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The Problem of Pleasure: Sport, Recreation and the Crisis of Victorian Religion (Studies in Modern British Religious History, 22)
The book combines intellectual, cultural and social history to address a major area of encounter between Christianity and British the world of leisure.
This book traces the rise and fall of the evangelical movement, the powerhouse of Victorian religion, via its preoccupation with pleasure. Victorian evangelicalism demonstrated an ability to excite the affections but also a corresponding suspicion of worldly pleasures. Suspicion developed into hostility, and a movement premised on freedom became coercive and alienating. The crisis of Victorian religion began.
It is generally held that the mid-Victorian turn to recreation and sport solved the problem, 'justifying God to the people' through cricket, cycling and football. This book argues otherwise - that the problem of pleasure was inflamed by the ecclesiastical remedy. The problem of overdrawn boundaries between church and world gave way to a new and subtle confusion of gospel and culture. Historians have praised the mood of engagement but the costs were profound. In fact, sport became the perfect vehicle for that humanistic, 'unmystical' morality that defines the secularity of the twentieth century. Secularisation did not wait for the Dionysian rebellions of the 1960 it emerged - almost a hundred years earlier - in the Victorian transformation of religion into ethics. Central to the process was the problem of pleasure.
DOMINIC ERDOZAIN is Lecturer in the History of Christianity, King's College London
This book traces the rise and fall of the evangelical movement, the powerhouse of Victorian religion, via its preoccupation with pleasure. Victorian evangelicalism demonstrated an ability to excite the affections but also a corresponding suspicion of worldly pleasures. Suspicion developed into hostility, and a movement premised on freedom became coercive and alienating. The crisis of Victorian religion began.
It is generally held that the mid-Victorian turn to recreation and sport solved the problem, 'justifying God to the people' through cricket, cycling and football. This book argues otherwise - that the problem of pleasure was inflamed by the ecclesiastical remedy. The problem of overdrawn boundaries between church and world gave way to a new and subtle confusion of gospel and culture. Historians have praised the mood of engagement but the costs were profound. In fact, sport became the perfect vehicle for that humanistic, 'unmystical' morality that defines the secularity of the twentieth century. Secularisation did not wait for the Dionysian rebellions of the 1960 it emerged - almost a hundred years earlier - in the Victorian transformation of religion into ethics. Central to the process was the problem of pleasure.
DOMINIC ERDOZAIN is Lecturer in the History of Christianity, King's College London
- GenresHistory
322 pages, Hardcover
First published February 18, 2010
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March 22, 2011
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Erdozain examines the topic of "pleasure" (entertainment, leisure) as it relates to the evangelical church in the 18th and 19th centuries of Britain. His assertion is that the church's view of pleasure, as a growing force in that day and culture, went through a progression within the church--first viewed as vice (because it was drawing people away from church) but then being viewed as virtuous (because the church had found it could capitalize on pleasure as a way to draw in potential converts).
The prime example of this fruit of this progression? The YMCA.
The YMCA was established in 1844 as a way to attract young people into the realm of Christianity. This was not a church, per se, but a "para-church" organization. This and other similar types of organizations were developed to work alongside of the church in order to promote activities which were outside of the sphere of traditional church.
Along with the emergence of the para-church idea, the secularization of pleasure gained a strong foothold. But not only pleasure--many other aspects of society were secularized through the para-church concept. The evidence is prominent today. Para-church organizations are often looked upon as "not really church" organizations, even though the work they do is to promote Christ and His Gospel.
As the church began to accept leisure as a virtue, the entertainment world began to have a greater and greater impact upon the design of the church--both in terms of physical structure as well as philosophical construct. Today it is not at all difficult to see how entertainment has made its way into church proper. Huge mega-churches, with their theater-like design, dominate the landscape of our cities. But it is not only the physical building which has served to set the new standard of what the "successful" church is to look like, it is more importantly the philosophy of the mega-church that has heavily influenced the model of doing church. The goal of church, so presently dominant in our culture today, is to attract individuals inside so they might hear an entertainment-laden message and be drawn to Christ. Church has become a source of entertainment in an entertainment filled society.
This is not at all what church is to be. Church is really about people--people living life, all aspects of life, dedicated to the glory of God. Church is not a message we go to hear, but a message that is lived out in our midst.
This is, of course, an ongoing struggle for the church--to find effective ways of living life within the constraints of our social structure, but living in such a way that influences, for good, the world as a whole.
I greatly appreciate Erdozain's examination of history as it relates to leisure, pleasure, and the church. This really is an important concept that he has developed and one which deserves the attention of the church today.
Erdozain examines the topic of "pleasure" (entertainment, leisure) as it relates to the evangelical church in the 18th and 19th centuries of Britain. His assertion is that the church's view of pleasure, as a growing force in that day and culture, went through a progression within the church--first viewed as vice (because it was drawing people away from church) but then being viewed as virtuous (because the church had found it could capitalize on pleasure as a way to draw in potential converts).
The prime example of this fruit of this progression? The YMCA.
The YMCA was established in 1844 as a way to attract young people into the realm of Christianity. This was not a church, per se, but a "para-church" organization. This and other similar types of organizations were developed to work alongside of the church in order to promote activities which were outside of the sphere of traditional church.
Along with the emergence of the para-church idea, the secularization of pleasure gained a strong foothold. But not only pleasure--many other aspects of society were secularized through the para-church concept. The evidence is prominent today. Para-church organizations are often looked upon as "not really church" organizations, even though the work they do is to promote Christ and His Gospel.
As the church began to accept leisure as a virtue, the entertainment world began to have a greater and greater impact upon the design of the church--both in terms of physical structure as well as philosophical construct. Today it is not at all difficult to see how entertainment has made its way into church proper. Huge mega-churches, with their theater-like design, dominate the landscape of our cities. But it is not only the physical building which has served to set the new standard of what the "successful" church is to look like, it is more importantly the philosophy of the mega-church that has heavily influenced the model of doing church. The goal of church, so presently dominant in our culture today, is to attract individuals inside so they might hear an entertainment-laden message and be drawn to Christ. Church has become a source of entertainment in an entertainment filled society.
This is not at all what church is to be. Church is really about people--people living life, all aspects of life, dedicated to the glory of God. Church is not a message we go to hear, but a message that is lived out in our midst.
This is, of course, an ongoing struggle for the church--to find effective ways of living life within the constraints of our social structure, but living in such a way that influences, for good, the world as a whole.
I greatly appreciate Erdozain's examination of history as it relates to leisure, pleasure, and the church. This really is an important concept that he has developed and one which deserves the attention of the church today.
May 29, 2011
The author traces the rise and fall of the evangelical movement, as the powerhouse of Victorian religion, in relation to its preoccupation with pleasure, and more specifically, its suspicion of worldly pleasures eventually giving rise to a movement premised on freedom becoming coercive and alienating. Erdozain argues that the problem of pleasure was due to overdrawn boundaries between church and world.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews