Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England

In the nineteenth century the dissenting Christian community fought for the civil rights of Roman Catholics, non-Christians, and even atheists on an issue of principle which had its flowering in the enthusiastic and undivided support which nonconformity gave to the campaign for Jewish emancipation. This book offers a case study of a theologically conservative group defending religious pluralism in the civic sphere, showing that the concept of religious equality was a grand vision at the center of the political philosophy of the dissenters.