The Great Rewrite: Secularism and Nineteenth-Century Wales
Lengthy but fascinating piece about the rise of secularism in Wales. I’m a member of the National Secular Society, by the way.
- Comment
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
In the Dark 
November 27, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Annie Besant, secular? Pull the other one! She was prominent in the secular movement in order to oppose institutional Christianity. (I’m no fan of institutional Christianity myself; as a committed Christian I echo the New Testament view that it is about personal change, not political.) Annie Besant was deeply committed to eastern mystical religion.
November 27, 2016 at 6:51 pm
You can be religious and still support secular government…
November 27, 2016 at 11:31 pm
Yes, indeed; but the article calls her a secularist.
November 27, 2016 at 9:29 pm
There was a blue plaque commemorating Annie Besant opposite my old flat in Bow, East London.
November 27, 2016 at 9:48 pm
It’s good to see a mention of H. W. Lloyd Tanner, professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, in connection with the unsuccessful attempts to have him removed from his position because of his connections with the National Secular Society.
However, I don’t concur with the mention of `the Liberal-Nonconformist elites’ in the same sentence: the elites in the early 1880s were predominantly the Anglican establishment. Some privileged Liberals were also found among the establishment, and occasionally nonconformists, but nonconformists were mostly the excluded and disadvantaged. Indeed, it was the former Liberal home secretary Lord Aberdare who had led the defence of Tanner.