In this volume, six prominent writers from different disciplines strive to analyze the Presbyterian predicament and to offer solutions. The authors each approach this theme from a different angle, resulting in a varied and highly informative look at the state of the Presbyterian Church.

Through its examination of American Presbyterianism, the Presbyterian Presence series illuminates patterns of change in mainstream Protestantism and American religious and cultural life in the twentieth century.

Through text and photographs, Donald Saunders explores the history of the Rumple Presbyterian Church, Blowing Rock, NC, as well as its members from the Blowing Rock community.

A concise and readable study for laypersons and clergy alike, this book is indispensable for all informed people in many different confessional communities. With the passion of one who not only observes but believes, John Leith touches on all aspects of Reformed history, theology, polity, liturgy, and Christian culture with a balance of enthusiasm and critical judgment that always rings true.

This deluxe gift edition of the 1946 "Book of Common Worship" features black bonded leather, gilded page edges, and ribbon markers.

This valuable resource on the role of the Presbyterian elder covers many basic topics. It examines the Presbyterian and Reformed understanding of the Christian faith as well as the qualifications for the office of elder, its importance for the church, and the functions of the office. It discusses the role of the elders in the session and in the presbytery and their relationships to pastors and to the whole church.

This volume, demonstrating the main elements of Calvin's doctrine as they appear in his many commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, speaks with singular power to the ordinary reader today. Included are more than two hundred selections under headings ranging from the Bible, knowledge of God, and the church. Introductory selections from Calvin's own writings also are provided.

Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works--each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century--contemporary readers are able to engage the ideas that have shaped Christian theology and the church through the centuries.

For centuries, countless Christians have turned to the Westminster Standards for insights into the Christian faith. These renowned documents--first published in the middle of the 17th century--are still considered by many to be some of the most beautifully written summaries of the Bible's teaching ever produced.

Church historian John Fesko walks readers through the background and theology of the Westminster Confession, the Larger Catechism, and the Shorter Catechism, helpfully situating them within their original context.

Organized according to the major categories of systematic theology, this book utilizes quotations from other key works from the same time period to shed light on the history and significance of these influential documents.

As the vigorous debate over the New Perspective on Paul will only be decided by means of careful consideration of the relevant Scripture passages, Romans 4 and the New Perspective on Paul makes a significant contribution to the discussion. Interpretations by scholars promoting the New Perspective approach are reviewed in detail and contrasted with those of scholars who are critical toward this method. A detailed analysis of the context and exegesis of Romans 4 completes the work. By suggesting a more nuanced exegesis of Romans 4, this book is able to offer a careful critique of the New Perspective while still noting the positive aspects of the latter approach.

What explains the rapid growth of state power in early modern Europe? While most scholars have pointed to the impact of military or capitalist revolutions, Philip S. Gorski argues instead for the importance of a disciplinary revolution unleashed by the Reformation. By refining and diffusing a variety of disciplinary techniques and strategies, such as communal surveillance, control through incarceration and bureaucratic office-holding, Calvin and his followers created an infrastructure of religious governance and social control that served as a model for the rest of Europe -and the world. Gorski shows, for instance, how Calvinist-inspired social discipline contributed to the governance and pacification of Dutch society and to the rationalization and centralization of the Prussian state. He also compares religious and social disciplining as practiced by Calvinists, Lutherans and Catholics and finds that Calvinists took the disciplinary revolution much farther and faster, which helps explain the greater political strength of the Calvinist states. Written with clarity and vigour, "The Disciplinary Revolution" should be seen as a major work in European history, political science, social theory and religion.

This original look at the French Reformation pits immovable object--the French appellate courts or parlements--against irresistible force--the most dynamic forms of the Protestant Reformation. Without the slightest hesitation, the high courts of Renaissance France opposed these religious innovators. By 1540, the French monarchy had largely removed the prosecution of heresy from ecclesiastical courts and handed it to the parlements. Heresy trials and executions escalated dramatically. But within twenty years, the irresistible force had overcome the immovable object: the prosecution of Protestant heresy, by then unworkable, was abandoned by French appellate courts.

Until now no one has investigated systematically the judicial history of the French Reformation. William Monter has examined the myriad encounters between Protestants and judges in French parlements, extracting information from abundant but unindexed registers of official criminal decisions both in Paris and in provincial capitals, and identifying more than 425 prisoners condemned to death for heresy by French courts between 1523 and 1560. He notes the ways in which Protestants resisted the French judicial system even before the religious wars, and sets their story within the context of heresy prosecutions elsewhere in Reformation Europe, and within the long-term history of French criminal justice.

The first single-volume history of Reformed Protestantism from its sixteenth-century origins to the present This briskly told history of Reformed Protestantism takes these churches through their entire 500-year history-from sixteenth-century Zurich and Geneva to modern locations as far flung as Seoul and Sao Paulo. D. G. Hart explores specifically the social and political developments that enabled Calvinism to establish a global presence. Hart's approach features significant episodes in the institutional history of Calvinism that are responsible for its contemporary profile. He traces the political and religious circumstances that first created space for Reformed churches in Europe and later contributed to Calvinism's expansion around the world. He discusses the effects of the American and French Revolutions on ecclesiastical establishments as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century communions, particularly in Scotland, the Netherlands, the United States, and Germany, that directly challenged church dependence on the state. Raising important questions about secularization, religious freedom, privatization of faith, and the place of religion in public life, this book will appeal not only to readers with interests in the history of religion but also in the role of religion in political and social life today.

In partnership with the Dutch Reformed Translation Society, Baker Academic is proud to offer in English for the very first time all four volumes of Herman Bavinck's complete "Reformed Dogmatics." This masterwork will appeal not only to scholars, students, pastors, and laity interested in Reformed theology but also to research and theological libraries.

