ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is written by someone who is a member of the Church of England, and thus will exhibit some Anglican bias and an Anglican starting point; however, space excludes a greater discussion of confirmation in other churches. The aim of the book therefore is to study confirmation in the eighteenth century in the terms of the day and try to avoid studying it through Victorian lenses. This is aided by scholarly study resulting in a renewed interpretation of the eighteenth-century church. The book hopes to demonstrate the place of confirmation throughout the period, and thus contribute in a small way to the secularisation debate. The older secularisation theory suggested that industrialisation and urbanisation contributed to a decline in faith, a slow process over many years leading to the marginalisation or even potential extinction of religious belief.
