Gareth Atkins | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)
Books by Gareth Atkins
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2020
Stained glass was a ubiquitous art form in the nineteenth century, present in churches, railway s... more Stained glass was a ubiquitous art form in the nineteenth century, present in churches, railway stations, museums, and homes. Nevertheless, it has rarely been discussed outside of specialist fields. This issue of 19 brings together scholars from across a range of disciplines in order to examine, interpret, and reframe stained glass from the widest possible variety of perspectives in order to demonstrate its rich potential. We explore how this entrepreneurial and technologically innovative medium used ‘traditional’ forms not just to articulate well-worn stories, but to tell new ones in self-avowedly modern settings, revealing much about nineteenth-century culture, aesthetics, and contexts.
Converting Britannia, 2019
| 234mm x 156mm 296pp | Hardback | 978-0-7190-9686-0 | £75.00
Book Reviews by Gareth Atkins
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2020
Studies in World Christianity, 2020
Family and Community History, 2020
evident how the family history provided helps us understand Maxwell better. The influence of Maxw... more evident how the family history provided helps us understand Maxwell better. The influence of Maxwell's father on shaping his ideas and outlook is fairly clear (and has been noted before), but it is challenging to find similar threads over the course of these five generations. Similarly, the book's subtitle suggests that the story of the Clerk Maxwells will help illuminate the Scottish Enlightenment. Unfortunately, we do not learn much about the Scottish Enlightenment that is not already widely known, and in fact we come away feeling that Clerk Maxwells are not particularly representative of the era. Some closer connection with the scholarly literature might have been useful here: the first source cited on the Scottish Enlightenment is a 1986 travel guide for Edinburgh, the second a Wikipedia article.
This splendid collection provides abundant evidence to support Clyde Binfield's dictum that the n... more This splendid collection provides abundant evidence to support Clyde Binfield's dictum that the nineteenth century was 'hagiology's high noon'. Obviously the Tractarians were keen on saints but so, this book argues, were evangelicals with their new 'saints' such as William Wilberforce and Elizabeth Fry. Most of the contributors of the 15 articles are younger scholars as is the editor. The medieval historian Nicholas Vincent is more seasoned. He became newsworthy during the Magna Carta celebrations in 2015 by unearthing fresh primary sources in Lambeth Palace Library showing the devious political role that Archbishop Stephen Langton played. Here he maps the changing assessments made in the nineteenth century of the most widely known archbishop of all, Thomas Becket -ranging at one extreme to the claim that he was just a papist defender of clerical privileges to its opposite that he was a heroic champion of freedom from an over-powerful monarch. As other authors also show the making and remaking of saints is often an ambiguous business -rich territory for research and this collection whets the appetite for more.
Journal Articles by Gareth Atkins
Prophetic thought in nineteenth-century Britain has often been presented as divided between those... more Prophetic thought in nineteenth-century Britain has often been presented as divided between those mostly evangelical constituencies who ‘believed' in its literal fulfilment in the past, present or future and those who ‘doubted' such interpretations. This essay seeks to question that division by tracking the uses of one set of prophetic passages, those concerning the ‘Ships of Tarshish’ mentioned in Isaiah 60: 9 and elsewhere. It examines their appropriation from the late eighteenth century onwards by those seeking prophetic-providential justification for the British maritime empire. Next it shows how such such ideas fuelled missionary expansion in the years after 1815, suggesting that by mid-century that there was a growing spectrum of ways in which such passages were used by religious commentators. The final section shows how biblical critics seeking to bolster the integrity of the Bible as a text reconstructed the geographical and economic settings for these passages, establishing their historical veracity as they did so but in the process undermining their supernaturally predictive status. Thus one way of bolstering ‘faith’ – the study of prophetic fulfilments – was rendered doubtful by another. By the end of our period Tyre and Tarshish retained much of their homiletic punch as metaphors for the sin brought by trade and luxury, but those who saw them as literal proxies for Britain were in the minority.
