Historical Context

In the 1930s and 1940s – amid the crises of totalitarianism, war and a perceived cultural collapse in the democratic West – a high-profile group of mostly Christian intellectuals met to map out ‘middle ways’ through the ‘age of extremes’.

Key Figures

Led by the missionary and ecumenist Joseph H. Oldham, the group included prominent writers, thinkers and activists such as T. S. Eliot, John Middleton Murry, Karl Mannheim, John Baillie, Alec Vidler, H. A. Hodges, Christopher Dawson, Kathleen Bliss and Michael Polanyi.

The Group’s Perspective

The ‘Oldham group’ saw faith as a uniquely powerful resource for social and cultural renewal, and it represents a fascinating case study of efforts to renew freedom in a dramatic confrontation with totalitarianism.

Relevance and Appeal

The group’s story will appeal to those interested in the cultural history of the Second World War and the issue of applying faith to the ‘modern’ social order.