This work authoritatively extends the timeframe of secularization historiography, mapping the decline of Christianity in Western society during the 1960s. McLeod expands on the strength of his previous writings on religion in society, offering a more detailed and nuanced bridge between theories of gradual decline (e.g. Owen Chadwick) and rapid ‘abandonment’ (e.g. Callum Brown and Peter van Rooden). Rather than the more common characterizations of the rise of a post-1960s ‘plural’ ‘post-Christian’ or ‘secular’ society, McLeod prefers to consider what he describes as the ‘End of Christendom’ in Western culture (p. 263). He masterfully elucidates a multiplicity of variables that led to the rapid loss of any assumption of a Christian nation during the 1960s. This work is a commanding analysis incorporating most of the relevant historiography and supplemented by analysis of new primary sources in oral history archives.
The exposition is a broad thematic chronology which integrates well the different periods of affiliation to Christianity in an extended 1960s (adjusted from Arthur Marwick). After a deft placement of the work in secularization literature and an honest assessment of its biases, methods, and limitations, McLeod provides an explanation and description of the apparent strength of ‘Christendom’ immediately after the Second World War. Following this, Catholic reforms of Vatican II are discussed in detail, followed by thematic chapters discussing the influence on Christian religion of affluence, the counterculture, the ‘revolutions’ of the 1960s, and changing gender roles and contraceptive technology.
McLeod is particularly strong at describing the internal reforms and debates within the Anglican and Catholic Churches. McLeod argues for the importance of Christian youth movements in initiating and inspiring some of the protests against social injustice that were characteristic of this period. He details the extensive engagement with religious subjects both inside and outside the Christian churches during the 1960s, even while the assumptions of the debate were changing. His analysis of gender and the decline of Christianity aptly integrates oral history testimony into a tapestry of secondary analysis on gender and religiosity, eschewing oversimplification. The sections detailing the ‘aggiornamento’ of Vatican II, the reforms within the Anglican Church, and the chapter on ‘Sex, gender, and the family’ will be important reading for those interested in the complex interaction of Christian beliefs and the modern fertility decline.
McLeod's command and summary of the European secondary source literature on secularization is a boon to historians of more limited linguistic ability. However, the force of his argument is weakened by framing the ‘decline of Christendom’ in the broad context of ‘Western societies’. There are notable omissions which avoid extended discussion of the extent to which ‘Western society’ has universally met with the ‘end of Christendom’. For example, the relatively unjustified inclusion of the United States in the narrative is questionable considering that country's continuing public identification with Christianity in a way not seen in Britain. Understandably, the more complicated role of religion in the former Soviet-block countries during the 1960s is omitted from the scope of this analysis. An excellent analysis of the British case, The religious crisis of the 1960s would be best read as putting the case of Britain into a comparative context rather than comprehensively describing the ‘end of Christendom’ within ‘Western society’.
Other more specific improvements on McLeod's analysis are dependent on the expansion of the historiography of the 1960s, particularly in the analysis of how the decline of Christianity related to the counterculture and ‘revolutionary’ movements. The limitations of McLeod's analysis in this area are entirely a result of the extant secondary literature upon which he relies. As the developing canon of ‘1960s’ studies expands, McLeod's description of the ‘decline of Christendom’ is a significant contribution to understanding the complex position of religion in this particularly intense decade of social change.
The religious crisis of the 1960s is an important addition to understanding how religious ‘decline’ related to the other significant social changes of the 1960s. Although McLeod marks the 1960s as the ‘End of Christendom’, he also demonstrates how religion continued to be an important subject of public debate and consideration throughout the long 1960s. Rather than becoming irrelevant as many contemporary commentators assumed, religion in the 1960s continued to be of significant personal concern and widely featured in public debate. The concept of the ‘End of Christendom’ might help future historiography of religion in Britain avoid relying too much on the assumed wisdom of ‘secularization’ and provide more nuanced descriptions of the complexities relating to religion in each period, as Hugh McLeod does with ease for the 1960s.
