True religion : Christianity and the making of radical ideology in England, 1816-1834

Abstract

Noting the importance of religion to the lives of many leading radicals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Edward Royle and James Walvin remarked: "The religious dimension to secular affairs is probably one of the most unfamiliar aspects of the period under consideration". The early nineteeenth century saw the enormous growth of evangelical non-conformist denominations and sects. A debate has raged for many years over the nature of the impact upon the common people of this religious revival, and over the social and political effects of Methodism in particular. While Elie Halevy's famous thesis that it was Methodism which prevented the outbreak of a French-style revolution in Britain has usually been regarded as at best an overstatement, it has become an axiom of modern historiography that Methodism was a stabilising influence in early-industrial England. On the one hand there is E.P. Thompson's caustic characterisation of the attraction of Methodism to working-class people as the "chlliasm of despair".[33 On the other, Alan Gilbert argues that the inherent social deviance of Methodism and Dissent produced a moderate radicalism which acted as "the political equivalent of the safety valve".