Catholic and Protestant conceptions of secular education in Victorian England

In recent years, many scholars have drawn a distinction between procedural and programmatic secularism. Procedural secularists seek to build communities wherein ‘competing concepts of the good life’ are afforded opportunities for expression. Programmatic secularists seek to limit the influence of religion within the public sphere. The 1870 Education Act created a network of Board schools across England and Wales. In accordance with the Cowper-Temple Clause, religious education in Board schools would be non-denominational in character. Students would be taught Bible passages and hymns, but would not be taught any denominationally specific aspects of Christian doctrine. This development stimulated a controversy between the defenders of non-denominational education and those who believed that state-sponsored non-denominational education threatened the existence of voluntary schools. The debates that ensued are often characterised as sectarian in nature. However, they can alternatively be seen as negotiations of the proper definition and the proper parameters of religious freedom and toleration

Doctrine · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Religious education · Secular education · Secularism · Sociology · Toleration · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Gender Studies · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · Law · Religious Education and Schools

• Insights on Education in Mid-Victorian Lancashire

  Open Access•Brandon Reece Taylorian•History of Education•2025

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