Christianity and cultural aspirations are inevitably in tension: the combination invites a suspicion that temporal pursuits have slackened a quest for divine approbation. This text explores this tension in the context of modern Britain and America, in 15 original essays.

Introduction, David Bebbington and Timothy Larsen: a dissenting historian's formation, Clyde Binfield, formerly Professor of History, University of Sheffield; Professor Clyde Binfield - a critical appreciation, W.R. Ward, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Durham. Part I Popular culture: "thews and sinews" - nonconformity and sport, Hugh McLeod, Professor of Church History, University of Birmingham; nonconformity and the pottery industry, John Briggs, formerly Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal, University of Birmingham West Hill. Part II Architecture: "An important work" - building a Victorian chapel, John Handby Thompson, formerly President of the Chapels Society; Newman, Pugin and the Architecture of the English Oratory, Sheridan Gilley, Reader in Theology, University of Durham. Part III Education: the cultural aspirations of the Welsh clergy, Frances Knight, Senior Lecturer and Chair of Church History, University of Wales Lampeter; honorary doctorates and the Nonconformist Ministry in 19th-century England, Timothy Larsen, Professor of Church History, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto; cultural aspiration and dissenting colleges - the first students at Mansfield College, Oxford, Elaine Kaye, President, United Reformed Church History Society; Nonconformists at Cambridge before World War I, David Thompson, Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and Director, Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies, University of Cambridge; Methodist attitudes to education and youth - Halifax, 1800-2000, John A. Hargreaves, Honorary Secretary, Halifax Antiquarian Society. Part IV Politics: the dissenting political upsurge of 1833-34, David Bebbington, Professor of History, University of Stirling; educational aspirations versus social hierarchies - The 1906 Education Bill, John Wigley, Haberdashers' Aske's School, Elstree, Hertfordshire; Abraham Lincoln, religion and self-improvement, Richard Carwardine, Professor of History, University of Sheffield. Part V Ecclesiology: the disruption in London - English Presbyterians and the Scottish Disruption of 1843, David Cornick, General Secretary, United Reformed Church; from union to Church - autobiographical recollections on congregational ecclesiology in the 1960s, Alan Sell, formerly Professor of Christian Doctrine and Philosophy of Religion, The United Theological College, Aberystwyth, within the Aberystwyth and Lampeter School of Theology of the University of Wales.