Beyond Unionism and sectarianism? Protestant religion in Northern Ireland to 1980
The religious beliefs and practices of Protestants in Northern Ireland have not been well served by scholars. ‘Protestant’ is reduced to a synonym for political unionism, and much attention has been devoted to sectarian conflict and the fundamentalism of Rev Ian Paisley. Yet it is clear that religious commitment cannot simply be reduced to political identity and conflict. It is also clear that the overwhelming majority of Protestants, and evangelicals specifically, did not join Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church and remained members of mainstream Protestant denominations. Furthermore, Protestant religion in this period is unhelpfully described in binary terms—‘evangelicals’ versus ‘ecumenists’—a morality tale of reactionary conservatives stifling liberals who articulated an ecumenical or ‘dissenting’ vision. By placing the experience of Northern Ireland Protestants in broader perspectives, this paper offers an interpretation that prioritises religious developments, highlights the diversity of evangelicalism, and complicates the ‘evangelicals’ and ‘ecumenists’ binary.
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This page was last updated on 29 June 2024
