Discussion Questions

What is secularization theory and on what grounds is it challenged?
How have changes in welfare interacted with religious changes in post-war Britain?
Why might it be anachronistic to study and analyze religion in Britain?

How far can history help us understand recent religious controversies?
What is a moral panic?
How does the Rushdie Affair illustrate contemporary Britain’s simultaneous Christianity, secularity and religious plurality?

Why have the authors selected Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation and the opening of Jerry Springer the Opera in 2003 as two snapshots illustrating changing Christianity in Britain?
Why are immigrant churches significant?
How does Christianity affect contemporary British culture?

What can the case of the United Reformed Church tell us about post-war Christian nonconformity in Britain?

How have Judaism, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism ‘made space’ for themselves in the UK?
What difficulties can minority religions encounter in gaining representation at the national level?
What is the significance of the Haredi community for British Judaism today?
Why does Gurharpal Singh conclude that British Sikhs, of all the Sikhs in diaspora, have gone through the most intense process of self-discovery as postcolonial people?
How might relatively high levels of economic inactivity amongst Muslims in Britain be explained?
How did British colonialism contribute towards shaping Hindu identity?
Why does Buddhism, another religion transmitted from South Asia, stand apart in terms of its development in post-war Britain?

Which forms of religion are not represented in the Inter Faith Network for the UK?

Is Druidry a religion?
How have alternative spiritualities moved from the periphery to the centre of British culture?
Why are there far more women than men engaged with alternative spiritualities?

How has ‘God’ changed in Britain?
How do evangelical and liberal Christian trends contrast with each other?
Is it more appropriate to talk of ‘Goddess-change’ in alternative spiritualities?
Are British Muslim conceptions of God transnational?

Why should scholars consider socio-economic status when investigating young people’s religiosity?

Why distinguish between baby boomers’, Generation X’s and Generation Y’s relationships with rock’n’roll and religion in post-war Britain?

Did the welfare state replace Christian charity?
What is the value of having a non-statutory national framework for RE in England?
What do changes in welfare and education tell us about the changing public role of religion in Britain?

How has Britain’s shift to becoming a ‘multi-faith society’ played out in legal and public policy debates?
In what ways does religion continue to structure social life in Northern Ireland?
How does the concept ‘civil religion’ help us to understand the relationship between politics, law and religion in the UK?

To what extent is the opt-out clause for RE in Northern Ireland currently protecting the human right ‘to freedom of thought, conscience and religion’?

What constitutes a cultural approach to religion?
How did British culture change from the 1960s?
What does the rise of non-religion tell us about contemporary Britain’s religious culture?

How can social perspectives bring particular aspects of religious change in Britain since 1945 into focus?
How do the six key indicators of religious change in post-war Britain selected by Arweck and Beckford interrelate?
Which helps us to understand the most about how religion has changed in modern Britain: secularization, de-privatization or globalization?

How are the religious and the secular mutually constituted?
Where do we see partial failures and partial realizations in historical change in Britain?
How important is Protestantism to interpreting religion and change in Britain?