This innovative book challenges many of the widely held assumptions about the place of religion in Victorian society and in London, the world's first great industrial and commercial metropolis. Against the background of Victorian London it explores the religiosity of Londoners as expressed through the dynamic renewal of traditional faith communities, including Judaism and the historic churches, as well as fresh expressions of religion, including the Salvation Army, Mormons, spiritualism, and the occult. It shows how laypeople, especially the rich and women were mobilised in the service of their faith, and their fellow citizens. Drawing on research in social, economic, oral, cultural, and women's history Jacob argues that religious motivations lay behind concerns that subsequently preoccupied people in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These include the changing place of women in society, an active concern for social justice, the sexual exploitation of women and children, and provision of education for all classes and all ages. By examining religion broadly, in its social and cultural context and looking beyond conventional approaches to religious history, Religious Vitality in Victorian London illustrates the dynamic significance of religion in society influencing even the expression of secularism.

About the Author
W.M.Jacob is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London. He previously taught church history, focusing on the social history of religion, at Salisbury and Wells Theological College, Lincoln Theological College, and the University of Wales Lampeter. His books include Laypeople and Religion in the Early-Eighteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1996), The Clerical Profession in the Long-Eighteenth Century (OUP, 2007), and The Church in Wales from the Reformation to Disestablishment (University of Wales Press, 2007).

Reviews
In this extensively researched study, Jacob has given us an extremely valuable overview of the state of religion in London during Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901)...In many ways the work by scholars in this field runs parallel to what Jacob has accomplished in his Religious Vitality in Victorian London through his use of a wider concept of religion, with its emphasis on the social dimensions of religious faith in this period. * Bernard Lightman, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada, Brill *
Overall, Jacob has provided an excellent survey of religion in London through a time of huge change. This book is a valuable source of information for anybody interested in the churches in nineteenth-century Britain, including London's influence spread across the country and beyond into the Empire. It demonstrates the continued power of faith in all areas of life and challenges the notion of a society becoming secularized. Nineteenth-century London was a highly religious city. * MARK D. CHAPMAN, newman studies journal *
Jacob shows that the Church in London was committed to a "preferential option for the poor" a century before that maxim was coined - even though the well-off maintained a strict social distance from the destitute. * John Pridmore, Church Times *
It will be an essential point of reference for future research on religion in the Victorian city and on Victorian cities more generally. * Hugh McLeod, Church History *
...given the book's very broad scope, some points will be open to debate, but it will be an essential point of reference for future research on religion in the Victorian city and on Victorian cities more generally. * Hugh McLeod, Church History *



Book Information
ISBN 9780192897404
Author W. M. Jacob
Format Hardback
Page Count 368
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 666g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 161mm * 27mm