Christopher Craig Brittain offers a wide-ranging examination of specific events within The Episcopal Church (TEC) by drawing upon an analysis of theological debates within the church, field interviews in church congregations, and sociological literature on church conflict. The discussion demonstrates that interpretations describing the situation in TEC as a culture war between liberals and conservatives are deeply flawed. Moreover, the book shows that the splits that are occurring within the national church are not so much schisms in the technical sociological sense, but are more accurately described as a familial divorce, with all the ongoing messy entwinement that this term evokes. The interpretation of the dispute offered by the book also counters prominent accounts offered by leaders within The Episcopal Church. The Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts-Schori, has portrayed some opponents of her theological positions and her approach to ethical issues as being 'fundamentalist', while other 'Progressives' liken their opponents to the Tea Party movement.

Phillips Brooks, author of the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, was the rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston for 22 years and the Bishop of Massachusetts for 15 months until his death in 1893. This volume in the Great American Orators series focuses on Brooks' oratorical style and the public's response to his rhetoric. Chesebrough provides a biographical sketch of Brooks' life emphasizing the development and use of his oratorical skills and placing him within the secular and ecclesiastical contexts of his times. Attention is given to Brooks' development as a public speaker and to his manner of sermon preparation and delivery. Three of Brooks' sermons are printed in their entirety: Abraham Lincoln, The Cradle of the Lord, and Help from the Hills, preceded by introductory remarks and a brief analysis of the sermon. This examination of Brooks' rhetoric will appeal to scholars of rhetoric and of American theology and American religious history, especially Episcopal history.

Night time signifies many things. Apart from the rest and refreshment that sleep brings, the night is a time for gazing at the stars, dreaming and loving. For some it means keeping vigil as they tend the very young, or the sick. For others, it means working so that others may rest peacefully. For most people, there are occasions when the night brings no relief: when we are worried or afraid, trouble never looms larger than in the early sleepless hours. Yet such times can lead to a richer experience of intercession, meditation and contemplation. These experiences of the night are universal and have inspired poetry, prayers, lullabies, songs and stories down the ages. This wide-ranging collection is the perfect bedside companion and will help soothe us to sleep, dispel night time fears and attune us to the gifts and opportunities that each new day brings.

Anglican theology has been a hotbed of debate about the issue of authority since the Reformation. What do we really appeal to when attempting to decide matters of doctrine, worship, ministry or ethics? The debate is very much alive today, between Evangelical, Liberal and Catholic Anglicans around the world. This proposed book focuses on the understanding of authority in Anglican theology. It looks at the way that Anglican theologians, in the past and today, have developed their theories of authority in relation to burning issues. Avis critiques them in a continuous dialogue or running commentary and set them in an ecumenical context, comparing Anglican positions with Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant ones. In each area - Bible, tradition, reason, experience -he sets out a new understanding of authority in a constructive and persuasive way, moving to a series of overall conclusions and recommendations. The sharp critiques of various positions will help to make it the subject of discussion and debate.

Newman himself called the Oxford University Sermons, first published in 1843, the best, not the most perfect, book I have done'. He added, I mean there is more to develop in it'. Indeed, the book is a precursor of all his major later works, including especially the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine and the Grammar of Assent. Dealing with the relationship of faith and reason, the fifteen sermons represent Newman's resolution of the conflict between heart and head that so troubled believers, non-believers, and agnostics of the nineteenth century, Their controversial nature also makes them one of the primary documents of the Oxford Movement. This new edition provides an introduction to the sermons, a definitive text with textual variants, extensive annotation, and appendices containing previously unpublished material.

In life he was larger than life. He made an immediate and memorable impact on those he met and with whom he worked. He was incredibly industrious in all his teaching, speaking, lecturing, composing, and above all in his writing. In the time others would take to think through the possibility of authoring a book, Erik would have gone to his longsuffering and slightly dyslexic typewriter and completed the manuscript. Gathering with his family at Westminster Abbey for his memorial service, the idea of a random collection of essays or a series of personal anecdotes was discarded by the editors. To appropriately honor this substantial life, something more systematic was required. Thus the idea for this volume was born. Each of the contributors, who has benefited in some way from his friendship, teaching and writing, has examined an area or a subject in which Erik Rowley has made his mark. Significantly, it has taken seventeen authors to cover some of the ground where his footprints are still fresh and the clarity of his voice still rings.

This book evaluates William Temple's theology and his pursuit of church unity. It exposes a number of paradoxes and conflicts that have generally gone under-appreciated in assessments of Temple. William Temple was one of the most outstanding leaders of the early ecumenical movement. In many ways his ecumenical efforts provided a paradigm others have looked to and followed. Through detailed analysis of primary sources, this study sheds light on several behind-the-scenes conflicts Temple experienced as he worked toward church unity. Edward Loane explores the foundation of Temple's work by analyzing the philosophy and theology that underpinned and fueled it. The book also exposes the tensions between Temple's denominational allegiance and his ecumenical convictions-a tension that, in some ways, undermined his work for reunion. This book reveals issues that contemporary Christians need to grapple with as they seek to further church unity.

The conventional picture of Benjamin Jowett (1817-93) is of the outstanding educator, the famous master of Balliol College, Oxford, whose pupils were extremely influential in the public life of Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, he is also recognized as a theologian since he contributed an essay 'On the Interpretation of Scripture' to Essays and Reviews, a collection published in 1860; the book's liberalism aroused great controversy, and it was eventually synodically condemned in 1864. It has been thought that having got into trouble over his essay, Jowett abandoned theology and became a purely secular figure. This book attempts to identify the ideas which caused Jowett to develop his theology, the thinkers who influenced him and how his own religious ideas evolved. It argues that, after the Essays and Reviews controversy, he deliberately chose to disseminate those ideas through the college of which he became master. It also shows how he influenced other religious thinkers and theologians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, arguing that he was more important in the history of English theology than is usually recognized.

THE INSTANTLY ICONIC NO. 1 BESTSELLER 'Devotees of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories will feel most at home here' Guardian 'I've been waiting for a novel with vicars, rude old ladies, murder and sausage dogs... et voila!' Dawn French 'Cosy crime with a cutting edge' Telegraph 'Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice' Ian Rankin 'Charming and funny' Observer Even better than I knew it would be' India Knight 'Quintessentially English' Sunday Express 'An absolute joy' Adam Kay ''Wry, tongue-in cheek and whimsical' Daily Mail 'Glorious' Robert Webb 'Beautifully written, charming, funny, intelligent and mordant too' Sunday Times 'Pitch perfect' Philip Pullman 'A cunning whodunnit' Daily Express Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, where he lives alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in the church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village. And then Anthony Bowness - cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton - is found dead at the back of the church. As the police moves in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his community together... and catch a killer.

Timothy Connor shows how Donald MacKinnon's extension concept of kenosis to the doctrine of the Church offers a critical corrective to ecclesiological triumphalism. This book explores those aspects of Donald MacKinnon's theological writings which challenge the claim of the liberal Catholic tradition in the Church of England to have forged an ecclesiological consensus, namely that the Church is the extension of the incarnation. MacKinnon destabilized this claim by exposing the wide gulf between theory and practice in that church, especially in his own Anglo-Catholic tradition within it. For him the collapse of Christendom is the occasion for a dialectical reconstruction of the relation of the Church to Jesus Christ and to the world on the basis of the gospel. His basic claim is that authentic ecclesial existence must correspond with what was revealed and effected by Jesus along his way from Galilee to Jerusalem to Galilee. Reflection on the Church thus takes the form of a lived response shaped by a Christocentric grammar of faith: the submission of the church to Jesus' contemporaneous interrogation, a sustained attentiveness to him and the willing embrace of his 'hour'. "T&T Clark Studies in Systematic Theology" is a series of monographs in the field of Christian doctrine, with a particular focus on constructive engagement with major topics through historical analysis or contemporary restatement.

The high church movement within the Episcopal Church was antithetical to both the intellectual and social worlds of antebellum America, for it challenged the underlying assumptions of evangelicalism and held itself aloof from reform impulses. This book by Robert Bruce Mullin-the first to study the high church movement from the context of nineteenth-century American culture-discusses how the spiritual descendents of those who harassed the Pilgrims out of England defined themselves in an America that was "the land of the Pilgrims' pride." Mullin discusses the problems that faced the Episcopal Church after the American Revolution, analyzes the intellectual currents in Anglicanism of this period, and sketches the backgrounds of the chief individuals involved with the high church revival-in particular, John Henry Hobart, later bishop of New York. He shows how Hobart's theological and social-alternative synthesis, which called for a radical division between church and state, provoked controversy with evangelical Protestants on issues as diverse as theology, revivalism, temperance, and slavery. Tracing the history of the Episcopal Church from the early nineteenth century, when it was seen as an ark of refuge by critics of the "excesses" of evangelicalism, to 1870, when the antebellum high church synthesis had largely collapsed, Mullin explains its success and subsequent decline. Mullin's examination of the high church movement not only sheds light on the reasons for the flourishing of this alternative social and intellectual vision but also helps to account for the general crisis that confronted all American religious communities at the end of the century. In addition, his reconstruction of the tension between high church Episcopalians and evangelical Protestants provides a new historical perspective from which to view the larger debate over the nature and direction of the antebellum nation.