The use by British crowds of victorious admirals to articulate patriotic and libertarian ideas du... more The use by British crowds of victorious admirals to articulate patriotic and libertarian ideas during the wars of the long eighteenth century is well known. But conflict also posed awkward questions about masculinity and issues surrounding it.
Sir Charles Middleton, Lord Barham (1726Barham ( -1813, occupies a pivotal place in naval history... more Sir Charles Middleton, Lord Barham (1726Barham ( -1813, occupies a pivotal place in naval history. His evangelical religiosity is well known, but while considerable attention has been given to how this shaped his administrative reforms, his manipulation of patronage to promote his co-religionists has, until now, been ignored or brushed under the carpet. This article uses contemporary correspondence, diaries and printed works to reconstruct for the first time a powerful nexus that bound Pittite politicians to Wilberforce and his circle, one that spanned parliament, the Church, naval administration and the seagoing officer corps. In doing so it throws new light on how evangelicals gained such a strong foothold in late-Hanoverian public affairs.
Ever since his violent death in 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was used by rival groups to justi... more Ever since his violent death in 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was used by rival groups to justify their views about the Church of England. The burning of a disgraced Primate was always likely to be a spicy tale, but thanks chiefly to John Foxe it was placed at the centre of Protestant narratives. In the nineteenth century, however, confessional stories became hotly contested, and amid the 'rage of history' erstwhile heroes were placed under intense scrutiny. This chapter uses Cranmer's fluctuating reputation as lens through which to explore changing understandings of the English past. As will become clear, uncertainties over how to place Cranmer bespoke a crisis of Anglican identity, one driven both by divisions within it and challenges to its political, cultural and intellectual authority from without. Despite and perhaps because of shifts in how he was seen, Cranmer's liturgical writings -the Book of Common Prayer -came to be seen as his chief legacy.
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2020
Stained glass was a ubiquitous art form in the nineteenth century, present in churches, railway s... more Stained glass was a ubiquitous art form in the nineteenth century, present in churches, railway stations, museums, and homes. Nevertheless, it has rarely been discussed outside of specialist fields. This issue of 19 brings together scholars from across a range of disciplines in order to examine, interpret, and reframe stained glass from the widest possible variety of perspectives in order to demonstrate its rich potential. We explore how this entrepreneurial and technologically innovative medium used ‘traditional’ forms not just to articulate well-worn stories, but to tell new ones in self-avowedly modern settings, revealing much about nineteenth-century culture, aesthetics, and contexts.
Converting Britannia, 2019
| 234mm x 156mm 296pp | Hardback | 978-0-7190-9686-0 | £75.00
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2020
Studies in World Christianity, 2020
Family and Community History, 2020
evident how the family history provided helps us understand Maxwell better. The influence of Maxw... more evident how the family history provided helps us understand Maxwell better. The influence of Maxwell's father on shaping his ideas and outlook is fairly clear (and has been noted before), but it is challenging to find similar threads over the course of these five generations. Similarly, the book's subtitle suggests that the story of the Clerk Maxwells will help illuminate the Scottish Enlightenment. Unfortunately, we do not learn much about the Scottish Enlightenment that is not already widely known, and in fact we come away feeling that Clerk Maxwells are not particularly representative of the era. Some closer connection with the scholarly literature might have been useful here: the first source cited on the Scottish Enlightenment is a 1986 travel guide for Edinburgh, the second a Wikipedia article.
This splendid collection provides abundant evidence to support Clyde Binfield's dictum that the n... more This splendid collection provides abundant evidence to support Clyde Binfield's dictum that the nineteenth century was 'hagiology's high noon'. Obviously the Tractarians were keen on saints but so, this book argues, were evangelicals with their new 'saints' such as William Wilberforce and Elizabeth Fry. Most of the contributors of the 15 articles are younger scholars as is the editor. The medieval historian Nicholas Vincent is more seasoned. He became newsworthy during the Magna Carta celebrations in 2015 by unearthing fresh primary sources in Lambeth Palace Library showing the devious political role that Archbishop Stephen Langton played. Here he maps the changing assessments made in the nineteenth century of the most widely known archbishop of all, Thomas Becket -ranging at one extreme to the claim that he was just a papist defender of clerical privileges to its opposite that he was a heroic champion of freedom from an over-powerful monarch. As other authors also show the making and remaking of saints is often an ambiguous business -rich territory for research and this collection whets the appetite for more.
