When Henry VIII died in 1547 he left a church in England that had broken with Rome - but was it Protestant? The English Reformation was quite different in its methods, motivations and results to that taking place on the continent.
This book:
* examines the influences of continental reform on England
* describes the divorce of Henry VIII and the break with Rome
* discusses the political and religious consequences of the break with Rome
* assesses the success of the Reformation up to 1547
* provides a clear guide to the main strands of historical thought on the topic.


eBook available with sample pages: 0203130405

In this first volume to the New Church's Teaching Series James Griffiss provides an introduction to the Anglican tradition. He focuses especially on Anglicanism's ability to hold together theological continuity (especially the emphasis on the Incarnation) with social and cultural change. After discussing the Episcopal Church today and the ways in which it has changed over the past fifty years, Griffiss shows how the distinctive Anglican approach has been lived out in its history, spirituality, mission, worship, and approach to Scripture. Throughout, the book stresses the place of Anglicanism in the late twentieth century and its ability to be both flexible and traditional in rapidly changing cultures. The Anglican Vision is intended for wide parish use, including adult education, parish forums, inquirers and newcomers classes, and study groups throughout the church year. It includes a study guide, list of resources, and suggestions for further reading.

In the early seventeenth century, as the vehement aggression of the early Reformation faded, the Church of England was able to draw upon scholars of remarkable ability to present a more thoughtful defence of its position. The Caroline Divines, who flourished under King Charles I, drew upon vast erudition and literary skill, to refute the claims of the Church of Rome and affirm the purity of the English religious settlement. This book examines their writings in the context of modern ecumenical dialogue, notably that of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) to ask whether their arguments are still valid, and indeed whether they can contribute to contemporary ecumenical progress. Drawing upon an under-used resource within Anglicanism's own theological history, this volume shows how the restatement by the Caroline Divines of the catholic identity of the Church prefigured the work of ARCIC, and provides Anglicans with a vocabulary drawn from within their own tradition that avoids some of the polemical and disputed formulations of the Roman Catholic tradition.

Dr Foster traces the eventful history of the Church of England from shortly after its establishment in Elizabeth I's reign down to 1640, when it was on the verge of destruction. As well as analysing its principal features he considers the conflicting interpretations that this most controversial of periods has stimulated. He also provides a detailed chronological chart to help students with alternative readings of events and to prompt thoughts about how `facts shift according to different perspectives'.

First full-length exploration of the role of the Anglican church in the development of colonial Australia. Anglican clergymen in Britain's Australian colonies in their earliest years faced very particular challenges. Lacking relevant training, experience or pastoral theology, these pioneer religious professionals not only ministered toa convict population unique in the empire, but had also to engage with indigenous peoples and a free-settler population struggling with an often inhospitable environment. This was in the context of a settler empire that was beingreshaped by mass migration, rapid expansion and a widespread decline in the political authority of religion and the confessional state, especially after the American Revolution. Previous accounts have caricatured such clerics as lackeys of the imperial authorities: "moral policemen", "flogging parsons". Yet, while the clergy did make important contributions to colonial and imperial projects, this book offers a more wide-ranging picture. It reveals them at times vigorously asserting their independence in relation both to their religious duties and to humanitarian concern, and shows them playing an important part in the new colonies' social and economic development, making a vital contribution to the emergence of civil society and intellectual and cultural institutions and traditions within Australia. It is only possible to understand the distinctive role that the clergy played in the light of their social origins, intellectual formation and professional networks in an expanding British World, a subject explored systematically here for the first time. Michael Gladwin is Lecturer in History at St Mark's National Theological Centre, Charles Sturt University, Canberra.

First published in 1975. In 1869 the Church of Ireland, until then part of the Church of England, was disestablished and partially disendowed. The author traces the changes in the Church of Ireland's organization and function and the decline of its influence and numerical size during the hundred years following disestablishment. This title will be of interest to students of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religious and social history.

Provides a guide and access in dictionary form, to selected central British institutional terms, which are widely employed in contemporary British life. The word "institutions" is applied in a broad sense to cover, for example, political and governmental institutions; local government; international institutions with which Britain has connections; legal, economic and industrial institutions; education; the media; religion and social welfare; health and housing institutions; geographical and traditional social terms and institutions. The aim of the guide is to provide sufficient information in one volume to render these terms intelligible to students or professionals who are concerned with fundamental aspects of British society. The book also contains lists of British governments and prime ministers, lists of kings and queens, and a concise overview of key events in British history.

This revised edition of the classic Manual for Lay Eucharistic Ministers offers practical guidance on everything a eucharistic minister or eucharistic visitor does. (Eucharistic ministers help to administer the elements at the Eucharist, while eucharistic visitors bring those elements to members of the congregation who can't be present). This guide, updated to include the new canons and procedures, also offers suggestions on how to prepare oneself spiritually to present the sacrament, what to do when visiting the sick or shut-in parishioner with the Eucharist, and how to prepare a sacred space in someone's home or hospital room. Appendices include rites, suggested prayers and guidelines, services for commissioning and sending forth Lay Eucharistic Ministers, and a bibliography. Beth Ely also traces the changing customs and canons of lay administration of communion from the early churches to the present, and discusses the riches and mystery of the Holy Eucharist through the centuries.

A vivid and accessible reappraisal of the frequently uneasy relationship between the Victorian clergyman and his congregation. The conduct of divine service was only one item on the agenda of the nineteenth-century clergyman. He might have to sit on the magistrates' bench, or concern himself with business as a farmer or landowner, or attend a meeting of the Poor Law guardians. He would, in all probability, be closely involved with the day-to-day running of the local school, and he would almost certainly be the principle administrator of the parochial charities. While some of theseroles were clearly predestined to bring him into conflict with certain members of his flock, others seem ostensibly designed to operate in their interests. None, however, seem to have earned him much in the way of devotion and respect: instead, each of them at one time or another attracted the direct hostility of parishioners, most particularly those attached to dissenting and/or radical groups. This book is a detailed exploration of the relationship between Anglican clergymen and the inhabitants of rural parishes in the nineteenth century. Taking Norfolk as a focus, the author examines the many and profound ways in which the Victorian Church affected the daily lives and political destinies of local communities.

The Anglican Communion is one of the largest Christian denominations in the world. Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion is the first study of its dramatic growth and decline in the years since 1980. An international team of leading researchers based across five continents provides a global overview of Anglicanism alongside twelve detailed case studies. The case studies stretch from Singapore to England, Nigeria to the USA and mostly focus on non-western Anglicanism. This book is a critical resource for students and scholars seeking an understanding of the past, present and future of the Anglican Church. More broadly, the study offers insight into debates surrounding secularisation in the contemporary world.

A major ?gure in twentieth-century Christianity, Geoffrey Fisher worked to modernise the Church of England and to develop the worldwide Anglican Communion. His historic meeting with Pope John XXIII, his participation in national debates on the Suez Crisis and nuclear weapons, and his role in crowning Queen Elizabeth II brought him prominence in postwar Britain. His neglect by professional historians is partly remedied by this new biography. "David Hein here offers an elegant appraisal of his subject, placing Fisher in a succession of shifting landscapes and measuring his role with an acute eye. A superb portrait, it is the work of a historian of genuine distinction." - Andrew Chandler, Director, George Bell Institute at the University of Chichester "Whilst eminently scholarly and appropriately demanding for the reader, this biography holds one's attention - a signi?cant achievement, and much to be commended " - Ann Loades, Professor of Divinity Emerita, Durham University, UK "David Hein's treatment of Archbishop Fisher's career throws a great deal of light on the Church of England, Britain in the mid-twentieth century, and the place of religion in Europe and in the developing world following World War II. His assessment of Fisher as leader of the international Anglican Communion is particularly illuminating." - W. Brown Patterson Emeritus Dean and Professor of History, University of the South "A short, accessible book helpful to both the professional scholar and interested amateur who wish to gain a greater understanding of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion more widely during the turbulent post-war period." - Wendy Dackson Ripon College, Cuddesdon David Hein is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Hood College and co-author of The Episcopalians.

She Flies On is not really a critique of organized religion, but rather Carter Heyward's effort to think theologically, politically, socially, and autobiographically about the world and the church in which she has lived and worked. A Christian feminist "theologian of liberation," Episcopal priest, lesbian, Southerner, and socialist Democrat, Heyward writes about the church, but more about the people-and creatures-of God going about their lives and attempting to love one another.

In this notable contribution to the study of John Wesley and George Whitefield, Ian Maddock discovers the affinity between two preachers often contrasted as enemies. The controversial Free Grace episode of the early eighteenth century, which highlighted the theological divisions between Wesley's Arminianism and Whitefield's Calvinism, has influenced the scholarly division of these forerunners of the Eighteenth Century Revival, resulting in a polarised critical heritage. In a critical assessment of John Wesley, the 'scholar preacher', and George Whitefield, the 'actor preacher', Maddock gives due attention to their differences but unifies them in their commitment to the authority of the Bible, their rhetorical devices and their thematic similarities, showing how they often explicated different theories with the same evidence. Men of One Book explains how these contemporaries, who each knew of the other at Oxford University and as preachers, each faced ecclesiastical opposition and social stigma, but sought for a print-and-preach ministry in which the spoken and written word would spread the Gospel throughout the transatlantic world. 'Men of One Book' is a volume that will interest anyone concerned with the Eighteenth Century Revival, the rise of Methodism or the history of evangelicalism. Ian J. Maddock is Lecturer in Theology at Sydney Missionary and Bible College, and received his PhD from the University of Aberdeen. 'A wonderful comparative treatment of the two dominant preachers of the first Great Awakening. Maddock is equally sure-footed working meticulously through the voluminous manuscript sermons of Wesley and Whitefield as if painting the details of their complex and interwoven leadership of the evangelical revivals. There is no other work that so faithfully renders portraits of these two on their own terms as well as in relation to each other.' Richard Lints, Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

First published in 1969, this book studies the years of decline in the Victorian Church between 1868 and 1882. It centres on the Archbishop Tait, who was paradoxically the most powerful Archbishop of Canterbury since the seventeenth century, and follows the policies he pursued, the high church opposition it provoked and the involvement of Parliament. This book will be of interest to students of history and religion of the Victorian era.

Anglicans around the world have responded to the gospel in many different cultural contexts. This has produced different customs and different ways of thinking about church issues. In the process of enculturation, Anglicans have found themselves encountering social and political realities as malign forces against which they have had to struggle. As a consequence, the personal and local dynamic in Anglicanism has created not just diversity of custom and mental habits, but it has done so at points that have been vital to the way Anglicans have been committed to the gospel. Conflict and the Practice of Christian Faith looks at the process by which local traditions developed in Christianity and how these traditions have related to other sub-traditions of the universal church. It assesses some specifics of the Anglican experience and argues for a significant re-casting of some prominent elements of that tradition, at the same time clarifying some of the distinctive elements in the Anglican tradition. This leads to a more nuanced appreciation of the force of the social and political framework within which Anglicans have had to work out their salvation and of the different forms of secular society and different understandings of plurality and diversity. It also entails showing how the imperial route to catholicity took no firm root in Anglicanism. Going global has been a significant experiment in Anglican ecclesiology that is by no means over yet. The terms of that experiment lie at the heart of the current Anglican debates. The book will be of interest to Christians generally who belong to faith traditions spread across different cultures. It is also a case study of the issues of global reach and local tradition.

Exorcism is more widespread in contemporary England than perhaps at any other time in history. The Anglican Church is by no means the main provider of this ritual, which predominantly takes place in independent churches. However, every one of the Church of England dioceses in the country now designates at least one member of its clergy to advise on casting out demons. Such `deliverance ministry' is in theory made available to all those parishioners who desire it. Yet, as Francis Young reveals, present-day exorcism in Anglicanism is an unlikely historical anomaly. It sprang into existence in the 1970s within a church that earlier on had spent whole centuries condemning the expulsion of evil spirits as either Catholic superstition or evangelical excess. This book for the first time tells the full story of the Anglican Church's approach to demonology and the exorcist's ritual since the Reformation in the sixteenth century. The author explains how and why how such a remarkable transformation in the Church's attitude to the rite of exorcism took place, while also setting his subject against the canvas of the wider history of ideas.

Newly revised, expanded, and perfected text from the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church, held in Salt Lake City in July 2015. Church Publishing will make the full approved resource available by Advent 2015. Church Publishing is honored to work with the General Convention Office and the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to provide this important resource for the church.

The variety and depth of Anglican theology is best engaged through personal encounter with its many sources - the theologians and theological witnesses themselves. Anglican theology is often worked out in personal terms that provide a synthesis between reflection on the truths of faith and the particular contexts of culture and life. This book presents modern Anglican theology through a unique 'gallery'. This theological gallery includes a portrait or sketch of ten Anglican writers - DuBose, Farrer, Stringfellow, Brooks, Kemper, DeKoven, McCord Adams, Polkinghorne, Gore and Macquarrie. Theological description, interpretation and application are included for each, with the presentations differing as widely as the theologians and theological witnesses themselves. Drawing together understandings and experiences of faith, this will be an invaluable resource for students of Anglican theology and anyone who seeks to understand the distinctive perspectives and contributions of Anglicanism relative to living faith and daily life.

Archbishop Michael Ramsey's archiepiscopate from 1961 to 1974 saw profound renegotiations of the relationship of the Church of England with its own flock, with the nation more widely, with the Anglican church worldwide, and with the other Christian churches. Drawing from unique source material in the Lambeth Palace Library archives and reproducing many original writings of Ramsey for the first time, this book explores key questions which surround Ramsey's tenure. How did Ramsey react to the rapid hollowing-out of the regular constituency of the church whilst at the same time seeing sweeping changes in the manner in which the church tried to minister to those members? What was his role in the widening of the church's global vision, and the growing porousness of its borders with other denominations? And how did the nature of the role of archbishop as figurehead change in this period?

The first general study of different attitudes to conformity and the political and cultural significance of the resulting consensus on what came to be regarded as orthodox. The different ways in which people expressed `conformity' or `nonconformity' to the 1559 settlement of religion in the English church have generally been treated separately by historians: Catholic recusancy and occasional conformity; Protestant ministerial subscription to the canons and articles of the Church of England; the innovations made by avant-garde conformist clerics to the early Stuart Church; and conformist support for the prayer book in the 1640s. This is the first book to look across the board at what was politically important about conformity, aiming to assess how different attitudes to conformity affected what was regarded as orthodox or true religion in the English Church: that is, the political and cultural significance of the ways in which one could obey or disobey the law governing the Church. The introduction places the articles in the context of the recent historiography of the late Tudor and early Stuart Church. PETER LAKE is Professor of History, Princeton University; MICHAEL QUESTIER is Senior Research Fellow, St Mary's Strawberry Hill. Contributors: ALEXANDRA WALSHAM, MICHAEL QUESTIER, PAULINE CROFT, KENNETH FINCHAM, THOMAS FREEMAN, PETER LAKE, ANDREW FOSTER, NICHOLAS TYACKE, DAVID COMO, JUDITH MALTBY.

"Really wonderful; an elegantly written initiation into the mimetic theory. I am lucky to have interpreters who understand what I want to say and who can write so well." -Rene Girard The work of Rene Girard is hugely influential in literature and cultural studies. But it is in understanding the relationship between religion and violence that his theory has created its greatest impact. Girard's understanding of mimetic rivalry and conflict and of scapegoating is seen by many to be the key to a completely new understanding of Christianity. Girard's name evokes curiosity and-often-strong feelings among devotees and skeptics. Discovering Girard is the first book to present Girard's work to a wider audience. It explains and appraises Girard's mimetic theory, shows its impact on theology and other disciplines, and manages to convey the excitement that a discovery of Girard's ideas often generates in readers.

