the purposes of this blog, it is most interesting for its view of the role of the 1960s in national moral decline. At about the same time, the Guardian carried a profile of the bishop, and a leading article, noting what it sees as the dangers of Nazir-Ali's case.
I'm sure this debate may continue, and shall post again at some point.

Mary Whitehouse

Hard on the heels of Permissive Night, BBC2 tonight screens Filth, a biopic of Mary Whitehouse, starring Julie Walters.

I shall be interested to see how it is handled, but some of the previews have already been ruminating on whether or not she was a Good Thing. Julie Walters, interviewed on BBC Breakfast News last week, admitted that whilst she had despised Whitehouse at the time, the experience of making the film had inspired a grudging respect [see also a mention in the Guardian]. The TV critic David Stubbs poses the question whether we should have listened to her, but concludes in the negative, in the Guardian TV Guide.

Permissive Night

An excellent series of programmes last night, on BBC Parliament (and not very well trailed), hosted by Joan Bakewell. It consisted of some very well chosen BBC archive footage of documentaries and debate programmes on several parts of the contentious social legislation of the 60s, including the reforms of the law on divorce, abortion, capital punishment and more. Some of them are available to watch again (for the next week) through the BBC iPlayer.

Geoffrey Fisher

I note a recent exchange of views concerning the recent study of Archbishop Fisher by David Hein: see a TLS review by John Whale, which is highly critical of Fisher, and a response by Andrew Chandler, also in the TLS.