John M. Gilheany - Familiar Strangers The Church and The Vegetarian Movement in Britain

Familiar Strangers, The Church and the Vegetarian Movement in Britain (1809-2009)

John M. Gilheany

  • Publisher: Ascendant Press
  • Published: 2010
  • Length: 285
  • Format: Paperback

Summary

Henry Salt features quite extensively throughout this superb book for a few reasons, namely:

– His pithy disclosure of Humanitarian League overtures to the churches, ignored from one decade to the next (Seventy Years Among Savages)

– The vexed relationship between fellow Etonian (Headmaster, vegetarian activist and Hunt Master!!!) Rev Edward Lyttleton and the Humanitarian League.

– G.K. Chesterton’s infamous loathing of vegetarianism throughout his literary/journalistic career was dealt with by Salt for over three decades in Food Reform journals. In that sense, Chapter 3 the two battle the issue out (in a similar way to Chapter 9 in which Salt, again, come to the fore of the dispute between Dean Inge and the London Vegetarian Society).

– It was Salt who confronted the folklore which surrounded the Gospel of the Holy Twelve head on prior to the reprinting of Rev Ousely’s version of the New Testament in the 1920s.

In fact, it was Henry Salt’s analysis of the efficacy, delicacy and tendency towards folly which surrounds recourse to the Bible for vegetarian propaganda that frequently kept the movement on track.

Features Salt’s satirical poem on Dean Inge.

Information

Ask anyone who has ever abstained from meat for compassionate reasons about their experience of churchgoers and the chances are a frosty tale or three would unfold!

As far as most Christians are concerned the founder of the faith displayed no obvious qualms about the fate of ‘food animals’ in ancient times. (At least from any understanding derived from canonical sources). Therefore, why attempt to go one better than the Saviour of mankind? Surely ‘heresy’ is too kind a term for such impudent antics!

Well that’s basically the attitude that benign concern towards animal slaying in the modern world tends to elicit; and has done throughout the existence of organised vegetarianism in the developed world. Yet the founders of the Vegetarian Society, in 1847, were largely comprised of Protestant Christians and Temperance advocates. Indeed the character of ‘Food Reform’ propaganda was often theological and sympathy for the lifestyle extended from major Christian figures, such as Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon, General William Booth who founded the Salvation Army and Pope (Saint) Pius X — to name but a few!

For those who might have become intrigued by the proximity which has often existed between these two, seemingly disparate, communities since the 1800s; ‘Familiar Strangers’ provides the most comprehensive account available.

Reviews

“John Gilheany traces the Christian vegetarian movement in Britain from 1809 when the Bible Christian Church, whose members vowed not to eat meat, was founded in Salford. A leader of the group, Joseph Brotherton, formed the Vegetarian Society 30 years later. Francis Newman—brother of Blessed John Henry—was also a president in the 1880s.

“This well-written and engaging book explores the movement’s growing influence at the turn of the century, its decline after the Second World War and its sudden popularity (albeit without the Christian element) in the 1960s. It covers debates between G K Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw, a change in Pope Pius X’s diet, and a Jesuit who founded a community of vegetarian religious in Wales. It includes quite a few photographs, lots of footnotes, and judicious quoting from contemporary writing.” — Mark Greaves, The Catholic Herald

“A fascinating contribution, which will instruct many on the subject who need instruction, such as myself.” — John Austin Baker, retired Bishop of Salisbury

“Global society lurches ever closer to a series of reckoning points on a host of issues: population, climate, and widespread ‘ecological debt’ due to decades of overuse of resources. Never before have we faced such an urgent need for a re-examination of our view of the natural world, our values, our ethics and humanity’s relationship with God and creation. In the midst of all this comes this gem of a book which delves into the nooks and crannies of, what will be for most, a totally unknown history. Vegetarianism may be associated by most with a sixties liberalism and a postmodern environmentalism, but the author shows that its roots are deep indeed and emanate from unlikely quarters. This is, most definitely, a book whose time has come.” — Mark Dowd, Broadcaster and Director of Operation Noah

WITH the current concern for climate change, ecological damage, world hunger, world health and conservation, this book has vital relevance. Although the author describes his study as ‘entirely amateur’, he presents us with a professional, deeply researched and finely balanced account. — The Salvationist

This careful, well-documented chronology will be of immense benefit to all future researchers in this field. The narrative begins with the founding of the Bible Christian Church, an offshoot of the Swedenborgian “New Church,” by the Rev. William Cowherd, formerly an Anglican priest and Swedenborgian minister. — The Peaceable Table (Read more)