When I served as director of the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at The University of Rio Grande in Ohio, I was struck by the power of Welsh national identity and culture that in large part was due to the extraordinary commitment of so many Welsh people to their history and culture. By studying the importance of religion in Welsh identity, D. Densil Morgan has developed a facet of the Welsh spirit that indeed defines Welsh national identity.

Morgan reaches back to Celtic Christianity in the fifth century a.d. but concentrates on the Protestant Reformation, when Christianity in Wales changed. A chapter is devoted to John Myles, who established the modern Baptist movement early in the Reformation. Indeed, Puritanism and Dissent flourished during the years of persecution that followed. Finally, after the Act of Toleration (1689), Welsh Dissenters became Nonconformists who were free to develop their own churchly communities.

A different kind of change characterized the eighteenth century. The Evangelical Revival of 1735 set the stage for such evangelical ministers as Christmas Evans, whose life and ministry is detailed by Morgan. Protestant evangelicalism continued into the nineteenth century when preachers such as Llewelyn Ioan Evans emigrated to America. Morgan devotes a chapter to the impact of the movement in America, including discussion of the difference between the theologies taught at Princeton University in New Jersey and Lane Seminary in Cincinnati.

The issue was interpretation of the Bible. In Wales, Owen Thomas, a Calvinist Methodist, clashed with Rowland Williams over his “Rational Godliness,” an article published in Y Traethodydd, a non-sectarian quarterly. Williams, a social and political liberal, claimed scripture was not supernatural revelation from God. Thomas insisted that scripture was revelation, an objective reality given by God. In America, the traditionalists taught at Princeton while theologians such as Llewelyn Evans taught at Lane. Evans insisted that the Bible was the message of Christ and his incarnation but that it could also be interpreted in the light of the latest science. Theological issues and interpretation of the Bible remained an integral part of religion in Wales and America.

Yet, religion was affected by other movements. By the late nineteenth century Wales underwent fundamental social and cultural changes. Secondary education in English became compulsory; the University of Wales was established. Moreover, the Welsh shared in the benefits of Victorian progress even though it meant embracing English. The twentieth century brought new ideas and challenges to religion. The 1904 religious revival did not change the trend toward secularism that was obvious by the 1920s. Yet religion remained viable.

To show the continued connection between religion and identity, Morgan devotes a chapter to the influence of Karl Barth, who perpetuated the concept of religion and identity in groups who shared speech and customs. Barth's theology influenced J. D. Vernon Lewis, who saw parallels between Swiss Calvinism and Welsh Nonconformity. In fact, Morgan discusses numerous preachers and theologians and even devotes a chapter to David Gwenalltl Jones, a twentieth-century poet.

In the twentieth century, Welsh Nonconformity was superseded by the rise of socialism and the Labour movement. The Great War was followed by depression and the collapse of the coal and steel industries in Wales. At the same time, the theological base strengthened as orthodox ministers challenged doctrinal liberalism. Nonconformist ministers continued to stress the importance of revelation and the Word of God.

To explain the changes from a religious standpoint, Morgan devotes a chapter to historians of Welsh Protestant Nonconformity. It is an erudite look at the historical perspective of historians and theologians who began to use the manuscript collections and sources in a new, disciplined way. The historians discussed were mostly Nonconformists and included Thomas Shankland, Richard Bennett, Thomas Richards and R. T. Jenkins.

Yet, changes also came in the episcopal church. In August 1914 the Liberal government established an independent Anglican church in Wales. During the same period, Pope Benedict XV announced the formation of two dioceses in Wales; however, most Welsh continued to see the Roman Catholic Church as foreign and even as a threatening institution.

From a political standpoint, by the 1930s many Welsh rejected liberal individualism in favor of collectivism. Yet Keir Hardie, the founder of the Independent Labour Party, used biblical language and religiously inspired idealism to convince Welsh chapel-goers that socialism was compatible with Christianity. In spite of his efforts, religious conviction weakened.

The austerity of the 1940s and 1950s was followed by a period of economic stability and growing affluence. By 1947 coal mining and steel manufacturing were nationalized. It made people feel as if they had a stake in their future. However, the brighter outlook brought increased Anglicization and secularization.

Between 1950 and 1979, there was a rejuvenation of Welsh Anglicanism. The Prayer Book liturgy, sacramentalism, and doctrines of creation and incarnation brought a beauty that coincided with the Welsh sensitivity to the spiritual side of life. Nevertheless, traditional Christianity lost ground in the 1980s to pentecostalism. By 2005 pluralism characterized religious life.

Wales, like many Western countries, faced new challenges with the Gulf War in 1991 and the destruction of New York's World Trade Center by radical Islamists in 2001. These traumatic and unexpected developments helped bring religion back into public consciousness. As Morgan puts it, that event reminded the secular generation that some aspects of reality demanded religious imagination to understand. He ends his book with a call for renewal.

This excellent book is meticulously researched. Moreover, it is an exceptional source for short biographies of a myriad of Welsh ministers and scholars. Morgan looks at the Welsh from the perspective of theology, religion, literature, and experiences. It is worth reading for an understanding of the Welsh and the influences on them.