R. Tudur Jones's history of Welsh Congregationalism, which has long been recognized as the standard and authoritative work in this field, is made available to English readers in this translation. Written in an accessible style, this scholarly work describes a key aspect of Welsh and Welsh-English history, showing how Wales's religious history is intertwined with the emergence of a national identity. Over four centuries of religious and social history, events, characters, and thought are examined, focusing on ways in which the Congregationalist movement impacted and strengthened the literary traditions and political consciousness of the Welsh people.

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. Michael Winship takes us first to England, where he uncovers the roots of the puritans' republican ideals in the aspirations and struggles of Elizabethan Presbyterians. Faced with the twin tyrannies of Catholicism and the crown, Presbyterians turned to the ancient New Testament churches for guidance. What they discovered there-whether it existed or not-was a republican structure that suggested better models for governing than monarchy. The puritans took their ideals to Massachusetts, but they did not forge their godly republic alone. In this book, for the first time, the separatists' contentious, creative interaction with the puritans is given its due. Winship looks at the emergence of separatism and puritanism from shared origins in Elizabethan England, considers their split, and narrates the story of their reunion in Massachusetts. Out of the encounter between the separatist Plymouth Pilgrims and the puritans of Massachusetts Bay arose Massachusetts Congregationalism.

New Calvinism and the Victim endeavors into the overlapping areas of psychological trauma and systematic theology by investigating the dynamic interplay between the psychology of holding maximalist theological beliefs and recovery from abuse trauma. Maxwell examines the effect that the Calvinist belief can have upon the traumatized Christian who negatively internalizes its superlative doctrines of divine control and human moral corruption. The project seeks to understand these intersecting realities by investigating a triptych of inquiries: From a theological perspective, can a Christian lose his faith because of a traumatic experience? Moreover, what are the consequences of such a loss? And, how could Reformed theology exacerbate this religious detachment? Ultimately, the research suggests that there are experiential harmonies between the belief in Reformed theology and the experience of trauma, which are neither existentially necessary nor therapeutically negligible-rather, they are conceptually likely based on both philosophical analysis and psychological research.

Student-friendly intro to one of America's most fascinating theological minds. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) has long been recognized as one of the preeminent thinkers in the early Enlightenment and a major figure in the history of American Christianity. In this accessible one-volume text, leading Edwards experts Oliver Crisp and Kyle Strobel introduce readers to the formi-dable mind of Jonathan Edwards as they survey key theological and philosophical themes in his thought, including his doctrine of the Trinity, his philosophical theology of God and creation, and his understanding of the atonement and salvation. More than two centuries after his death, theologians and historians alike are finding the larger-than-life Edwards more interesting than ever. Crisp and Strobel's concise yet comprehensive guide will help new students of this influential eighteenth-century revivalist preacher begin to understand why.

A daily Luther breviary for pastors and laity, for use in college, seminary, and university, and for reading at home; the book is suitable for Christian believers, inquirers, as well as for those interested in studying Reformation history. Martin Luther did not bequeath to us a system of theological thought, but his sermons, poetry, letters, and essays are all written with specific situations in mind. This book takes the same approach in dealing with topics. Twelve topics, spread over the months of the year, introduce the reader to Luther's theology. The selected readings from the Wittenberg reformer are translated into modern English and explained in everyday language. The passages from his writings have been selected with an eye to the Christian year and its festivals; at the same time they describe the nature and consequences of Luther's reformational insights. With the added benefit of a commentary on the selected Luther texts as well as on the art work for each month, this book promises to be not only a helpful and entertaining companion for the journey through the church year, but also a compendium of Luther's theology.

In the European Enlightenments it was often argued that moral conduct rather than adherence to certain theological doctrines was the true measure of religious belief. Thomas Ahnert argues that this characteristically "enlightened" emphasis on conduct in religion was less reliant on arguments from reason alone than is commonly believed. In fact, the champions of the Scottish Enlightenment were deeply skeptical of the power of unassisted natural reason in achieving "enlightened" virtue and piety. They advocated a practical program of "moral culture," in which revealed religion was of central importance. Ahnert traces this to theological controversies going back as far as the Reformation concerning the key question of early modern theology, the conditions of salvation. His findings present a new point of departure for all scholars interested in the intersection of religion and Enlightenment.

Eight Irish-American historians explore the changing transatlantic character of Ulster Presbyterianism in the 18th and 19th centuries. - Mark G. Spencer (Brock U), Peter Gilmore (Carnegie Mellon U), Katherine Brown (Mary Baldwin College) & David A. Wilson (U Toronto) examine the role of Ulster Presbyterians in the United Irish movement on both sides of the Atlantic - Patrick Griffin (Ohio U) compares and contrasts the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in Pennsylvania with the Defender movement in Ireland - Kerby Miller (U Missouri) analyzes class conflict and the origins of Unionist hegemony in early 19th-century Ulster - Kevin James (Guelph U) explores the social underpinnings and political consequences of the Ulster Revival of 1859 - David W. Miller (Carnegie Mellon U) provides a broad-ranging assessment of evangelical traditions in Scotland, Ulster and the United States

From current day sectarianism to the Free Church, religion has had a dominant effect upon society in Scotland for centuries. In this topical and thought-provoking book, Callum Brown examines the role of religion in the making of modern Scottish society. Tackling important contemporary themes such as the role of the Kirk in national identity and the growth of secularisation, he explains the history of Catholicism, Presbyterianism and Episcopalism over the last 250 years in an accessible and readable way.