Matthews-Jones, LM (2016) 'Oxford House Heads and their Performance of Religious Faith in East London, 1884-1900'. Historical Journal, 60 (3). pp. 721-744. ISSN 1469-5103

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Abstract

This article considers how lecturing in Victoria Park in the East End of London allowed three early heads of the university settlement Oxford House to engage local communities in a discussion about the place of religion in the modern world. It demonstrates how park lecturing enabled James Adderley, Hebert Hensley Henson and Arthur Winnington-Ingram, all of whom also held positions in the Church of England, to perform and test out their religious identities. Open-air lecturing was a performance of religious faith for these settlement leaders. It allowed them to move beyond the institutional spaces of the church and the settlement house in order to mediate their faith in the context of open discussion and debate about religion and modern life. The narratives they constructed in and about their park sermons reveal a good deal about how these early settlement leaders imagined themselves as well as their relationship with the working-class men they hoped to reach through settlement work. A vivid picture of Victorian religious and philanthropic life emerges in their accounts of lecturing in Victoria Park.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	2103 Historical Studies
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion D History General and Old World > D History (General) D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Divisions:	Humanities & Social Science
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press (CUP): HSS Journals
Date Deposited:	05 Dec 2016 09:28
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 13:37
DOI or ID number:	10.1017/S0018246X16000273
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2673

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