Anton Kirchhofer Knihy

Before the end of the Cold War, religion was seen as a relic of tradition, losing its relevance in social and political spheres and becoming optional in modern life. However, the classical secularization hypothesis is now less certain. Religion has maintained its significance for both individual and collective cultural agency. In Britain, the intertwining of religion with cultural conflicts has a long history dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The first section of this volume examines examples from the 17th to early 19th centuries, highlighting the close relationship between religion and the key pathways of modernization. The second section explores regional, popular, and elite cultural phenomena, revealing the deep influence of religion in contemporary society. The third section discusses the portrayal of religion in post-war and recent films, illustrating its visibility as an issue since the mid-20th century, shaped by ideological and economic factors. Overall, the essays illustrate that the division between the religious and the secular is not clear-cut. Instead, the ongoing fusion of religious and secular elements continues to serve as a significant source of social, cultural, and political agency for individuals and communities alike.

How are things made and unmade in a culture? How do things change, but also, how do they stay the same? How did this work? Who worked it? And what does this imply for our understanding of the way cultures work? The contributions to this volume aim to test the different ways of accounting for the mechanisms and productions of culture by examining instances and contexts of change and stasis in British and US-American culture at all levels, practical as well as theoretical; high or popular; local, regional, or national, and across the realms of political, social, and cultural interaction. Incorporating a range of disciplinary and theoretical approaches, this collection of essays derives its focus from the intensive and wide-raging exploration of the ‘workings’ of culture in its diverse manifestations. The volume is published in honour of Richard Stinshoff, whose research and teaching have been distinguished by a sustained concern with ‘the workings of the Anglosphere’.