J. M. Ludlow, Christian Socialist

Abstract

In the days when it was fashionable for Christian intellectuals to be mildly socialist, there was a spate of literature on the courageous little group of 'Christian Socialists' who, for three or four years in the middle of the last century, gathered around F.D. Maurice to set up a few self-governing workshops. Though these men failed in their immediate objectives they failed nobly enough to provide inspiration for future generations of Christians setting about the reform of the industrial world. And so Stubbs, Masterman, and Binyon, produced their histories of the group. In 1920, the Rev. C. E. Raven, later to become Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, produced what is still the authoritative history of Christian Socialism from 1848 to 1854. At first sight, then, it would appear that the Christian Socialists of 1848 have been written about enough already. To a large extent this is true; this thesis is not going to deal with that period in any great detail. But the story has generally been told by the untrained and over-sympathetic. This has made it possible for professional historians like Beatrice Webb, or Professor Cole, in their general histories, or the Marxist John Saville, to paint very different pictures of the movement at that time. Yet examination shows that the professionals have their prejudices too. The last word has not been said about the Christian Socialists of 1848.