Böcker av Stephen Friend

Exploring the relationship between identity and religion in British Fishing Communities during the 19th and early 20th centuries, this volume focuses on three communities in the UK: Scarborough, Filey and Grimsby.The study offers a brief overview of the development of these communities and outlines the nature of the relationship between institutionalised and popular religion. It explores religion as a range of discourses or narratives that provide us with a way of viewing this matrix of meaning that has had a significant influence on the construction and maintenance of identity. It also examines the role of ritual and performance, both of which have been shown to play an important part in the daily lives of community members, not least in helping to provide and reinforce a sense of security, stability and belonging.

Fishing for Souls explores the origins and development of fishermen’s missions in Britain, focussing particularly on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book is the first to view the entire picture of a significant, although not broadly known, part of British history, and to add new relevant perspectives. Dr Stephen Friend FRSA establishes ‘an historical outline of the development of the churches’ work among British fishing communities and explores why a mission specifically concerned with fishermen was not initiated until the industry entered a period of economic decline during the early 1880s. The factors relating to the development of British fisherman’s missions are complex, involving not only social and technological changes inside and outside the fishing industry, but also changing theological perceptions that had a significant impact on attitudes to social conditions’. With its honesty and objectivity about developments, especially those that were difficult and painful for the fishermen’s mission societies at the time, Fishing for Souls reveals the magnificent work that the various societies did, and in some cases continue to do, making it evident to all the readers.