Building the Promised Land

The main theme of this article is the interaction between physical and spiritual reconstruction in the post-war decades. During this period, Scotland witnessed a massive public housing drive, resulting in large-scale population movement. The Church of Scotland viewed this as both a challenge to its role as a national church and as an opportunity for church renewal. Part of a much larger religious boom in Western Europe and North America, the Church Extension movement in this case initially displayed energy and imagination in launching a parallel programme of church-building in the New Towns and housing estates. Four million pounds were raised through voluntary effort, with the aim of placing the Church at the centre of community building in the new housing areas. Yet, by the late 1950s the movement had begun to falter in confidence and momentum. To some extent, this reflected the material and psychological legacy of a dominant territorial church, still strongly attached to the historical narrative of working-class irreligion. Indeed, the mobilization of traditional mainstream congregations behind the dynamism of Church Extension proved persistently problematic. Ultimately, however, the ambitions of the movement were frustrated by the growing threats posed by rising affluence and youth disenchantment. It was these forces that would also fuel the general crisis of institutional religion in the next decade

Disenchantment · Dynamism · Mainstream · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Protestantism · Sociology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Law