Religion and political culture in Britain and Ireland : from the glorious revolution to the decline of empire

The main theme of this book is religion and identity - not only national identity, but also regional and local identities. David Hempton penetrates to the heart of vigorous religious and political cultures, both elite and popular, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He brings to life a diverse and variegated spectrum of religious communities in all of the British Isles. With so much new British history really an extended version of old English history, Hempton has devoted more attention to the Celtic fringes, especially Ireland. It is an exercise in comparative history, but he also shows how richly coloured is the religious history of these islands. He demonstrates that even in their cultural distinctiveness, the various religious traditions have had more in common than is sometimes imagined. The book arises from the 1993 Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham. The main theme of this book is religion and identity, not only national identity, but also regional and local identities. It is an attempt to penetrate to the heart of vigorous religious and political cultures, both elite and popular, in the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. David Hempton deals with all parts of the British Isles at some point in their histories, and brings to life a diverse and variegated spectrum of religious communities, from Argyll to Armagh, from Cornwall to Clare, from the Welsh valleys to the Scottish highlands and from Birmingham to Belfast.

This book deals with religious cultures in all parts of the British Isles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is an exercise in comparative history, and also shows that religion was linked with other frameworks within which people found meaning and identity, including politics, national aspiration and cultural expression. Hempton's main purpose is to show that religion, in its various denominational forms, helped to unite Britain and operated as a convenient vehicle for the expression of national and regional distinctiveness.

David Hempton. This Book Had Its Origin In The Eight Cadbury Lectures Delivered In The University Of Birmingham In 1993--pref. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 179-184) And Index.