Friends, Neighbours, Sinners

In 1689, after nearly two centuries of the English state trying to enforce religious conformity on a nation, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, and other Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England could finally worship legally in their own meeting houses. But this was a period in which not everyone agreed that tolerance of religious difference was a good thing. Many people were deeply opposed to Protestant Dissent, and feared that the introduction of a degree of religious pluralism would result in the collapse of Church, state, and society.

By examining the social and cultural consequences of this difference of opinion, Friends, Neighbours, Sinners argues that religious difference shaped English society in fundamental ways. Through an exploration of the social subtleties of interactions between people of differing beliefs on the street, in the alehouse, and at social events, this book unveils the graduated layers of religious exclusivity that influenced everyday existence. In doing so, it points towards a new approach to the social and cultural history of the eighteenth century, one that acknowledges the integral role of the dynamics of religious difference in key aspects of eighteenth-century life, shifting how we think about social discourses, parish politics, and cultural spaces in this period.

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Page credits & information

Brown, C. (2022) Friends, neighbours, sinners : religious difference and English society, 1689-1750. (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History).