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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Calvinist, Reformed & Presbyterian Churches
The book analyses the medieval vision of the world as depicted in
Dante Alighieri's poetic works. In detail it discusses two works,
The Banquet and The Divine Comedy, and offers a view on politics,
faith and the universe of the medieval period. For modern people
that period with its debates, polemics and visions represents
something exceedingly remote, obscure and unknown. While admiring
Dante's poetic artistry, we often fail to recognize the
inspirations that permeated the works of medieval scholars and
poets. Although times are constantly changing, every generation has
to face the same fundamental questions of meaning, purpose and
value of human existence: Dante's cosmological and poetical picture
turns out to be surprisingly universal.
The Path of Humility: Caravaggio and Carlo Borromeo establishes a
fundamental relationship between the Franciscan humility of
Archbishop of Milan Carlo Borromeo and the Roman sacred works of
Caravaggio. This is the first book to consider and focus entirely
upon these two seemingly anomalous personalities of the
Counter-Reformation. The import of Caravaggio's Lombard artistic
heritage has long been seen as pivotal to the development of his
sacred style, but it was not his only source of inspiration. This
book seeks to enlarge the discourse surrounding Caravaggio's style
by placing him firmly in the environment of Borromean Milan, a city
whose urban fabric was transformed into a metaphorical Via Crucis.
This book departs from the prevailing preoccupation - the artist's
experience in Rome as fundamental to his formulation of sacred
style - and toward his formative years in Borromeo's Milan, where
humility reigned supreme. This book is intended for a broad, yet
specialized readership interested in Counter-Reformation art and
devotion. It serves as a critical text for undergraduate and
graduate art history courses on Baroque art, Caravaggio, and
Counter-Reformation art.
Blackness, as a concept, is extremely fluid: it can refer to
cultural and ethnic identity, socio-political status, an aesthetic
and embodied way of being, a social and political consciousness, or
a diasporic kinship. It is used as a description of skin color
ranging from the palest cream to the richest chocolate; as a marker
of enslavement, marginalization, criminality, filth, or evil; or as
a symbol of pride, beauty, elegance, strength, and depth. Despite
the fact that it is elusive and difficult to define, blackness
serves as one of the most potent and unifying domains of identity.
God and Blackness offers an ethnographic study of blackness as it
is understood within a specific community--that of the First
Afrikan Church, a middle-class Afrocentric congregation in Atlanta,
Georgia. Drawing on nearly two years of participant observation and
in‑depth interviews, Andrea C. Abrams examines how this community
has employed Afrocentrism and Black theology as a means of
negotiating the unreconciled natures of thoughts and ideals that
are part of being both black and American. Specifically, Abrams
examines the ways in which First Afrikan's construction of
community is influenced by shared understandings of blackness, and
probes the means through which individuals negotiate the tensions
created by competing constructions of their black identity.
Although Afrocentrism operates as the focal point of this
discussion, the book examines questions of political identity,
religious expression and gender dynamics through the lens of a
unique black church.
Drawing on material from a range of genres, with extensive
reference to manuscript collections, Richard Snoddy offers a
detailed study of James Usshers applied soteriology. After locating
Ussher in the ecclesiastical context of seventeenth-century Ireland
and England, Snoddy examines his teaching on the doctrines of
atonement, justification, sanctification, and assurance. He
considers their interconnection in Usshers thought, particularly
the manner in which a general atonement functions as the ground of
justification and the extent to which it functions as the ground of
assurance. The book documents Usshers change of mind on a number of
important issues, especially how, from holding to a limited
atonement and an assurance that is of the essence of faith, he
moved to belief in a general atonement and an assurance obtained
through experimental piety. Within the framework of one widely
accepted scholarly paradigm he appears to move from one logically
inconsistent position to another, but his thought contains an inner
logic that questions the explanatory power of that paradigm. This
insightful study sheds new light on the diversity of
seventeenth-century Reformed theology in the British Isles.
