Past and Present, Religious and Secular in Religious Archives

This introductory article surveys the situation of religious archives, locating the UK experience in a wider international context. It surveys existing literature on religious archives, noting concerns about the failure of many religious organisations to keep archives and the challenges of preservation and accessibility for those that do. There is a particular need to ensure the preservation of the archival record of religious groups with shorter but now significant histories and to respond to the opportunities and challenges of digitisation. Three key creative tensions for religious archives are then explored. First, archives are records of the past, but they are also shaped by present concerns, both those of the past present in which they were collected and the present and future present of ongoing curation and interpretation. Second, “religious” archives also evidence “secular” activity, from mundane but historically revealing details of daily life to the involvement of religious leaders in national politics and international relations. Conversely, much evidence regarding religion is to be found in “secular” archive collections. Finally, religious archives serve a variety of constituencies, including the institution that generated them, academics and the general public. Herein lie tensions, but also rich complementarities.