The UK’s modern spiritual collapse began after the Great War

Canon Ian Ellis (‘Vaughan Williams was a spiritual composer whose faith was not solid’, July 13, see link below) drew me to reflect on an urban myth about ‘The Origin of Species’ killing off religion.

Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was born around 13 years after Charles Darwin’s famous book was published, yet evolutionary theory had limited impact on UK church affiliation, attendance or adherence.

During a theology degree we were taught how the peak of UK church connection came in the early 1900s.

The UK’s modern spiritual collapse started following the carnage of industrialised warfare in World War I. That war has left a legacy of English phrases (‘No Man’s Land’, ‘Going over the top’, ‘Fix bayonets’, ‘Shell-shocked’) but I can only recall one common phrase (‘Survival of the fittest’) connected to evolution.

The absence of conscription in Ireland may to some degree have protected our churches from the more severe spiritual impact of WWI seen in Great Britain.

Suffering has shaped community spirituality way more than obscure philosophical or scientific arguments about Darwinian evolution. Concealed child sex abuse damaged Irish Catholicism and widespread abuse of Anglican ordinands may be a breaking horror story (e.g. Calvin Robinson case).

Christ, creation and conscience, all remain strong and potent voices, whatever one’s view on Darwinian evolution. Was the spiritual position of Vaughan Williams more likely to have been impacted deeply by warfare, rather than obscure and unprovable scientific questions about origins?

Dr JT Hardy, Belfast BT5

Vaughan Williams was a spiritual composer whose faith was not solid