Broad Church

Broad Church, moderate movement that emerged as one of the three parties in the Church of England during the mid-19th century. The Broad Church represented “broad” views and eschewed narrow expressions of doctrine as practiced by Anglo-Catholics (or High Churchmen) on one hand and anti-Roman Evangelicals (or Low Churchmen) on the other. Broad Churchmen in the 19th century—including such figures as Thomas Arnold, father of poet and critic Matthew Arnold, and R.D. Hampden—were liberal figures in the Anglican church with decidedly intellectual, rather than political, interests. At the turn of the century they were leaders of the Modernist movement, which demanded “a modern creed for modern man.” Broad Churchmen brought to the United States the British Christian Socialism that transformed the socially conservative Episcopal church into a leading exponent of the Social Gospel.