Prophetic thought in nineteenth-century Britain has often been presented as divided between those... more Prophetic thought in nineteenth-century Britain has often been presented as divided between those mostly evangelical constituencies who ‘believed' in its literal fulfilment in the past, present or future and those who ‘doubted' such interpretations. This essay seeks to question that division by tracking the uses of one set of prophetic passages, those concerning the ‘Ships of Tarshish’ mentioned in Isaiah 60: 9 and elsewhere. It examines their appropriation from the late eighteenth century onwards by those seeking prophetic-providential justification for the British maritime empire. Next it shows how such such ideas fuelled missionary expansion in the years after 1815, suggesting that by mid-century that there was a growing spectrum of ways in which such passages were used by religious commentators. The final section shows how biblical critics seeking to bolster the integrity of the Bible as a text reconstructed the geographical and economic settings for these passages, establishing their historical veracity as they did so but in the process undermining their supernaturally predictive status. Thus one way of bolstering ‘faith’ – the study of prophetic fulfilments – was rendered doubtful by another. By the end of our period Tyre and Tarshish retained much of their homiletic punch as metaphors for the sin brought by trade and luxury, but those who saw them as literal proxies for Britain were in the minority.
The use by British crowds of victorious admirals to articulate patriotic and libertarian ideas du... more The use by British crowds of victorious admirals to articulate patriotic and libertarian ideas during the wars of the long eighteenth century is well known. But conflict also posed awkward questions about masculinity and issues surrounding it.
Sir Charles Middleton, Lord Barham (1726Barham ( -1813, occupies a pivotal place in naval history... more Sir Charles Middleton, Lord Barham (1726Barham ( -1813, occupies a pivotal place in naval history. His evangelical religiosity is well known, but while considerable attention has been given to how this shaped his administrative reforms, his manipulation of patronage to promote his co-religionists has, until now, been ignored or brushed under the carpet. This article uses contemporary correspondence, diaries and printed works to reconstruct for the first time a powerful nexus that bound Pittite politicians to Wilberforce and his circle, one that spanned parliament, the Church, naval administration and the seagoing officer corps. In doing so it throws new light on how evangelicals gained such a strong foothold in late-Hanoverian public affairs.
Ever since his violent death in 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was used by rival groups to justi... more Ever since his violent death in 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was used by rival groups to justify their views about the Church of England. The burning of a disgraced Primate was always likely to be a spicy tale, but thanks chiefly to John Foxe it was placed at the centre of Protestant narratives. In the nineteenth century, however, confessional stories became hotly contested, and amid the 'rage of history' erstwhile heroes were placed under intense scrutiny. This chapter uses Cranmer's fluctuating reputation as lens through which to explore changing understandings of the English past. As will become clear, uncertainties over how to place Cranmer bespoke a crisis of Anglican identity, one driven both by divisions within it and challenges to its political, cultural and intellectual authority from without. Despite and perhaps because of shifts in how he was seen, Cranmer's liturgical writings -the Book of Common Prayer -came to be seen as his chief legacy.
