Once upon a time there was only charity and most of it was Christian.

Most Victorians saw the state as an "artificial contrivance … incapable of redemptive action." Accordingly, in the words of historian Frank Prochaska, "the individual, not as ratepayer but as fellow-sufferer, was responsible for the cares of the world."

Fellow-sufferers, commonly Christian ones, responded. By 1840, around 70% of the British working class had achieved a basic level of literacy, thanks to the efforts of Sunday schools. By 1865, the churches had set up over 600 ragged schools for destitute children. By 1889, the Church of England alone had over 47,000 district visitors in England and Wales.

By one estimate, evangelicals ran about three in four voluntary societies in the latter half of the 19th century. Christianity didn't corrupt charity in Britain. It invented it.

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