The Victorian Era was from the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1837 until her death in 1901, it was an era of several unsettling social developments. The unsettling of religious belief was one, which was lead by new advancements in science, particularly the theory of evolution and the historical study of the Bible. This drew Victorians into considerations of problems of faith and truth. Christianity has always played an influential role in the English history, at least before the Industrial Revolution came to play. Industrial Revolution was the result of new scientific and technological discoveries. It was purely an outcome of human efforts. On the other hand, religion is just a belief that is not support by any scientifically solid evidence. Therefore, in the Victorian age, of scientific enlightenment, the power of church was shaken by ideologies such as Darwinism, which provided a completely different view of human creation, then the one given in the Bible.
From www.victorianweb.org/history/ashley.html, a e...
Victorian Era Boots 4
Victorian Era Boots 3These ideologies lead to doubts and disbeliefs about religion. These were some external forces, which attacked the sovereignty of the church in the Victorian Era.
The internal structure of church also contributed to the lowering of influence of religion in peoples' lives. In order to gain more power, the church officials misused their powers and wealth of this organization. The organizational corruption of church made it lose its trust in society. It did not perform the services that it should have. Instead, most of the clergymen took a leave of absence from the church with pay and went into other careers in order to make more money (Yi,1999). The church allowed anyone who had some political influence to join and work for the church. Thus, "The Church of England ballooned to such mammoth proportions that an implosion of disorganization and inner chaos was inevitable"...