English Soul

Peter Ackroyd is one of Britain’s most respected historians and novelists. His many books include London: The Biography, Hawksmoor and the bestselling History of England series. He is also the author of The English Actor, a fascinating study of the English actor from medieval times to the modern day, also published by Reaktion.

Ackroyd’s history of Christianity in England is a lively and detailed book. . . . In The English Soul, Ackroyd sets himself the task of capturing the “spirit and nature” of English Christianity. - Daily TelegraphAckroyd’s new book is about the evolution of Christianity in England, from the venerable Bede to Justin Welby. The book carries the title The English Soul, what he defines now as “a convenient shorthand for qualities which we don’t understand.” As with all of Ackroyd’s books, you arrive at the end of this procession of mystics and evangelists, heretics and headbangers, briefly cleverer than when you began. His history takes in lives of a multitude of believers from Julian of Norwich, through John Donne and John Wesley, to GK Chesterton and CS Lewis, with numerous enjoyable diversions along the way. - The ObserverEngland’s history has been interwoven with Christianity for the past 1,400 years. "The spirit and nature" of that faith is now the subject of this book . . . this character-led account, from Bede to Wleby, is clear and instructive. At his best, Peter Ackroyd distils with dexterity. - Gavin Plumley, Country LifeThe cameos are often effective and interesting summaries, and the book could be useful for introducing something of the background of English religious history. - Living ChurchIt is the gift of the historian to accompany a compelling narrative with a passionate intensity that helps the reader see why it matters so much, an analytical detachment that offers rewarding evaluation, and a playful predilection for anecdote that charms and cheers. Peter Ackroyd combines all four in this marvellous episodic depiction of faith in England, which wisely eschews comprehensiveness for the relish of close encounter. In doing so, Ackroyd describes how the word has most characteristically and distinctively become flesh in this green and pleasant land. By the end you know Christianity better – and you know England better. - Samuel Wells, Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields, LondonSince before there was an England, the English have been defined by their relationship with Christianity – both positive and negative – in its many, ever-changing forms. Through Ackroyd’s calm gaze we see the leading characters and moments of that story, facile judgements suspended in favour of a warm, rigorous humanity. - Alec Ryrie, Professor of the History of Christianity, Durham UniversityA wonderful, occasionally breathless, often enlightening and always entertaining pilgrimage through 1,400 years in search of the faith of the nation, or, more broadly, the English soul, which exists beyond the confines of institutional religion. As a guide to its history and spiritual drama, Peter Ackroyd is colourful, opinionated and thought-provoking. - Peter Stanford, author of If These Stones Could Talk: The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland through Twenty Buildings

• Author’s NoteOne: Religion as History: The Venerable Bede (673–735)Two: Religion as Revelation: Julian of Norwich (1343–1416)Three: Religion as Reform: John Wyclif (c. 1328–1384)Four: Religion as Reformation: William Tyndale (1494–1536), Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), John Foxe (1516–1587)Five: Religion as Orthodoxy: Richard Hooker (1554–1600)Six: Religion as Opposition: Thomas Cartwright (1535–1603), Robert Browne (c. 1550–1633), Henry Barrow (c. 1550–1593) 92Seven: Religion as Sermon: Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626), John Donne (1572–1631)Eight: Religion as Scripture: The Authorized Version (1611)Nine: Religion as Poetry: George Herbert (1593–1633)Ten: Religion as Order: William Laud (1573–1645)Eleven: Religion as Sect: Thomas Helwys (1575–1616) and the Baptists, John Lilburne (1615–1657) and the Levellers, Gerrard Winstanley (1609–1676) and the Diggers, Abiezer Coppe (1619–1672?) and the Ranters, Lodowicke Muggleton (1609–1698) and the MuggletoniansTwelve: Religion as Transformation: George Fox (1624–1691)Thirteen: Religion as Experience: John Bunyan (1628–1688)Fourteen: Religion as Revival: John Wesley (1703–1791)Fifteen: Religion as Individual: William Blake (1757–1827)Sixteen: Religion as EstablishedSeventeen: Religion as Battle: Catherine Booth (1829–1890), William Booth (1829–1912)Eighteen: Religion as Thought: John Henry Newman (1801–1890)Nineteen: Religion as Evangelical: Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)Twenty: Atheism as Religion: Charles Bradlaugh (1833–1891), Annie Besant (1847–1933), Richard Dawkins (1941–)Twenty-One: Religion as Argument: G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)Twenty-Two: Religion as Contemporary: Evangelicals, Pentecostalists, CharismaticsTwenty-Three: Religion as Theology: John A. T. Robinson (1919–1983), John Hick (1922–2012), Don Cupitt (1934–)Further ReadingAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex