Puritans did not find a life free from tyranny in the new world--they created it there. Massachusetts emerged a republic as they hammered out a vision of popular participation and limited government in church and state, spurred by Plymouth pilgrims. Godly Republicanism underscores how pathbreaking yet rooted in puritanism's history the project was.
This book provides a new view of the historical conditions and methods by which godly communities turned personal experience into an authorizing principle. A broad range of life-writing is explored, including Augustine's Confessions, John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and Richard Baxter's Reliquiae Baxterianae.
Based on interview material with a wide range of Protestant clergy in Northern Ireland, this book examines how Protestant identity impacts on the possibility of peace and stability and argues for greater involvement by the Protestant churches in the transition from conflict to a 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland.
The role of the saints became a theological dilemma for scholars and laity alike throughout the Reformation era. Through the analysis of 180 pamphlets published by reformers in German-speaking Europe, Heming shows the struggle Protestants faced in purging the cult of the saints from their culture and religion.
In this fresh and clear history of Protestantism, Mark A. Noll looks at the era from Martin Luther to the present day. Focussing on developments worldwide and including a range of well-known figures including Luther, John Calvin, and F.D.E Schleiermacher, he considers the recent decline of Protestantism in the West and its expansion elsewhere.
Describes the history of The United Church of Canada from its formation in 1925 up until the present. This title analyses the ideas and forces that brought it into being and shaped it over the years, the vision that animated it and how this has changed in the course of its history.
An authoritative study of an important yet relatively unexplored force in English history, the Elizabethan Puritan movement. The significance of this clandestine religious movement is measured against comparable subversive activities of this century.
Reveals how liberal Protestants went from being early-twentieth-century medical missionaries seeking to convert others through science and scripture, to becoming vocal critics of missionary arrogance who experimented with non-western healing modes such as Yoga and Reiki.
Reveals how liberal Protestants went from being early-twentieth-century medical missionaries seeking to convert others through science and scripture, to becoming vocal critics of missionary arrogance who experimented with non-western healing modes such as Yoga and Reiki.
Examines relations between US Protestants and Africa since the end of colonial rule. This book provides an assessment of US Protestant involvements with Africa, and proposes forms of engagement that build upon ecclesiastical dynamism within American and African contexts.
500 Years ago, Europe went through one of the most remarkable and turbulent periods in its history. The lines of political and theological power were rewritten in ways that were nuanced, subtle and philosophical, but also in ways that resulted in bloody massacre and destruction.
Offers a spirited history of evangelical Christianity in the United States. Effortlessly situating developments in evangelicalism in their wider historical context, this title demonstrates the ways American social and cultural settings influenced the course of the evangelical tradition.
The German Reformer Martin Luther was one of the most influential and important figures of the second millennium. His break with Rome and the development of separate Evangelical churches affected not just the religious life of Europe but also social and political landscapes as well. This book examines the key moments in Luther's life.
Written by a Mennonite scholar, this book seeks to understand the reasons for the clash between Luther and the radicals. It keeps Luther in a central position, exploring the issues which led to the Reformer's attitude towards the radicals and analysing the principles that were at stake in his struggle with the dissident groups.
An examination of the mentality of the first half of the 19th century, when catastrophes and personal misfortune were seen as dispensations of divine providence. In the 1850s and 1860s, however, a different attitude developed. at the centre of which was a new way of understanding the Atonement.
When Martin Luther nailed 95 criticisms of the Catholic Church to the door of his local church in 1517 he sparked not just a religious Reformation, but an unending cycle of political, social and economic change. This book presents the story of the Reformation and its lasting legacy - in effect, how Protestantism created the modern world.
In this reconsideration of the relation between religion and modernity, Casanova surveys the roles that religions play in the public sphere of modern societies. He looks at five cases from two religious traditions (Catholicism and Protestantism) in four countries (Spain, Poland, Brazil, USA).
Patrick Collinson is the leading historian of English religion in the years after the Reformation. This collection of essays ranges from Thomas Cranmer, who was burnt at the stake after repeated recantations in 1556, to William Sancroft, the only other post-Reformation archbishop of Canterbury to have been deprived of office.
By surveying the religiously pluralistic setting of the eighteenth - and early nineteenth-century Shenandoah Valley, this title reveals how the fabric of American pluralism was woven, calling worldliness the 'mainstream' and otherworldliness, 'outsiderness'.
A collection of essays that covers topics ranging from Thomas Cranmer, who was burnt at the stake after repeated recantations in 1556, to William Sancroft, the only other post-Reformation archbishop of Canterbury to have been deprived of office. It explores the interactions between the inclusive and exclusive tendencies in English Protestantism.
Looks at how Calvin worked at the interface of theology and philosophy, especially how he employed medieval ideas to do so. This book features connections that are made between his ideas and contemporary philosophical theology, and includes an examination of the appeal that 'Reformed' epistemologists make to Calvin.
This Very Short Introduction presents Martin Luther as historians now see him. Instead of singling him out as a modern hero, the book emphasizes the context in which Luther worked, the colleagues who supported him, and the opponents who adamantly opposed his agenda for change.
An examination of Rudolf Otto's 20th-century concept of holiness. This volume analyzes the scholarly context that shaped Otto's idea of holiness, and discusses the relation of the numinous and the holy to the divine personality, morality, religious experience and emancipatory theology.
Aims to outline the contours of the identity that Luther laid out through his exposition of Genesis. This book shows how Luther approached and taught his students to perceive the text of holy scripture; how that text unveiled for Luther the nature of Christian life in the world; and how Luther taught his students to view the church and the world.
This study finds disturbing parallels between gnosticism and the current state of belief and practice in North American Protestantism. The author attacks both conservatives and liberals as he explores the current state of religion and its impact on the values of society.
Examines the relationship between Protestants and Catholics and the notion that southern Protestants are somehow not really Irish. From interviews with representatives of both confessions, this title demonstrates that there are underlying tensions between the confessions based on 'memories' of events long buried in the past.