|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Calvinist, Reformed & Presbyterian Churches
From a small group of devout Puritan settlers, the USA ultimately
became the richest, most powerful Empire in the history of the
world. Yet it is now in a process of implosion and decay. This
book, inspired by Frankfurt School Critical Theory, offers a unique
historical, cultural and characterological analysis of American
national character and its underlying psychodynamics.
This book reconsiders the career of an important, controversial,
but neglected figure in this history of Irish Presbyterianism. The
Revd Isaac Nelson is mostly remembered for his opposition to the
evangelical revival of 1859, but this book demonstrates that there
was much more to Nelson's career. Nelson started out as a protege
of Henry Cooke and as an exemplary young evangelical minister. Upon
aligning himself with the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society and joining
forces with American abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and
William Lloyd Garrison, Nelson emerged as a powerful voice against
compromise with slaveholders. One of the central objectives of this
book is to show that anti-slavery, especially his involvement with
the 'Send Back the Money' controversy in the Free Church of
Scotland and the debate over fellowship with slaveholders at the
Evangelical Alliance, was crucially important to the development of
Nelson into one of Irish Presbyterianism's most controversial
figures. His later opposition to the 1859 Revival has often been
understood as being indicative of Nelson's opposition to
evangelicalism. This book argues that such a conclusion is mistaken
and that Nelson opposed the Revival as a Presbyterian evangelical.
His later involvement with the Land League and the Irish Home Rule
movement, including his tenure as the Member of Parliament for
County Mayo, could be easily dismissed as an entirely discreditable
affair. While avoiding romantic nostalgia in relation to Nelson's
nationalism, this book argues that Nelson's basis for advocating
Home Rule was not as peculiar as it might first appear.
Updated edition of classic introduction to the essential tenets of
Calvinistic theology: its history and content, a biblical defense,
and a guide to further study.
In Calvin's Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the
Church, Matthew J. Tuininga explores a little appreciated dimension
of John Calvin's political thought, his two kingdoms theology, as a
model for constructive Christian participation in liberal society.
Widely misunderstood as a proto-political culture warrior, due in
part to his often misinterpreted role in controversies over
predestination and the heretic Servetus, Calvin articulated a
thoughtful approach to public life rooted in his understanding of
the gospel and its teaching concerning the kingdom of God. He
staked his ministry in Geneva on his commitment to keeping the
church distinct from the state, abandoning simplistic approaches
that placed one above the other, while rejecting the temptations of
sectarianism or separatism. This revealing analysis of Calvin's
vision offers timely guidance for Christians seeking a mode of
faithful, respectful public engagement in democratic, pluralistic
communities today.
This Companion offers an introduction to Reformed theology, one of
the most historically important, ecumenically active, and currently
generative traditions of doctrinal enquiry, by way of reflecting
upon its origins, its development, and its significance. The first
part, Theological Topics, indicates the distinct array of doctrinal
concerns which gives coherence over time to the identity of this
tradition in all its diversity. The second part, Theological
Figures, explores the life and work of a small number of
theologians who have not only worked within this tradition, but
have constructively shaped and inspired it in vital ways. The final
part, Theological Contexts, considers the ways in which the
resultant Reformed sensibilities in theology have had a marked
impact both upon theological and ecclesiastical landscapes in
different places and upon the wider societal landscapes of history.
The result is a fascinating and compelling guide to this dynamic
and vibrant theological tradition.
Histories of missions to American Indian communities usually tell a
sad and predictable story about the destructive impact of
missionary work on Native culture and religion. Many historians
conclude that American Indian tribes who have maintained a cultural
identity have done so only because missionaries were unable to
destroy it. In Creating Christian Indians, Bonnie Sue Lewis relates
how the Nez Perce and the Dakota Indians became Presbyterians yet
incorporated Native culture and tradition into their new Christian
identities. Lewis focuses on the rise of Native clergy and their
forging of Christian communities based on American Indian values
and notions of kinship and leadership. Originally, mission work
among the Nez Perces and Dakotas revolved around white
missionaries, but Christianity truly took root in
nineteenth-century American Indian communities with the ordination
of Indian clergy. Native pastors saw in Christianity a universal
message of hope and empowerment. Educated and trained within their
own communities, Native ministers were able to preach in their own
languages. They often acted as cultural brokers between Indian and
white societies, shaping Native Presbyterianism and becoming
recognized leaders in both tribal and Presbyterian circles. In 1865
the Presbyterian Church ordained John B. Renville as the first
Dakota Indian minister, and in 1879 Robert Williams became the
first ordained Nez Perce. By 1930, nearly forty Dakotas, sixteen
Nez Perces, a Spokane, and a Makah had been ordained. Lewis has
mined church and archival records, including letters from Native
ministers, to reveal ways in which early Indian pastors left a
heritage of committed Presbyterian congregations and a vibrant
spiritual legacy among their descendants. Bonnie Sue Lewis is
Assistant Professor of Mission and Native American Christianity at
the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Iowa.