History will remember Desmond Tutu, who has been called South Africa's Martin Luther King, Jr., as a great leader in the struggle against apartheid. In this new biography, which includes original quotations from the author's interviews with Tutu, readers will follow the steady progress of a boy and man who has held an irrepressible faith in humankind and his God. They will learn about his family, schooling, important mentors, and extraordinary career trajectory in South Africa and abroad. Now retired, Tutu's accomplishments and contributions to the world can be fully appreciated. The clear explanation of the policy of apartheid, how it affected Tutu and his family, and how he helped to bring it crashing down will affect and inform students as no history alone can. They will marvel over his sparkling wit and effervescent personality, his nonviolent stance in the face of intense racial hatred and harassment, and his persistence against enormous odds. This will be an effortless, enjoyable, enlightening and inspiring read.

Originating in 1867 under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference has proactively shaped the modern world by influencing areas as diverse as the ecumenical movement, post-war international relations, and the spiritual lives of hundreds of millions. A team of distinguished scholars from around the world now detail the historical legacy, theological meaning, and pastoral purpose of the Anglican Communion's decennial councils. The next Lambeth Conference will be crucial for the Anglican Communion, which is currently afflicted by destructive tensions over matters long central to Christian identity, such as the nature of holy orders, the definition of sexual morality, and the scope of ecclesial authority. Whether in supplication or celebration, both nurtured by diverse cultural contexts and furthered by the scope of ecumenical horizons, these essays break new ground. The Lambeth Conference is a faithful testament to generations past, and a spur to the ongoing restoration of Anglican theology and devotion in the present.

John Foxe's ground-breaking chronicle of Christian saints and martyrs put to death over centuries remains a landmark text of religious history. The persecution of Christians was for centuries a fact of living in Europe. Adherence to the faith was a great personal risk, with the Roman Empire leading the first of such persecutions against early Christian believers. Many were crucified, put to the sword, or burned alive - gruesome forms of death designed to terrify and discourage others from following the same beliefs. Appearing in 1563, Foxe's chronicle of Christian suffering proved a great success among Protestants. It gave literate Christians the ability to discover and read about brave believers who died for expressing their religion, much as did Jesus Christ. Perhaps in foretelling, the final chapter of the book focuses upon the earliest Christian missions abroad: these, to the Americas, Asia and other locales, would indeed see many more martyrs put to death by the local populations.

Grace and Freedom addresses the issue of divine grace in relation to the freedom of the will in Reformed or "Calvinist" theology in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. It focuses on the work of the English Reformed theologian William Perkins, especially his role as an apologist of the Church of England, defending its theology against the Roman Catholic polemic, and specifically against the charge that Reformed theology denies human free choice. Perkins and his Reformed contemporaries affirm that salvation occurs by grace alone and that God is the ultimate cause of all things, but they also insist on the freedom of the human will and specifically the freedom of choice in a way that does not conform to modern notions of "libertarian freedom" or "compatibilism." In developing this position, Perkins drew on the thought of Reformers such as Peter Martyr Vermigli and Zacharias Ursinus, on the nuanced positions of medieval scholastics, and several contemporary Roman Catholic representatives of the so-called "second scholasticism." His work was a major contribution to early modern Reformed thought both in England and on the continent. His influence in England extended both to the Reformed heritage of the Church of England and to English Puritanism. On the continent, his work contributed to the main lines of Reformed orthodoxy and to the piety of the Dutch Second Reformation.

The lives of Christian churches are shaped by doctrinal theology. That is, they are shaped by practices in which ideas about God and God's ways with the world are developed, discussed and deployed. This book explores those practices, and asks why they matter for communities seeking to follow Jesus. Taking the example of the Church of England, this book highlights the embodied, affective and located reality of all doctrinal practices - and the biases and exclusions that mar them. It argues that doctrinal theology can in principle help the church know God better, even though doctrinal theologians do not know God better than their fellow believers. It claims that it can help the church to hear in Scripture challenges to its life, including to its doctrinal theology. It suggests that doctrinal disagreement is inevitable, but that a better quality of doctrinal disagreement is possible. And, finally, it argues that, by encouraging attention to voices that have previously been ignored, doctrinal theology can foster the ongoing discovery of God's surprising work.

European Pentecostalism was fortunate in having the wise and balanced leadership of the evangelical Anglican Alexander Boddy at its disposal during the formative years of the early 1900s. This wellresearched and vivid book tells the story of how Boddy helped to define the doctrine and stance of the first generation of Pentecostals. Wakefield brings to life the vigorous discussion of charismata that occupied the minds of early Spiritfilled believers. He charts Boddys training, explains his beliefs and his spirituality, records his personal and pastoral work in northeastern England and explains the style and direction of his leadership. Boddy was an important figure, even a great man and now for the first time a fulllength biography of his life and work is available.