The question of how to interpret scripture and whether there is a
distinctively Anglican approach to doing so is one of the leading
theological questions in the Anglican Communion. An Anglican
Hermeneutic of the Transfiguration analyzes major Anglican
interpretations of the Transfiguration from the eighth century to
the present and suggests that Anglicans do in fact have a
distinctive hermeneutical approach to this event. Moreover, this
approach may point to larger trends in the interpretation of
Scripture overall, but especially the Gospels. With respect to the
Transfiguration, Anglicans interpret the event within the biblical
context, assume its basic historic character, and juxtapose high
Christology with the human limitations of Jesus'
self-understanding. Furthermore, Anglicans draw pastoral
implications for the lives of Jesus and the disciples from the
Transfiguration and assert that the glory manifested on the
mountain supports a partially realized eschatology. Finally,
Anglicans write for well-educated, non-specialists in theology.
This inspiring collection of essays spells out the relevance of
John Calvin's theology for today in three areas: Faith ? Calvin's
theology asks how God deals with the persistent presence of human
sin. For Calvin, the chief end of life is to know God and devote
our life to his glory. The still topical point is that we are freed
from our fixation with ourselves, thereby recognising and living
out our true reality in relation to God. Ecumenism ? The unity of
the Church in Christ is of central importance to Calvin. We must do
our utmost to make it visible. In Calvin's view, if there is
agreement in the understanding of God and grace, all other
differences have no divisive importance. This still characterises
Reformed understanding today. Public responsibility ? Calvin posed
the question about the church's public responsibility as no other
Reformer did. Part 3 reveals the sources of the worldwide impact of
Calvin's and Reformed theology on politics, the law, scholarship
and the organising of life in society, including civil society.
In 2008 a media firestorm erupted when snippets of Reverend
Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s sermons were picked up by media outlets
around the world. At that time presidential candidate Barack Obama
was a member of Wright's church, Trinity United Church of Christ in
Chicago. Wright's words were frequently used to question the
patriotism of Obama. The scrutiny over Obama and Wright's
relationship made Trinity UCC a flashpoint in the 2008 campaign.
The Moment tells the inside story of Trinity UCC during this time
of turmoil. Carl and Shelby Grant describe "the Moment" as it
unfolded, from Wright's first appearances in the media to Obama's
resignation from Trinity Church. They also provide helpful
background information, including general history of the black
church, African American immigration to Chicago, and black politics
in the Windy City. In this context, the voices of Trinity UCC
members come alive to show the impact of "the Moment" within and
beyond the presidential election, illustrating the thorny
intersections of religion, race, politics, and the media in the
United States.
In this revelatory account of the people who founded the New
England colonies, historian David D. Hall compares the reforms they
enacted with those attempted in England during the period of the
English Revolution. Bringing with them a deep fear of arbitrary,
unlimited authority, these settlers based their churches on the
participation of laypeople and insisted on "consent" as a premise
of all civil governance. Puritans also transformed civil and
criminal law and the workings of courts with the intention of
establishing equity. In this political and social history of the
five New England colonies, Hall provides a masterful re-evaluation
of the earliest moments of New England's history, revealing the
colonists to be the most effective and daring reformers of their
day.
This first volume of a series on the Scottish church dealing
largely with the church's relationship with the secular community
and with the nature of Scottish nationhood after the country had
been deprived of its parliament in 1707. The book makes out a case
for those much abused but tolenrant men, the Moderates, who turned
their backs on disputes, and tried to commend the Christian faih in
the period of the Enlightenment.
John Davenport, who cofounded the colony of New Haven, has been
neglected in studies that view early New England primarily from a
Massachusetts viewpoint. Francis J. Bremer restores the clergyman
to importance by examining Davenport's crucial role as an advocate
for religious reform in England and the Netherlands before his
emigration, his engagement with an international community of
scholars and clergy, and his significant contributions to colonial
America. Bremer shows that he was in many ways a remarkably
progressive leader for his time, with a strong commitment to
education for both women and men, a vibrant interest in new
science, and a dedication to upholding democratic principles in
churches at a time when many other Puritan clergymen were
emphasizing the power of their office above all else. Bremer's
enlightening and accessible biography of an important figure in New
England history provides a unique perspective on the
seventeenth-century transatlantic Puritan movement.
