Welsh Nonconformity and Popular Culture 2: Belief

The majority of Welsh Nonconformists were Calvinists; as such they believed that God was sovereign over all creation – not simply the Church. With Dutch pastor-politician Abraham Kuyper (pictured), they held that religion was a life-system, affecting every part of the life of a person – and through them the life of the nation in which they lived.[1] Accordingly, Welsh Nonconformists set out to capture the culture for the church and the Gospel, responding to Calvin’s declaration that every sphere of human life had to be brought under the dominion of the Gospel. Not only did Nonconformity give birth to a new Christian culture, ‘Voluntaryism,’ but new forms of old culture, such as a distinctively Christian entertainment culture.[2]

Welsh Nonconformity in particular felt that it was not enough to equip the new convert with a basic understanding of Christianity, but to broaden their general culture as well. Welsh Literary Societies sprang up in many of the Chapels to meet the demand for popular engagement with culture, with essay-writing competitions being introduced from mid-century, following the example of Daniel Jones, the Minister of Bethesda Independent Chapel, Merthyr Tydfil.[3] Along with literary societies came popular lectures on heroes of the faith, and a little later on, debating societies. Of the social programmes of the chapels, enough has been said elsewhere; suffice it to say that these were full, and often eclectic. There were meetings on most week-day evenings. The calendar of one chapel in Anglesey reveals fourteen week-night meetings![4]

[1] Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (Lafayette, 2001).
[2] Jane Shaw & Alan Kreider (ed.), Culture and the Nonconformist Tradition (Cardiff, 1999), p.2.
[3] R. Tudur Jones, Congregationalism in Wales (Cardiff, 2004), p.153.
[4] R. Tudur Jones, Faith and the Crisis of a Nation (Cardiff, 2004), pp.89-90.