What is the secular movement?

One of the big first things I have to deal with for my thesis is figure out what my working definition of the secular movement will be.  It seems at first glance that it could be quite easy but there are in fact many things to consider.

The first will be to see what definition those already in the field have used - a short snippet of historiography I suppose (loads of historiography yet to come of course!)  But that has a lot of nuances itself - much of the history has been segmented into various time periods:
  • Owenism
  • Cooperative movement
  • Chartism
  • Holyoake secularism
  • Bradlaugh secularism
  • Post-Bradlaugh
  • Modern 
  • etc.
So I will have to manage what has been used as definitions of the secular movement and either adopt the one that I think is best or (I think most likely) coming up with my own working definition.  This of course will still have to fit the evidence.  Today's secular movement might include many religious organisations but had they in the past?  I know that some groups had the same issues of secularists but they may not have fought alongside them.  The definition may not be consistent over time because the movement itself was not consistent.

The other thing I might have to consider is theory vs practice.  Having been to 3 secular organisations' AGMs this year there is some variation in what is in a charter and what they actually do in practice.  Much of this will depend if I can distinguish between the two as my sources permit.  It is something that will be in the back of my mind though.

My time period should only stretch about 30-40 years but as it crosses over a century and has a world war in the middle, I'm still expecting a bit of fluctuation!

And who knows!  The other ticker is what organisations themselves would consider to be part of the secular movement.  Or that I might consider based on their actions? There are the obvious ones that specify that they are or that they don't believe in the supernatural - but there are the Quakers and other dissenting religions that would have profited more from teaming up with non-theists to secure their own rights.  There was a huge crossover when it came to anti-war movements during the First World War which will be within my time period to sort out.

Anyway, that will be one of the first things I'm going to be contemplating as I hunker down and get into reading all the secondary sources that will refresh my mind before I dive into the voluminous amount of archive material that awaits me.