Since Christianity is an ethical as well as a mystical religion and since individuals live in communities, the church is bound to be involved in politics and other social action that determines the quality of human life. So argues Trevor Beeson in this study of how the Church of England's leaders responded to the radical social changes that transformed life in Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their response was never prompt and rarely enthusiastic, and all too often the bishops resisted change in society as well as in the church. Nonetheless there were always a few...