In June 1810 Edward Bickersteth sat down to write to his sister, Charlotte. He missed home, he ad... more In June 1810 Edward Bickersteth sat down to write to his sister, Charlotte. He missed home, he admitted, and looked forward to hearing the family news. But soon he moved onto weightier subjects. 'My dear Sister, nothing but spiritual, internal, heart religion can give composure and peace,' he began. 'It matters comparatively little whether we are Churchmen or dissenters and I was going to say and will say Papists -God has doubtless his people among all these and they form one family in Christ.' 'Do not suppose from what I say that I am not sincerely attached to the Church of England,' he went on. 'I love it -I admire its liturgy articles and homilies -it is the best church I know on the face of earth and I hope has been the means of preserving and reviving the true doctrines of Christ throughout the world.' 1 At the time, Bickersteth was only a tyro lawyer in London. Within a few years, however, he had been ordained; during the 1820s and 30s he became a leading missionary publicist and bestselling author; and by his death in 1850 was probably the most prominent Evangelical clergyman and widely-read devotional writer in the country. 2 Nevertheless, his youthful letter serves to underline tensions that pervaded his later life and work. As an outspoken advocate of interdenominational co-operation, on the one hand, he was a founder-member of the Evangelical Alliance [EA] in 1846. As an Anglican, on the other, he was deeply dismayed by the well-publicized secession of his clerical colleague Baptist Noel only two years later. As will become clear, Bickersteth's balancing act has important implications for our understanding of Evangelical churchmanship and its development in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.
In the first half of the nineteenth century the relationship between the Church of England and th... more In the first half of the nineteenth century the relationship between the Church of England and the state shifted dramatically. This influenced, and was in turn influenced by, heated debates about Anglican history in general and about the Reformation in particular. Some of the bitterest debates revolved around differing understandings of the Church's foundational literature -the Articles, Homilies and Prayerbook -and what they stood for. These debates drove scholarly understanding of the Reformation, but they also sharpened developing party boundaries. This article examines how these supposedly unchanging texts were reinterpreted as first Evangelicals and 'Orthodox' churchmen then Tractarians too sought to demonstrate that they, and not their adversaries, were the 'true churchmen'.
Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire: An Architectural and Social History from Earliest Times to the Present, edited by Jane Brown and Jeremy Musson, 2012
Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume II: Establishment and Empire, edited by Jeremy Gregory, 2017
Anglican Evangelicals have always been captivated by their early history. In few places is this m... more Anglican Evangelicals have always been captivated by their early history. In few places is this more obvious than at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, founded in 1879 to produce educated ordinands and missionaries to combat what its founders considered to be evils that were peculiar to its age: rationalism, 'Romanism', and theological liberalism. 1 It was the product of a movement whose identity was fostered in print and in bricks and mortar through a range of educational and philanthropic institutions, and which raised hundreds of thousands of pounds a year through well-managed societies. Yet although-and perhaps because-the scale and sophistication of the movement would have been unimaginable a hundred years earlier, Evangelicals remained enthralled by an earlier, more rough and ready age. In few places was this more deeply felt than in Cambridge, where Charles Simeon, curate of Holy Trinity from 1782 and vicar there from 1783 until his death in 1836, was still venerated, his sway over generations of undergraduates, according to the historian Macaulay, being 'far greater than that of any Primate'.
TThe Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman, 2018
For perhaps a decade between 1816 and 1826, Newman counted himself an Evangelical. Precisely what... more For perhaps a decade between 1816 and 1826, Newman counted himself an Evangelical. Precisely what that meant has been obscured by his own later reflections, and by biographers interested more in his spiritual destination than his starting point. This chapter situates Newman within the Anglican Evangelical movement of the 1810s and 20s, a milieu more diverse and integrated into the Church of England than many accounts imply. The first section considers his youthful reading: Thomas Scott, Joseph Milner, and others. The second considers his opinions in the 1820s, arguing that his move away from Evangelicalism was less a reaction against 'vital religion' than an intensification of its moralistic, biblicist and even apocalyptic strands. The third examines the 1830s, arguing that Newman's assault on 'the religion of the day' should not be allowed to obscure his appreciation of holiness wherever it was to be found, or his efforts to harness Evangelical zeal in the Tractarian project.
Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2020
IJMH, 2019
If asked to name an Oxford-educated Anglican clergyman-turned-Methodist who travelled thousands o... more If asked to name an Oxford-educated Anglican clergyman-turned-Methodist who travelled thousands of miles on preaching tours, penned voluminous journals and published prolifically; one prudent with money but lavish in charity, hot-tempered but generousspirited, and most importantly, perhaps, who blew hot and cold on the prospect of reunion with the Church of England, it is safe to say that for most people Dr Thomas Coke would probably not be the first or even the second person who springs to mind. As these two books show, it has been both Coke's blessing and his curse to be too much like the splendidly flawed leader he once looked set to succeed. Wesley bequeathed a Connexion beset with unresolved questions. Who owned its chapels: local trustees or Conference? How ought Methodists to relate to their estranged parent, the Church of England? Were Wesley's ordinations valid? How were missions to be funded? The founding father's absence was keenly felt, and, like most of the generation that came to maturity in the 1780s and 90s, 'the Doctor' suffered by comparison with the giant who preceded him. Since then he has frequently been ignored and, arguably, misunderstood.
To anyone familiar with the output of C.S. Forester, Alexander Kent or Patrick O'Brien the title ... more To anyone familiar with the output of C.S. Forester, Alexander Kent or Patrick O'Brien the title of this book will conjure up resonant images. Mocked by seamen and misused by his superiors, longing for home, nauseous even lying at anchor in a calm, the pale, knock-kneed midshipman is an immediately recognizable stock character. Readers looking for real-life Hornblowers and Aubreys will not be disappointed. 'I had anticipated a kind of elegant house with guns in the windows,' wrote one fastidious newcomer, '[but I found] the tars of England rolling about casks,
There we stood on the strand not a cloud was to be seen in the heavens and the silver moon with h... more There we stood on the strand not a cloud was to be seen in the heavens and the silver moon with her train of brilliant stars threw their light down on this beautiful, touching, and solemn seane [sic].' So remembered a participant in one of the mass open-air baptisms during the revival at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, in 1841. A large crowd on the bank sang, and after the last candidate emerged from the river, they 'stood silently for a moment to listen to that song with its echoes as they died away in murmurs down the Brazos de Deos' (p.60). Proceedings at Moonta, South Australia, in 1875, had a more contemporary feel. They were attended with 'jets of flame', supplied not by any latter-day pentecostal outpouring but by the local gas company; the songs were from Moody and Sankey's Sacred songs and solos, which was to sell over eight million copies worldwide; and meetings were carefully co-ordinated across the denominations (pp.218, 221).
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2020
We are standing in front of a window in the north aisle of the nave in Ely Cathedral (Fig. 1). It... more We are standing in front of a window in the north aisle of the nave in Ely Cathedral (Fig. 1). It would be easy to pass by it without a second glance. In many ways it is a fairly standard example of stained glass in the Gothic Revival style. It depicts Jonah Preaching at Nineveh and was designed by George Caleb Hedgeland (1825-1898) and made in 1856. In its colouring, architectural detail, and representation of a biblical scene, it resembles the thousands upon thousands of others installed in religious and indeed secular settings in Britain and wherever British people were found in the nineteenth century. The very familiarity, and indeed ubiquity, of this type of window has bred contempt for it; or at least a sense that it is rather unremarkable. This issue of 19 seeks to challenge that assumption head-on. It springs from the conviction that nineteenth-century stained glass has been unduly neglected in large sections of the academy. And it insists that its ubiquity as a medium provides us with numerous entry points into fascinating contexts and questions. To reflect upon just one window even for a moment or two is to begin to realize how much it can tell us about aesthetics, intellectual contexts, beliefs, production, and a host of other themes. Jasmine Allen [JA] is Director and Curator of the Stained Glass Museum, which houses a national collection of stained glass windows from the medieval period to the present day. She recently published a monograph titled Windows for the World: Stained Glass and the International Exhibitions, 1851-1900 (2018). Kate Nichols [KN] is Birmingham Fellow in British Art at the University of Birmingham. She has published on Victorian exhibition and museum culture, the reception of Greek and Roman sculpture in the nineteenth century, and the relationship between art and industrial cultures. She is currently working on a global history of Victorian painting. Gareth Atkins [GA] is Bye-Fellow and College Lecturer in History at Queens' College, Cambridge, and has written widely on religious politics and culture in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Britain, as well as editing Making and Remaking Saints in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2016).