In the Foreword to the first edition of this book, Brigadier Lord
Ballantrae, Lord High Commissioner in 1973 and 1974 commended the
book to all Church of Scotland members adding that we should have
had something like it in our hands years ago'. Some ten years on Dr
Herron has fully revised and updated that first edition, setting
out clearly and simply the 'where, when and who' of the annual
athering, taking the reader step by step from the Opening Service
to the Final Sederunt. The result is another very readable and
helpful guide from the pen of Dr Herron. The Very Reverend Andrew
Herron MA, BD, LLB, DD, LLD, was Clerk to the Presbytery of Glasgow
from 1960 to 1981. A former parish minister and Moderator of The
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1971, his other books
include: A Guide to Congregational Affairs, A Guide to the
Presbytery and kirk by Divine Right. He is also Editor of The
Church of Scotland Year Book.
This volume is the first comprehensive overview of North Carolina
Presbyterians to appear in more than a hundred years. Drawing on
congregational and administrative histories, personal memoirs, and
recent scholarship - while paying close attention to the relevant
social, political, and religious contexts of the state and region -
Walter Conser and Robert Cain go beyond older approaches to
denominational history by focusing on the identity and meaning of
the Presbyterian experience in the Old North State from the
seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. Conser and Cain
explore issues as diverse as institutional development and worship
experience; the patterns and influence of race, ethnicity, and
gender; and involvement in education and social justice campaigns.
In part 1 of the book, 'Beginnings,' they trace the entrance of
Presbyterians - who were legally considered dissenters throughout
the colonial period - into the eastern, central, and western
sections of the state. The authors show how the Piedmont became the
nexus of Presbyterian organizational development and examine the
ways in which political movements, including campaigns for American
independence, deeply engaged Presbyterians, as did the
incandescence of revivalism and agitation for reform, which
extended into the antebellum period. The book's second section,
'Conflict, Renewal, and Reunion,' investigates the denominational
tensions provoked by the slavery debate and the havoc of the Civil
War, the soul searching that accompanied Confederate defeat, and
the rebuilding efforts that came during the New South era. Such
important factors as the changing roles of women in the church and
the decline of Jim Crow helped pave the way for the eventual
reunion of the northern and southern branches of mainline
Presbyterianism. By the arrival of the new millennium,
Presbyterians in North Carolina were prepared to meet future
challenges with renewed confidence. A model for modern
denominational history, this book is an astute and sensitive
portrayal of a prominent Protestant denomination in a southern
context. Walter H. Conser Jr. is professor of religion and
professor of history at the University of North Carolina,
Wilmington. His books include A Coat of Many Colors: Religion and
Society along the Cape Fear River of North Carolina and God and the
Natural World: Religion and Science in the Natural World. Before
his retirement after thirty-two years of service, Robert J. Cain
was head of the Colonial Records Branch at the North Carolina State
Archives. He is the editor of The Colonial Records of North
Carolina, second series.|This volume is the first comprehensive
overview of North Carolina Presbyterians to appear in more than a
hundred years. Drawing on congregational and administrative
histories, personal memoirs, and recent scholarship - while paying
close attention to the relevant social, political, and religious
contexts of the state and region - Walter Conser and Robert Cain go
beyond older approaches to denominational history by focusing on
the identity and meaning of the Presbyterian experience in the Old
North State from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.