In On Time, Punctuality and Discipline in Early Modern Calvinism,
Max Engammare explores how the sixteenth-century Protestant
reformers of Geneva, France, London, and Bern internalized a new
concept of time. Applying a moral and spiritual code to the course
of the day, they regulated their relationship with time, which was,
in essence, a new relationship with God. As Calvin constantly
reminded his followers, God watches his faithful every minute. Come
Judgement Day, the faithful in turn will have to account for each
minute. Engammare argues that the inhabitants of Calvin's Geneva
invented the new habit of being on time, a practice unknown in
antiquity. It was also fundamentally different from notions of time
in the monastic world of the medieval period and unknown to
contemporaries such as Erasmus, Vives, the early Jesuits, Rabelais,
Ronsard, or Montaigne. Engammare shows that punctuality did not
proceed from technical innovation. Rather, punctuality was above
all a spiritual, social, and disciplinary virtue.
Since its original publication in 1985, Church and University in
the Scottish Enlightenment has come to be regarded as a classic
work in 18th-century Scottish history and Enlightenment studies. It
depicts Hugh Blair, Alexander Carlyle, Adam Ferguson, John Home,
and William Robertson as an intimate coterie that played a central
role in the Scottish Enlightenment, seen here not only as an
intellectual but as a cultural movement. These men were among the
leaders in the University of Edinburgh, in the Moderate party in
the Church of Scotland, and in Edinburgh's thriving clubs. They
used their institutional influence and their books, plays, sermons,
and pamphlets to promulgate the tenets of Moderatism, including
polite Presbyterianism, Christian Stoicism, civic humanism, social
and political conservatism, and the tolerant, cosmopolitan values
of the international Enlightenment. Using a wide variety of sources
and an interdisciplinary methodology, this collective biography
portrays these 'Moderate Iiterati' as zealous activists for the
cause in which they believed, ranging from support for a Scots
militia, Ossian, and Roman Catholic relief to opposition to the
Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and the American and French Revolutions
Woodford's diary, here published in full for the first time with an
introduction, provides a unique insight into the puritan psyche and
way of life. Woodford is remarkable for the consistency of his
worldview, interpreting all experience through the spectacles of
godly predestinarianism. His journal is a fascinating source for
the study of opposition to the Personal Rule of Charles I and its
importance in the formation of Civil War allegiance, demonstrating
that the Popish Plot version of politics, held by parliamentary
opposition leaders in the 1620s, had by the 1630s been adopted by
provincial people from the lower classes. Woodford went further
than some of his contemporaries in taking the view that, even
before the outbreak of the Bishops' Wars, government policies had
discredited episcopacy, and cast grave doubt on the king's
religious soundness. Conversely, he regarded parliament as the seat
of virtue and potential saviour of the nation.
Originally published in 1938, this book gives an engaging account
of the main controversies within Dutch Calvinism between 1600 and
1650. Although the relation of Church and state was debated
throughout the seventeenth century in the Netherlands, two disputes
in the first half were most significant because both began in the
Calvinist Church itself. The first of these disputes arose out of
the Arminian challenge in the Calvinist Church and lasted from 1609
to 1618, when the Synod of Dort expelled the Arminians from the
Church and Maurice the Stadholder drove the leaders out of the
Netherlands. The second dispute began in 1637 when Vedelius taught
at Deventer a theory of the Christian magistracy which was alien to
the Calvinist tradition since 1618. Detailed information is
provided on both of these controversies and the surrounding
historical context.
The Revolution of 1688-90 was accompanied in Scotland by a Church
Settlement which dismantled the Episcopalian governance of the
church. Clergy were ousted and liturgical traditions were replaced
by the new Presbyterian order. As Episcopalians, non-jurors and
Catholics were side-lined under the new regime, they drew on their
different confessional and liturgical inheritances, pre- and
post-Reformation, to respond to ecclesiastical change and inform
their support of the movement to restore the Stuarts. In so doing,
they had a profound effect on the ways in which worship was
conducted and considered in Britain and beyond.
