Congregationalists and Methodists. Both doctrinal differences and the impact of key personalities, such as Christmas Evans, figure in the analysis which also traces the development of the Sunday School movement, the foreign mission societies and the spectacular growth of a Welsh language denominational press.The final chapter, written by Morgan and Jones, covers the transformation from the Nonconformist high noon to the secular society we inhabit now (1890-2020). It evaluates the impact of the 1904 revival, the Liberal inspired disestablishment campaign and the emergence of a distinct Church in Wales the liberalization of theology, the development of social movements derived from left wing ideologies which propagated a Social Gospel and the more diverse Christian experiences which have characterized the nation in the past century. Understandably perhaps in such a tightly written book, there is little room for additional information on smaller denominations, such as the Open and Closed Brethren, the Salvation Army, the home church movement and the various strands of Pentecostalism, but there are insights on how the Catholic Church has fared, which as elsewhere in the UK, has benefitted from the in-migration of peoples from Central and Eastern Europe. This is a masterful interpretation, which I stated at the opening, was valuable for its insights on the social and political life of Wales. But is also valuable as a guide to how Christianity itself can be imposed, moulded, transformed, regulated and whose tenets and ordinances can be used to inspire many generations of believers and other citizens alike. The key to the success of this interpretation is the interweaving of the internal dynamics of Church life together with constitutional, economic and socio-political contexts which it both shaped and resisted in times past. In sum it is a masterful treatment of the defining force in the development of a distinct national life, albeit one heavily imbued by English and to a lesser extent, other transnational influences.
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