Lighten Their Darkness: The Evangelical Mission to Working-Class London, 1828-1860 Book

A key aspect of the enormous social change taking place in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Great Britain was the conflict between the established Church of England and popular evangelism. The emergence of religious pluralism in a time of rapid social change caused tensions which deeply affected relations between evangelicals within the Church of England and those outside of it. The resolution of this conflict greatly influenced the evolution of English society in this period and is closely linked with the issue of evangelical cooperation. Critical to the easing of tensions between these factions was the priority given by evangelicals to urban evangelism. This study examines an important aspect of British religious and social history virtually untouched by modern historians.