Andrew Reed (1787-1862) was a Congregational minister, an energetic
philanthropist and a highly successful fundraiser. He began to
study theology at Hackney Academy in 1807 and was ordained minister
in 1811, serving in this role until 1861. He helped to found
numerous charitable institutions, most notably the London Orphan
Asylum, the Asylum for Fatherless Children, the Asylum for Idiots,
the Infant Orphan Asylum, and the Hospital for Incurables. In
addition to his charitable work, he found time to write. He
compiled a hymn book, and published sermons, devotional books and
an account of his visit to America in 1834, when he received a
Doctorate of Divinity from Yale. This biography of Reed, compiled
by two of his sons, was first published in 1863. It describes his
many achievements, using selections from Reed's own journals, and
includes a list of his publications.
The author of this 1930 volume maintains that the first two and a
half years of the pontificate of Pius IV, during which the
continuation of the Council of Trent and the maintenance of its
earlier decrees were secured against strong French and German
opposition, constituted the critical period which finally
determined the ultimate orientation of the Counter-Reformation.
This thesis is worked out in detail in regard to the French efforts
to prevent the continuation of the Tridentine Council and to force
the Counter-Reformation into different channels from those desired
by Rome, efforts which were largely inspired by the Cardinal of
Lorraine around whom the narrative is hung. In addition, an attempt
is made to appreciate the Cardinal's personality and to understand
his ecclesiastical standpoint.
Originally published during the early part of the twentieth
century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were
designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of
topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and
combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on
accessibility. The English Puritans, written by John Brown and
first published in 1910, presents an historical overview of the
rise, growth and decline of the Puritan movement in England in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Originally published during the early part of the twentieth
century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were
designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of
topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and
combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on
accessibility. First published in 1911, this small volume by Lord
Balfour of Burleigh traces the history and development of
Presbyterianism in Scotland from the sixteenth to the twentieth
century.
Originally published in 1935, this book examines the history of the
English Presbyterian movement in terms of its connection with the
surrounding cultural environment. Covering the period between 1662
and the formation of Unitarianism during the early nineteenth
century, it provides a detailed analysis of the movement and its
ideas. The relationship between Presbyterian thought and
contemporary developments in science and philosophy is given
particular attention. From this perspective, the history of the
Presbyterian movement can be seen as forming part of the larger
question of the relationship between secular learning and religious
credenda. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to
anyone with an interest in religious or cultural history.
This groundbreaking book explores the migration of Calvinist
refugees in Europe during the Reformation, across a century of
persecution, exile and minority existence. Ole Peter Grell follows
the fortunes of some of the earliest Reformed merchant families,
forced to flee from the Tuscan city of Lucca during the 1560s,
through their journey to France during the Wars of Religion to the
St Bartholomew Day Massacre and their search for refuge in Sedan.
He traces the lives of these interconnected families over three
generations as they settled in European cities from Geneva to
London, marrying into the diaspora of Reformed merchants. Based on
a potent combination of religion, commerce and family networks,
these often wealthy merchants and highly skilled craftsmen were
amongst the most successful of early modern capitalists. Brethren
in Christ shows how this interconnected network, reinforced through
marriage and enterprise, forged the backbone of international
Calvinism in Reformation Europe.
In 1593, in response to strict censorship in England, English
Puritans in Scotland printed a volume of letters, petitions and
arguments titled Parte of a Register, which was smuggled into
England. Manuscripts for a second book were collected but never
published, and were later acquired by Roger Morrice (1628 1702),
the Puritan diarist. They are now housed at Dr Williams's Library
in London. This is a two-volume study of the 257 documents, which
date from 1570 to 1590. They include Puritan letters, petitions,
arguments and records of persecution by ecclesiastical authorities,
and together constitute valuable evidence of the aims and concerns
of the early Puritan movement. Compiled by the ecclesiastical
historian Albert Peel (1886 1949) and first published in 1915, this
catalogue itemises the contents of the collection. Volume 1
contains an introduction discussing the history of the manuscripts
and the first part of the list of documents.
Dutch society has enjoyed a reputation, or notoriety, for
permissiveness from the sixteenth century to present times. The
Dutch Republic in the Golden Age was the only society that
tolerated religious dissenters of all persuasions in early modern
Europe, despite being committed to a strictly Calvinist public
Church. Professors R. Po-chia Hsia and Henk van Nierop have brought
together a group of leading historians from the US, the UK and the
Netherlands to probe the history and myth of this Dutch tradition
of religious tolerance. This 2002 collection of outstanding essays
reconsiders and revises contemporary views of Dutch tolerance.
Taken as a whole, the volume's innovative scholarship offers
unexpected insights into this important topic in religious and
cultural history.
|
You may like...
Mining Technology
Andrew Hammond, Brendan Donnelly, …
Hardcover
R2,797
Discovery Miles 27 970
|