Throughout the middle years of the twentieth century George Bell, bishop of Chichester 1929-57, was deeply involved in the ecumenical movement and the political life of Europe. His sustained commitment to German affairs was demonstrated by his ten visits to Germany, between 1928 and 1957. They are documented in extensive travel -diaries-, some of them purely personal and others circulated confidentially to fellow church leaders at the time. Together with other related sources, they provide extraordinary insights into the struggles of the German churches during and after the Third Reich....
Throughout the middle years of the twentieth century George Bell, bishop of Chichester 1929-57, was deeply involved in the ecumenical movement and the...
This is the first comprehensive historical picture to be published of the life and work of the Church of England in the second half of the twentieth century. It traces the evolution of the Church in a period of immense upheaval, giving not only a detailed portrait of the work of its archbishops and bishops, but also exploring the Church's relationship with the State, the changes within its central institutions, and the response of the wider community to those changes. Placing the Church of England in its social context, Andrew Chandler examines the parochial reforms which arose in response to...
This is the first comprehensive historical picture to be published of the life and work of the Church of England in the second half of the twentieth c...
This is the first comprehensive picture of the life and work of the Church of England in the second half of the twentieth century, tracing the evolution of the Church at a time of immense upheaval. The Church was inevitably faced with the need for (sometimes painful) reform as society became more secularised and multi-cultural, and its response is examined. The book also gives a detailed portrait of the work of its archbishops and bishops; and tackles the controversial questions raised by financial matters and the administration of property. They include the financial speculations of the late...
This is the first comprehensive picture of the life and work of the Church of England in the second half of the twentieth century, tracing the evoluti...
President de Gaulle famously called the Second Vatican Council 'the greatest event of the twentieth century'. Vatican II established a landmark not only in Roman Catholic theology, ethics and worship, but also in its ecclesiology and ecumenical relationships with other traditions. Commentators at the time saw the council as nothing short of revolutionary and the later judgements of historians have upheld this view. A defining dimension of Vatican II was the presence of a number of observers invited by John XXIII to represent other traditions and to report the workings of the Council to their...
President de Gaulle famously called the Second Vatican Council 'the greatest event of the twentieth century'. Vatican II established a landmark not on...
The story of a significant British church leader who fought for justice and freedom during World War II
It was to George Bell, an English bishop, that Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent his last words before he was executed at the Flossenburg concentration camp in April 1945. Why he did so becomes clear from Andrew Chandler's new biography of George Kennedy Allen Bell (1883-1958).
As he traces the arc of Bell's life, Chandler reshapes our perspective on Bonhoeffer's life and times. In addition to serving as bishop of Chichester, Bell was an internationalist and...
The story of a significant British church leader who fought for justice and freedom during World War II
W.R. Ward was one of the most influential historians of modern religion to be found at work in Britain during the twentieth century. Across fifty years his writings provoked a major reconsideration by historians of the significance of religion in society and its importance in the contexts of political, cultural and intellectual life. Ward was, above all, an international scholar who did much to repudiate any settled understanding that religious history existed in merely national categories. In particular, he showed how much British and American religion owed to the insights of Continental...
W.R. Ward was one of the most influential historians of modern religion to be found at work in Britain during the twentieth century. Across fifty year...