Written with passion and understanding, Jail Bird explores how it is possible to reach out to those vilified in the press and by society at large, and to work for the good of all, recognising the humanity in those who commit crimes. Sharon Grenham-Thompson is an Anglican minister and former prison chaplain at Bedford Jail in the UK, where she was responsible for running a large multi-faith team. Jailbird explores her motivation to help those who are the least in society. "Totally gripping and extremely personal, this fluid biography comes gushing down the mountain like a raging floodwater. I literally couldn't put it down. In fact I read the whole thing in one session." Chris Evans - BBC Radio 2 Presenter

"Pray without ceasing..." Forward Movement presents an elegant, compact companion for your daily prayer life in Hour by Hour. This deluxe, soft-leather edition of the four daily Offices of Morning, Noonday, Evening Prayer and Compline contains the complete offices so that you may say your prayers and worship at all times and in all places. Convenient size for purse, pocket or briefcase.

A rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, by "our best chronicler of the rewards and pitfalls of present-day faith" [PHILIP PULLMAN] "A novel that probes any number of aggressive varieties of moralism, while testing the reader's own moral alertness for rigour, realism and generosity. An engrossing, three-dimensional, grown-up narrative." ROWAN WILLIAMS "An irresistibly readable, thoughtful and characteristically witty examination of the quandaries and compromises faced by the Church of England in an era of decline . . . I loved this book for its lightness of touch about serious subjects and for dialogue that glitters like clashing rapiers." MIRANDA SEYMOUR As a woman in the early 1980s, Clarissa Phipps is unable to pursue her vocation to the priesthood. Instead, she joins the BBC's religious affairs department, where she is sent to interview celebrated artist, Seward Wemlock, about the panels he is painting for an ancient Cheshire church. "A serious and important writer" ROSE TREMAIN Thirty years on, Clarissa, now rector of that same church, chances upon Brian, the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest friend, fondling fifteen-year-old David. Dismissing David's claim that they are in love, Clarissa is obliged to act. Will she choose friendship or conscience, sympathy or her official duty of care? The fallout from that choice forces her to reflect on the original controversy over Wemlock's panels and her concerns about his relationship with the teenagers who modelled for Adam and Eve. Had she acted on the whispers that reached her at the time, how many lives - her own included - would have turned out differently? The Choice is a rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, questioning whether it's possible, let alone prudent, to separate the art from the artist. It examines the fault lines in both religious and secular society, from the AIDS crisis and the struggle for women's ordination in the 1980s to the culture wars of today. Richly comic and deeply compassionate, The Choice is a remarkable synthesis of the sacred and profane. "At a time when British fiction has never been more timorous about tackling novels of ideas, Michael Arditti has produced one worthy of Iris Murdoch and Graham Greene. Brilliantly ambiguous, waspishly witty and thoroughly enjoyable, this is Michael Arditti's own masterpiece to date" AMANDA CRAIG

This biography is an account of the intellectual development of the early Victorian Romantic preacher Frederick William Robertson, a devotee of Dante, Goethe, Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle, and an admirer of German theology. His receptiveness to the School of Schleiermacher, along with his natural ability of popularizing the doctrines of liberal theology, contributed to the success of Robertson's sermons and posthumously published writings. His work helped to validate the reasonableness of Christian belief and the validity of spiritual experience and feelings for his contemporaries. The elopement of Robertson's mother, the odd circumstances surrounding his own marriage, and his own extra-marital affair are some of the key details uncovered here. In this book Christina Beardsley outlines the leading ideas of the priest's theology and preaching as well as of his extraordinary thinking with regard to gender. Gender is in fact one of the recurring themes in this biography. Robertson's way of perceiving femininity and experiencing his own masculinity reflects the Victorian gender debate and the Romantic preoccupation with the reconciliation of opposites. A captivating reconstruction of puzzling episodes of Robertson's life where the author explores the gendered aspects of his thought and places new emphasis on his Romantic sensibility. This book would appeal to students of Victorian religion and culture; XIX century biographies; the faith/reason, doubt/belief and science/religion debates; German influence on English theology; aesthetics and theology; the history of English liberal theology; gender and culture.