Boundaries and Interfaces

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief historical overview of the evolving relationship between Church and State in the centuries leading up to the Reformation, identifying themes that carried on through it, and which continue to influence the contemporary social role of the Church of England. It then turns to consider other frameworks that have come to condition the part played by religious belief: the family unit and the effect of changes in its definition; the evolution of new mediating forums between citizen and State such as collectivism, political ideology, legal rights, the professions and trade unions. It considers the consequences of advances in science and medicine that have probed the frontiers of knowledge, causing sacred verities to give way to secular, and concludes by reflecting on the ever more worldly role of some religious charities. It identifies the factors that have intervened to constrain the traditional role of religious belief and put in play the different strands that now converge to compromise the Church of England. It reflects on the nature of the boundaries between religion, charity and legal rights.