Meeting the Demand for Clergy in Victorian England
Many new changes came to Victorian England as a result of the age of industrialization. Where there were once small country parishes, manufacturing towns were springing up. One change resulting from industrialization was the shortage of clergy to fill the new parishes in these towns. These new parishes reflect the demographic changes of the English countryside. Rural villages grew into booming towns. Where a single parish was once sufficient, there was now a need for multiple parishes. The Church of England went about meeting these demands for new clergy in two major ways, actively recruiting men to the clergy and restructuring theological facilities and changing the requirements for ordination. These factors show us some of the upheaval and reconstruction that was going on in the Anglican Church in Victorian England. This was a direct result of the need to train a large number of clergy in a relatively short period of time.
Industrialization changed the demographic make up of England. In The Victorian Church in York Edward Royle states that "As suburban development turned sparsely populated manors into thriving and populous communities, further parochial sub-division took place" (2). Where small parishes once were sufficient, the larger manufacturing towns demanded more parishes be added to minister to the larger population. In 1832 the "Church of England was in danger and quite unequipped for ministry to an emerging urban industrial society" (Parsons 16). There was a shortage of clergy because of the rapid unanticipated growth.
The demand for so many clergy to be ordained quickly led to restructuring clerical requirements. This demand could be shown in mere numbers, for example: "In 1841 there were just over 14,000 clergy in England and in 1891 there were more than 24,000" (Parsons 25). In the 1840s these clergy were primarily trained at the two major universities, Oxford and Cambridge. A small percentage (14%) came from small theological colleges. Many people could not afford to send their sons to these universities for the length of time required to become ordained. The combination of the increased demand in number of clergy needed and the time restriction for development created a crisis. The result of this crisis, was the development of the lesser theological colleges for the non-ordained and vocationally trained clergy.. This caused a number of issues to be raised. The result of this trend was " the growth of non-university clergy and the inadequacy of its theological instruction" (qtd.
The thesis of this book is that George Whitefield (1714-1770) changed the nature of Christianity by promoting and conducting mass revivals that exploited the weaknesses of institutional Christianity.
In chapter 5 of book Candide, the Enlightenment period and the birth of tolerance were on full display. In Candide, the Enlightenment thinkers’ view of the optimum world is challenged through satiric examples of the Lisbon Bay and Lisbon Earthquake. Voltaire continues to use ironically tragic events to test Pangloss’s contention with the phenomenon of evil. The use of grotesque and naive behavior between individuals in this chapter makes you really question their irrational thinking with the cause and effects of the events that just transpired.
In Voltaire’s Candide, we are taken by the hand through an adventure which spanned two continents, several countries, and to a multitude of adverse characters. The protagonist, Candide, became the recipient of the horrors which would be faced by any person in the 18th century. But Candide was always accompanied with fellows sufferers, two of which our focus will lay, Pangloss and Martin. In equal respects, both are embodiments of different philosophies of the time: Pangloss the proponent of Optimism and Martin the proponent of Pessimism. Each of the two travelers is never together with Candide, until the end, but both entice him to picture the world in one of their two philosophies. Throughout the story there is an apparent ebb and flow from Candide on how to think of the world. By the end of his journey, Candide will be presented with evidence to lead to his agreement of either Optimism or Pessimism. But I submit, Candide does not become a firm believer in either philosophies but rather retains a philosophy in between Optimism and Pessimism, somewhat of a stoic mentality. Thus Voltaire’s opinion on philosophy will be predicated upon his character, Candide.
increase in power of the church in the Middle Ages was because of a change in
In this essay I will identify the issues which brought about this papal encyclical in 1891, specifically the social conditions of people, resulting from industrialisation and the church’s Christological role in declaring human dignity in terms of God’s plan for mankind. I will set out the historical position in Britain in this late Victorian era within the context of European radical political upheaval, as part of the need for reform and a response from the Church. These issues will be compared with the encyclical one hundred years later, to analyse the development of policy in1891 and 1991 in terms of the church’s teaching, within the context of the wider social and political movements of the late twentieth century. I will determine that whilst John Paul II used the centenary in 1991 to publish Centesimus Annus and see it as a ‘re-wording’ of the original, it ultimately failed to take forward the radical change envisaged in Rerum Novarum, with limited exceptions.
The clergy was composed of religious officials who were also powerful during the Middle Ages. They had more power than the masses.
Though there was no driving force like Luther, Zwingli or Calvin during the English Reformation, it succeeded because certain people strived for political power and not exactly for religious freedom. People like Queen Elizabeth I and Henry VIII brought the Reformation in England much success, however their reasons were based on self-gain and desire for political power.
On the positive note, people who attend church do so out of their own faith, as opposed to when they were pressured into fearing God from the medieval clergy. Going to the Church is now an expression of the love for God, it builds spiritual strength, and gives people direction in their lives where they would be lost otherwise. What made the biggest difference between religions in the Middle Ages and now is the people's dependence on their clergy. Whereas before people needed priests and Popes to interpret God's word for them, people can now read the Bible themselves, and come to their own conclusions and learning.
To illustrate, before the revolution, between the years 1700 and 1750, the population of England remained stable, but between 1750 and 1850, the population more than doubled (C N Trueman, “Life in Industrial Towns). Pre- industrial society saw their population not growing as poverty, war, diseases, and poor hygiene resulted in high death numbers (bcp.org). In fact, during this time, 25 percent of newborns died before their first birthday, and approximately 25% of children did not make it past their tenth birthday (bcp.org). As more food and products were being produced by these new factories, a surplus of resources was created, death rates decreased. As more people began to work in industry, prominent cities began to flourish; industrial cities such as Manchester were actually formed from small towns (C N Trueman, Life in Industrial Towns). Between the years 1771-1831, Manchester experienced a growth of six- times its size, and it became home to over 700,000 people (Trueman). As a result of population growth, homes and apartment complexes were produced quickly, creating the cities and metropolises with skyscrapers, such as Boston, that we know today
A Century of Theological and Religious Studies in Britain, 1902–2007 by Ernest Nicholson 2004 pages 125–126
About each year, “nearly 40,000 Americans commit suicide, five thousand” (SAVE 1) of those people are regular teens. Every day, another teenager will die of committing suicide. Over the past few years, suicide rates in teenagers have been dramatically increasing. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death amongst teens and young adults in the United States, right behind motor vehicles accidents and then homicides. Something as horrific as teen suicide should not be the third leading cause of death among teenagers. Suicide is a problem that needs to be addressed and furthermore prevented.
Suicide is one of the most common deaths among teenagers due to problems that occur in
Suicide is the act of killing yourself because you do not want to continue living. It is done voluntarily and intentionally. It’s becoming a major global public health issue with almost 1 million people committing suicide each year (Suicide Data, 2010a). Suicide is a serious mental health problem affecting the lives of young adults. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24. During the past few decades, the number of adolescent deaths from suicide in the United States has increased significantly. “In 1997, there were 4186 suicides among people 15 to 24 years old, 1802 suicides among those 15 to 19 years old, and 2384 among those 20 to 24 years
Teen suicide is an enormous social issue that we encounter constantly. Every day a child perishes; not just from injuries, or illnesses, but by their own hand. Teenagers make the decision to take their lives by creating a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Reasoning for suicide varies, for every teenager is different. To help battle the increase of suicides within our country, and even throughout the world, we must understand risk factors, acknowledge the warning signs and its impacts, and finally become familiar with the resources available around us.