Abstract
This chapter investigates some of the antecedents of religious indifference through the prism of the religious radicals who initiated the creation of Secularism in Britain. Looking at the difference between the theoretical positions of some individuals, and the practicality of organising antireligious movements, we are enabled to see a mismatch between the desire to stimulate hostility to religion, or to achieve a state of indifference. Both situations, and their implications, made such radicals aware of the important choices at their disposal. The lineage of indifferent positions created by this choice is then investigated in relation to the author’s recent theoretical suggestions about the importance of religious narratives. If we can readily identify religious and secular narratives, is it now possible to identify indifference narratives. If it is possible to do so what precisely are these indifference narratives, and how should they be viewed on a continuum between the religious and the secular? Are they a legitimate third alternative, or merely a space occupied in a snapshot moment between choosing the religious or the secular?
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Notes
- 1.
It is interesting that the laity’s quest for independence has been cited as something Christianity has been struggling against since the medieval period.
- 2.
During the course of a considerable career Rev. Brewin Grant debated with both Holyoake and Bradlaugh in both London and the provinces.
- 3.
Foote asserted: ‘Its rules and maxims all have reference to the human and mundane, not to the superhuman and supermundane’. This also bears out the suggestion that ‘Such irreligious positions are not just functionally differentiated from religion but constituted by a distinct set of relations towards it’, as has been argued in the introduction to this volume. This set of relations can be forged by ideological pressures and responses to other behavioural modes such as religious tolerance.
- 4.
Rev. W.N. Molesworth’s observations on Secularism quoted in McCabe.
- 5.
Interestingly in an attempt to posit a new Christian England, Cole Morton revisited this area, partly by quoting Jeremy Paxman’s evocation of ‘…bells tolling from the ivy-clad tower to summon the labourers to Harvest Festival’ as being a part of ingrained ‘folk memory’.
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Nash, D. (2017). Genealogies of Indifference? New Theoretical Thoughts on the History and Creation of Narratives Surrounding Christianity, Secularism and Indifference. In: Quack, J., Schuh, C. (eds) Religious Indifference. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48476-1_2
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