Idol Days
Victorian Reformation: The Fight over Idolatry in the Church of England,
1840–1860
by Dominic Janes
Oxford University Press, 2009
(237 pages, $65.00, hardcover)
reviewed by William J. Tighe
Reading this book left me in a daze. When I agreed to review it, I imagined, judging from its title, that it would be an account, either historical or theological or both, of the “ritualist” sequel to the Oxford Movement in the Church of England, as well as of the parallel “Cambridge Movement” (of the Cambridge Camden Society), which concerned itself with the revival of Gothic architecture as the most fit style for churches. These were movements that flowed together to spark a revival of pre-Reformation religious ideals and “high-church” liturgical practices from the late 1840s onwards.
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William J. Tighe was Professor of History at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, until his retirement in 2024. He is a member of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.He is a senior editor for Touchstone.
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