Major cities have long been seen as centres of secularisation. However, the number of congregations in London grew by 50% between 1979 and the present. Londons churches have been characterised more by growth than by decline in the decades since 1980. The Desecularisation of the City provides the first academic survey of churches in London over recent decades, linking them to similar developments in other major cities across the West.
Produced by a large team of scholars from a range of disciplines, this volume offers a striking and original portrait of congregational life in London since 1980. Seventeen chapters explore the diverse localities, ethnicities and denominations that make up the church in contemporary London. The vitality of Londons churches in the last four decades shows that secularisation is far from inevitable in the cities of the future.
This study necessitates a significant reassessment of the dominant academic portrayal of Christianity in Britain and the West, which has, mostly, depicted cities as secular spaces within a secularising culture. It will be of great interest to scholars working across a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, religious studies and theology.
Section One: The Desecularisation of the City 1 The Desecularisation of
the City: Londons Churches, 1980 to the Present, David Goodhew and
Anthony-Paul Cooper Section Two: Changes in Londons Churches, 1980 to the
Present 2 The Demography of Religion in London since 1980, Eric Kaufmann 3
The 2012 London Church Census, Peter Brierley 4 Walking down the Old Kent
Road: New Black Majority Churches in the London Borough of Southwark, Andrew
Rogers 5 New Churches in Newham, Colin Marchant 6 Using Geotagged Twitter
Data to Uncover Hidden Church Populations, Anthony-Paul Cooper 7 Growth and
Decline in London Methodism, 1980 to the Present, Alan Piggot Section Three:
Ethnicity and Londons Churches 8 Mission Out of Africa: The Case of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God in London, Babatunde Adedibu 9 Brazilian
churches in London, Daniel Clark 10 Capital-wide Missions and the Rise of
Londons Black-led Churches, Hugh Osgood 11 Demographics and the Russian
Orthodox Church in London, Robert Collins Section Four: Denominational Shifts
12 Londons New Churches: The example of the Newfrontiers Network, Sam
Jeffery and William K Kay 13 The Diocese of London and the Anglican Church in
London, 1980 to the Present, Bob Jackson 14 Anglican Church Planting in East
London, c. 2005-15, Tim Thorlby 15 Visibly Different: Continuity and Change
at Westminster Cathedral, Marion Bowman, Simon Coleman, John Jenkins, Tiina
Sepp Section Five: The Wider Historical and Sociological Contexts 16 Church
Decline and Growth in London: Taking the Long View, John Wolffe 17 Londons
Churches: Sociological Perspectives, Grace Davie
Revd Dr David Goodhew is Director of Ministerial Studies, Cranmer Hall, St Johns College, Durham University. He has edited four volumes on contemporary Christianity with Routledge, beginning with Church Growth in Britain: 1980 to the Present (2012).
Anthony-Paul Cooper is Research Fellow of the Centre for Church Growth Research at Cranmer Hall, St John's College, Durham University. Anthony-Paul has a background in social research, with previous research topics including new church use of secular and sacred space and the use of social media data to better understand church attendance and church growth.
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