Overview
- Provides an archivally rich account of the institutional complexities of Anglican decision-making on sexual issues
- Examines a long chronology of developments spanning across the twentieth century
- Makes significant contributions to modern histories of sexuality, the Church of England, and secularisation
Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in History (GSX)
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Keywords
- Christianity
- homosexuality
- permissive society
- secularisation
- modernisation
About this book
This book presents an original and archivally rich account of the Church of England’s institutional grappling with matters of sex, relationships, marriage, birth control, and same-sex attraction between 1918 and 1980, uncovering a long and complex history of debates and disagreements that led to its present-day impasse over issues of sexuality. Across a long and previously underexplored chronology, the book examines various ways in which Anglicans shaped and popularised understandings of sex and desire, conceptions of sexual morality, and notions of sexual citizenship. Its account begins in the interwar years when the church exerted a powerful influence on attitudes and approaches towards sex and morality, moves through the challenges of the post-war years when Anglicans continued to debate and construct the new moral landscape of the permissive society, and ends in the late twentieth century when the church’s preferred means of functioning as an agent of mediation ultimately meantit lost pace with new approaches towards sexual identities and relationships. Despite its historically established role in guiding the nation, by the late 1970s, the church had unwittingly painted itself into a corner by provoking internal disputes that it struggled to resolve. As its compromise positions became outdated, the church’s views increasingly fell out of favour and contributed to its gradual demise as a former expert on sexual issues.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Laura Ramsay is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Bournemouth University, UK. She has published articles and chapters on Christianity, gender, and sexuality in modern Britain and Europe.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Sexuality and the Church of England, 1918-1980
Authors: Laura Ramsay
Series Title: Genders and Sexualities in History
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-56391-1Due: 10 June 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-56394-2Due: 10 June 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-56392-8Due: 10 June 2024
Series ISSN: 2730-9479
Series E-ISSN: 2730-9487
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 309