Raising Up a Faithful People is a study of a neglected but important aspects of the history of the Victorian and Edwardian Church of England. It tells of the educational ideals of leading High church pastors who believed it was still possible to win the mass of children to Christian faith and practise by giving them ‘a real Christian education’. In the 1850s and 1860s some of the leading priests of the day, who were inspired by the ideals of the Oxford Movement, attempted to rebuild the life of the church in their parishes by opening Sunday schools and day schools, and by reviving the teaching of the Prayer Book Catechism. After 1870, as the state took greater and greater control of the school system, the clergy redoubled their efforts in trying to raise up a faithful people among the rising generation. They never fully succeeded in realising their ambition, but they did succeed in establishing many lively and devout congregations , and in imparting a knowledge of the Christian faith to many who would have otherwise known nothing of it.
This book, based upon extensive research into parish journals and pastoral handbooks, is an original contribution to ecclesiastical and educational history. But it should also be of interest to the general reader who would like to know more developments in the Victorian and Edwardian parish, which have continued to have an influence down to the present day.
Peter Davie is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Canterbury Christ Church College, England. Prior to his present appointment he served as a full-time parish priest and he now acts as an honorary assistant priest in the Canterbury City Centre Parish. He is the author of Pastoral Care and the Parish (1983).
