So much for received notions
Reading The Agency and wondering-- well, not how authentic it might be, but how far it strays from authenticity. Then Aaronovitch provides a corrective: 'the shocking conclusion of the 1851 church survey in Britain' revealed that 'less than half the population had attended church at all and of those that did less than 20% went to an Anglican Church.'
Maybe there was a religious resurgence in late Victorian times? Because I distinctly remember the scandal that would ensue if EM Forster's Maurice stopped taking Communion at *his* Anglican church. Like, yanno, everyone was watching who did and who didn't? which sounds so small town Anglo and Anne of Green Gables-y I can't stand it.
Maybe there was a religious resurgence in late Victorian times? Because I distinctly remember the scandal that would ensue if EM Forster's Maurice stopped taking Communion at *his* Anglican church. Like, yanno, everyone was watching who did and who didn't? which sounds so small town Anglo and Anne of Green Gables-y I can't stand it.