The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750 2000

Hugh McLeod is Professor of Church History at the University of Birmingham. His previous publications include Piety and Poverty (1995) and Religion and the people of Western Europe (1997). He is president of the British branch of the International Church History Organisation. Werner Ustorf is Professor of Mission at the University of Birmingham. His first book was on the Kimbanguists in Zaire. He has also published books on missionaries in Toyo and Ghana, and on the relationship between German missions and the Nazis.

In this 2003 text, historians, sociologists and theologians discuss the decline of Christendom in Western Europe.

1. Introduction Hugh McLeod; Part I: 2. The secularisation decade: what the 1960s have done to the study of religious history Callum G. Brown; 3. Christendom in decline: the Swedish case Eva M. Hamberg; 4. New Christianity: indifference and diffused spirituality Yves Lambert; Part II: 5. Established churches and the growth of religious pluralism: a case study of Christianisation and secularisation in England since 1700 David Hempton; 6. Catholicism in Ireland Sheridan Gilley; 7. Long-term religious developments in the Netherlands, c. 1750-2000 Peter Van Rooden; 8. The potency of 'Christendom': The example of the 'Darmstädter Wort' (1947) Martin Greschat; Part III: 9. The dechristianisation of death in modern France Thomas Kselman; 10. The impact of technology on Catholicism in France (1850-1950) Michel Lagrée; 11. Semantic structures of religious change in modern Germany Lucian Hölscher; Part IV: 12. Master-narratives of long-term religious change Jeffery Cox; 13. A missiological postscript Werner Ustorf.