Between 1700 and 1850 the Church of England was the among the most powerful and influential religious, social, and political forces in Britain. This was also a momentous time for the British Empire, during which it developed and then lost the North American colonies, extended into India, and settled the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. Public understanding of this expanding empire was influentially created and promulgated by the Church of England as a consequence of its missionary engagement with these colonies, and its role in providing churches for British settlers. Rowan Strong examines how that Anglican Christian understanding of the British Empire shaped the identities both of the people living in British colonies in North America, Bengal, Australia, and New Zealand during this period - including colonists, indigenous peoples, and Negro slaves - and of the English in Britain.

Rowan Strong is Senior Lecturer in Church History, Murdoch University, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

• Introduction: English religion and empire to 1700


• 1: Anglicans and empire: historical interpretations


• 2: The construction of an Anglican Imperialism: British North America in the eighteenth century


• 3: Anglicanism in a resurgent imperialism: Bengal 1790-1830


• 4: A new Anglican imperial paradigm: the Colonial Bishoprics Fund 1840-1841


• 5: The new paradigm in the colonies: Australia and New Zealand 1820s-c.1850


• Conclusion: Anglicanism and Empire 1700-c.1850