Conser and Cain explore issues as diverse as institutional
development and worship experience; the patterns and influence of
race, ethnicity, and gender; and involvement in education and
social justice campaigns. In part 1 of the book, 'Beginnings,' they
trace the entrance of Presbyterians - who were legally considered
dissenters throughout the colonial period - into the eastern,
central, and western sections of the state. The authors show how
the Piedmont became the nexus of Presbyterian organizational
development and examine the ways in which political movements,
including campaigns for American independence, deeply engaged
Presbyterians, as did the incandescence of revivalism and agitation
for reform, which extended into the antebellum period. The book's
second section, 'Conflict, Renewal, and Reunion,' investigates the
denominational tensions provoked by the slavery debate and the
havoc of the Civil War, the soul searching that accompanied
Confederate defeat, and the rebuilding efforts that came during the
New South era. Such important factors as the changing roles of
women in the church and the decline of Jim Crow helped pave the way
for the eventual reunion of the northern and southern branches of
mainline Presbyterianism. By the arrival of the new millennium,
Presbyterians in North Carolina were prepared to meet future
challenges with renewed confidence. A model for modern
denominational history, this book is an astute and sensitive
portrayal of a prominent Protestant denomination in a southern
context. Walter H. Conser Jr. is professor of religion and
professor of history at the University of North Carolina,
Wilmington. His books include A Coat of Many Colors: Religion and
Society along the Cape Fear River of North Carolina and God and the
Natural World: Religion and Science in the Natural World. Before
his retirement after thirty-two years of service, Robert J. Cain
was head of the Colonial Records Branch at the North Carolina State
Archives. He is the editor of The Colonial Records of North
Carolina, second series.
Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was one of nineteenth-century America's
leading theologians, owing in part to a lengthy teaching career,
voluminous writings, and a faculty post at one of the nation's most
influential schools, Princeton Theological Seminary. Surprisingly,
the only biography of this towering figure was written by his son,
just two years after his death. Paul Gutjahr's book, therefore, is
the first modern critical biography of a man some have called the
"Pope of Presbyterianism. " Hodge's legacy is especially important
to American Presbyterians. His brand of theological conservatism
became vital in the 1920s, as Princeton Seminary saw itself, and
its denomination, split. The conservative wing held unswervingly to
the Old School tradition championed by Hodge, and ultimately
founded the breakaway Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The views that
Hodge developed, refined, and propagated helped shape many of the
central traditions of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American
evangelicalism. Hodge helped establish a profound reliance on the
Bible among evangelicals, and he became one of the nation's most
vocal proponents of biblical inerrancy. Gutjahr's study reveals the
exceptional depth, breadth, and longevity of Hodge's theological
influence and illuminates the varied and complex nature of
conservative American Protestantism.
This is a textbook with annotated excerpts from Karl Barth's
"Church Dogmatics" and additional essays on Barth's life and work
and his place in modern theology. This reader from Karl Barth's
multi-volume "Church Dogmatics" offers an introduction to the whole
work, key readings in reasonable portions with introductions and
provides helpful hints at secondary material. This is an ideal
textbook for all beginners studying the work of one of the most
important theologians of the last century.
This book explores the organic motif found throughout the writings
of the Dutch Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921).
Noting that Bavinck uses this motif at key points in the most
important loci of theology; Christology, general and special
revelation, ecclesiology and so forth; it seems that one cannot
read him carefully without particular attention to his motif of
choice: the organic. By examining the sense in which Bavinck views
all of reality as a beautiful balance of unity-in-diversity, James
Eglinton draws the reader to Bavinck's constant concern for the
doctrine of God as Trinity. If God is the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit, Bavinck argues, the creation must be more akin to an
organism than a machine. Trinity and organism are thus closely
linked concepts. Eglinton critiques and rejects the 'two Bavincks'
(one orthodox and the other modern) hermeneutic so commonplace in
discussions of Bavinck's theology. Instead, this book argues for a
reunited Herman Bavinck as a figure committed to the participation
of historic orthodox theology in the modern world.
Over the past half century, there has been a proliferation of
scholarship on the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards.
However, the vast majority of this output confines itself to the
details of his work. With some welcome exceptions, the forest has
often been missed for the trees. In this ground breaking study
William Schweitzer presents a new reading of Edwards: He starts
with the question what is distinctive in Edwards' theology? The
answer comes in Edwards' insight into Trinitarian life. God is
eternally communicative of his knowledge, love, and joy among the
Three Persons of the Trinity, and this divine communicativeness was
for Edwards the explanation for why God created the universe. More
specifically, however, Edwards believed that God's communication
carries with it the Trinitarian hallmark of "harmony." This
hallmark is not always east to discern, even for the regenerate.
Edwards' lifelong projectGCoas demonstrated by the common purpose
of all three unfinished "Great Works"GCowas to interpret the
harmony found in and among the several media of revelation.
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