Abstract
Almost all academic thinking about religion in the modern world has been governed, in one way or another, by the assumption that we are in the midst of a transition from a world in which religion was universally important to a world in which religion will be universally marginal. Scholars who would vigorously deny holding any theory of the nature of religion in the modern world fall back upon this assumption unwittingly. As the sociological theory of secularisation, the same assumption dominates the social history of religion, and scholars who set out to escape from the theory find themselves entrapped within its tentacles before they can get away.1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See, e.g., Peter Burke, in The New Cambridge Modern History, 13, Companion Volume (London, 1979) 312; David Martin, ‘Toward Eliminating the Concept of Secularization’, in Penguin Survey of the Social Sciences, ed. Julius Gould (Harmondsworth, 1965); cf. his A General Theory of Secularization (New York, 1979).
Jeffrey Cox, The English Churches in a Secular Society: Lambeth, 1870–1930 (New York, 1982), and his ‘How to Think about Religion in the Modern World’, paper presented to the Religion and Society History Workshop, London, July 1983.
e.g., Bryan Wilson, Religion in a Secular Society: A Sociological Comment (London, 1966) ch. 6; Alasdair Macintyre, Secularization and Moral Change (London, 1967) 8.
e.g., John Herberts, ‘Religion Enters a Political Revival’, New York Times, 12 August 1984, Sec. 4, E7.
See E. Theodore Bachman, ‘North American Doctoral Dissertations on Mission: 1945–1981’, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 7, no. 3 (July 1983) 98–134. He identifies 934 dissertations.
World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religion in the Modern World, A.D. 1900–2000, ed. David B. Barrett (London, 1982).
On the Punjab School and missions see Stanley Elwood Brush, ‘Protestants in the Punjab: Religion and Social Change in an Indian Province in the Nineteenth Century’ (PhD diss., University of California at Berkeley, 1964) 52–65; and his ‘Protestants in Conflict: Policy and Early Practice in the British Punjab’, Al-Mushir, 17, nos 4–6 (April, May, June 1975) 91–100; John C.B. Webster, The Christian Community and Change in Nineteenth Century North India (Delhi, 1976) 12 ff.; Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society: Its Environment, Its Men, and Its Work, 4 vols (London, 1899 and 1916) 2: 193–213, 487–9, 560–78.
For the chronology and statistics of this mission see Stock; Rev. Robert Clark, The Punjab and Sindh Mission of the CMS, Giving an Account of Their Foundation and Progress for Thirty-three Years, from 1852–1884 (1885), 2nd edn (London, 1889); Rev. Robert Clark, The Mission of the CMS and the CEZMS in the Punjab and Sindh, ed. and rev. Robert Maconachie, late ICS (London, 1904).
For an introduction to the large literature on Venn, see the bibliography in Wilbert R. Shenk, Henry Venn, Missionary Statesman (London, 1983).
For a thorough discussion of the importance of this issue in Nigerian historiography, see Andrew Porter, ‘Cambridge, Keswick, and Late Nineteenth Century Attitudes to Africa’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 5, no. 1 (October 1976) 5–34.
CMS G2/I4/O4/236/1887: Dr Martyn Clark, The Principles and Teaching of the Arya Samaj, Lecture VI: The Vedic Doctrine of Sacrifice (Lahore, 1887).
See A Native Church for the Natives of India, Giving an Account of the Formation of a Native Church Council for the Punjab Mission of the CMS and of the Proccedings of Their First Meeting in Amritsar, 31 March–2 April 1877 (Lahore, 1877).
See Frederick and Margaret Stock, People Movements in the Punjab, with Special Reference to the United Presbyterian Church (Pasadena, Calif., 1975) ch. 5.
See R. Maconachie, Rowland Bateman, Nineteenth Century Apostle (London, 1917).
See Porter, ‘Cambridge’, and his ‘Evangelical Enthusiasm, Missionary Motivation, and West Africa in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Career of G.W. Brooke’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 6, no. 1 (October 1977) 23–46.
On this see C.P. Williams, ‘“Not Quite Gentlemen”: An Examination of “Middling Class” Protestant Missionaries from Britain, c. 1850–1900’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 31, no. 3 (July 1978) 301–15.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1990 Richard J. Helmstadter and Bernard Lightman
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cox, J. (1990). On Redefining ‘Crisis’: The Victorian Crisis of Faith in the Punjab, 1880–1930. In: Helmstadter, R.J., Lightman, B. (eds) Victorian Faith in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10974-6_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10974-6_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-10976-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-10974-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)