123 Book Meme

Jake Bouma has tagged me in this 123 Book Meme. I believe it is a ploy to get me posting again after a rather long hiatus. Well I guess it worked and here's how the meme works:

(1) Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating! (2) Turn to page 123. (3) Find the first 5 sentences. (4) Post the next 3 sentences. (5) Tag 5 people.

"He had a brutal upbringing, being beaten heavily by his father and harassed by the police for innocent games. He became repeatedly arrested for the same offence -- on every occasion, as far as he was concerned, trumped-up charges by policemen who didn't like him. He joined the Royal Navy where he was birched, and ended up in his twenties as a chimney sweep."

This passage is from Callum Brown's The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 1800-2000. In this book, Brown offers an alternative opinion on British secularization theory. Secularization theory posits Enlightenment rationalism and industrialization as the culprits responsible for Christian declension. This, theorists argue, has happened slowly, over a long period of time, since, roughly 1800. Brown’s thesis is that the decline happened not slowly over time, but abruptly around the 1960’s. Quite attached to this, Brown argues that the responsibility for the decline fell not on Enlightenment rationalism or industrialization, but on the social furor of the “swinging sixties.” Particularly, he speaks to the notions of the homosexual law reforms, the feminism, and the sexual carte blanche of the age. Brown argues that it was the combination of social convulsions that resulted in the “death of Christian Britain.” Browns refutation of secularization theory has elicited major interest. This book is a watershed work in the field and the scholarly community has not been able to ignore it: whether they agree with Brown or not.

Now that this post is getting way too long, I must explain the quotation. Brown is particularly interested in oral histories. (interviews, questionnaires, etc...) This passage is part of his discussion of how oral testimony reflects the evangelical narrative. The passage above is about Arthur Turner from Lancashire and it goes on to tell his "salvation" story.

I tag the vis, ryan, brandon, sam, and brad. We'll see if anyone is still reading this old blog:)