ABOUT THIS BOOK

From celebrated historian and writer Peter Ackroyd, a magisterial portrayal of English Christianity over the centuries.

This book portrays the spirit and nature of English Christianity, as it has developed over the last fourteen hundred years. During this time, Christianity has been the predominant faith of the people and the reflection of the English soul. This fascinating new history is an account of the Christian English soul, which recognizes the fact that Christianity has been the anchoring and defining doctrine of England while accepting respectfully that other powerful and significant faiths have influenced the religious sensibility of this nation. Peter Ackroyd surveys the lives and faith of the most important figures of English Christianity from the Venerable Bede to C. S. Lewis, exploring the mysticism of Julian of Norwich and William Blake; the tumultuous years of the Reformation; the emergence of the English bible; the evangelical tradition, including John Wesley; and the contemporary contest between tradition, revival, and atheism. This is an essential, comprehensive, and accessible survey of English Christianity.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Peter Ackroyd is one of Britain’s most respected historians and novelists. His many books include London: The Biography, Hawksmoor, and the bestselling History of England series.

REVIEWS

"It is the gift of the historian to accompany a compelling narrative with a passionate intensity that helps the reader see why it matters so much, an analytical detachment that offers rewarding evaluation, and a playful predilection for anecdote that charms and cheers. Ackroyd combines all four in this marvellous episodic depiction of faith in England, which wisely eschews comprehensiveness for the relish of close encounter. In doing so, Ackroyd describes how the word has most characteristically and distinctively become flesh in this green and pleasant land. By the end you know Christianity better—and you know England better."

— Samuel Wells, Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London

"Since before there was an England, the English have been defined by their relationship with Christianity—both positive and negative—in its many, ever-changing forms. Through Ackroyd’s calm gaze we see the leading characters and moments of that story, facile judgements suspended in favour of a warm, rigorous humanity."

— Alec Ryrie, professor of the history of Christianity, Durham University

"A wonderful, occasionally breathless, often enlightening and always entertaining pilgrimage through 1,400 years in search of the faith of the nation, or, more broadly, the English soul, which exists beyond the confines of institutional religion. As a guide to its history and spiritual drama, Ackroyd is colourful, opinionated and thought-provoking."

— Peter Stanford, author of "If These Stones Could Talk: The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland through Twenty Buildings"

"Ackroyd’s history of Christianity in England is a lively and detailed book. . . . In The English Soul, Ackroyd sets himself the task of capturing the ‘spirit and nature’ of English Christianity."

— Daily Telegraph

"Ackroyd’s new book is about the evolution of Christianity in England, from the venerable Bede to Justin Welby. The book carries the title The English Soul, what he defines now as 'a convenient shorthand for qualities which we don’t understand.' As with all of Ackroyd’s books, you arrive at the end of this procession of mystics and evangelists, heretics and headbangers, briefly cleverer than when you began. His history takes in lives of a multitude of believers from Julian of Norwich, through John Donne and John Wesley, to GK Chesterton and CS Lewis, with numerous enjoyable diversions along the way."

— Observer

“Undeterred, Ackroyd takes us on a breezy tour of the nation’s religious history, from the Venerable Bede to the present. . . . The story of the English soul.”

— Spectator

“The English Soul is a book about the history,  spirit and nature of English Christianity. . . . The book is excellent on several notes. Firstly, it vividly describes the huge array of figures in the history of English Christianity, not only well-known individuals but others who are less so—and how they were influenced. It is very well researched. Secondly there are many portraits and photographs of the most famous of those he discusses. This brings their characters to life. Thirdly it is written in a non-partisan way. The book is a brilliant history of the English Church and the people who built and are building it.”

— Arts Centre Group

“England’s history has been interwoven with Christianity for the past 1,400 years. ‘The spirit and nature’ of that faith is now the subject of this book. . . . This character-led account, from Bede to Wleby, is clear and instructive. At his best, Ackroyd distils with dexterity.”

— Country Life

“Discerning the English soul is here performed through twenty-three chapters of biographical sketches from Bede in the seventh century to the present day. . . . If Ackroyd does not convincingly find the English soul, he is agreeable company through the centuries in search of it.”

— Oldie

"In the Western world today, Ackroyd is one of the finest writers of biography, history, and fiction. His most recent project turns attention to the field of religion, setting out to describe what he calls the ‘spirit and nature of English Christianity’ as it has developed over the past 1,400 years. The English Soul: Faith of a Nation offers an episodic and biographical account of books, individuals, and communities that have done most to shape this tradition. Consistent with Ackroyd’s gifts, the book crafts superb turns of phrase while approaching its subject with curiosity, generosity, and breadth. . . . It is provocative and sometimes baffling but also shrewd, carefully observed, and at its best, brilliant."

— Christianity Today

"The cameos are often effective and interesting summaries, and the book could be useful for introducing something of the background of English religious history."

— Living Church

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Author’s Note

One: Religion as History: The Venerable Bede (673–735)

Two: Religion as Revelation: Julian of Norwich (1343–1416)

Three: Religion as Reform: John Wyclif (c. 1328–1384)

Four: Religion as Reformation: William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536), Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), John Foxe (1516–1587)

Five: Religion as Orthodoxy: Richard Hooker (1554–1600)

Six: Religion as Opposition: Thomas Cartwright (1535–1603), Robert Browne (c. 1550–1633), Henry Barrow (c. 1550–1593)

Seven: Religion as Sermon: Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626), John Donne (1572–1631)

Eight: Religion as Scripture: The Authorized Version (1611)

Nine: Religion as Poetry: George Herbert (1593–1633)

Ten: Religion as Order: William Laud (1573–1645)

Eleven: Religion as Sect: Thomas Helwys (1575–1616) and the Baptists, John Lilburne (1615–1657) and the Levellers, Gerrard Winstanley (1609–1676) and the Diggers, Abiezer Coppe (1619–1672?) and the Ranters, Lodowicke Muggleton (1609–1698) and the Muggleto

Twelve: Religion as Transformation: George Fox (1624–1691)

Thirteen: Religion as Experience: John Bunyan (1628–1688)

Fourteen: Religion as Revival: John Wesley (1703–1791)

Fifteen: Religion as Individual: William Blake (1757–1827)

Sixteen: Religion as Established

Seventeen: Religion as Battle: Catherine Booth (1829–1890), William Booth (1829–1912)

Eighteen: Religion as Thought: John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

Nineteen: Religion as Evangelical: Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)

Twenty: Atheism as Religion: Charles Bradlaugh (1833–1891), Annie Besant (1847–1933), Richard Dawkins (1941–)

Twenty-One: Religion as Argument: G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

Twenty-Two: Religion as Contemporary: Evangelicals, Pentecostalists, Charismatics

Twenty-Three: Religion as Theology: John A. T. Robinson (1919–1983), John Hick (1922–2012), Don Cupitt (1934–)