A fervant millennial hope has often existed at the heart of Protestant evangelicalism. Varieties of eschatology have exercised a profound impact on the movement's theology and history. Although millennialism had a respected lineage within conservative Protestantism, it flourished with enormous energy in the early nineteenth century as evangelicals responded to the threat of the American and European revolutions and the cultural pessimism of the Romantic movement. By mid-century, the millennialism which had first been articulated for the defence of Protestant conservatism had paved the way for the subversion of historic theology and church practice, as a growing confidence in biblical inerrancy and the 'literal' hermeneutic challenged many of the historical assumptions of the evangelical faith. This volume of essays expands on neglected aspects of the impact of the evangelical millennialism in Britain and Ireland between 1800 and 1880 and includes an essay charting recent trends in the study of millennialism.

This comprehensive guide will facilitate scholarly research concerning the history of Christianity in China as well as the wider Sino-Western cultural encounter. It will assist scholars in their search for material on the anthropological, educational, medical, scientific, social, political, and religious dimensions of the missionary presence in China prior to 1950.The guide contains nearly five hundred entries identifying both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary sending agencies and related religious congregations. Each entry includes the organization's name in English, followed by its Chinese name, country of origin, and denominational affiliation. Special attention has been paid to identifying the many small, lesser-known groups that arrived in China during the early decades of the twentieth century. In addition, a special category of the as yet little-studied indigenous communities of Chinese women has also been included. Multiple indexes enhance the guide's accessibility.

Revered for years as a saint, David Livingstone was an interesting character--difficult, demanding, and unsympathetic but also single-minded, determined, patient, and brave. The first European to cross Africa, he discovered the Victoria Falls and survived a shipwreck, attacks by natives, and being mauled by a lion.

In this wide-ranging book, the author weaves a tale of the Franciscan missionary theatre in early colonial Mexico and indigenous dramatizations on the theme of conquest in modern Mexico. The book tells the story of a Jewish playwright in 17th-century Spain who dramatized Christian evangelism in the New World, offering fresh readings of representations of the conquest of Mexico by Dryden and Artaud, and engages in a lively dialogue with Bakhtin's insistence that drama is a monological genre.;This study of the theatre develops into an original meditation on the ethics of cross-cultural encounter offering a new, dialogical model for human and religious encounter in a pluralistic world. By the author of "Theatre and Incarnation". Max Harris has also published articles on literature and religion in "Bulletin of the Comediantes", "Journal of the American Academy of Religion", "Medium Aevum", "Modern Drama", "Radical History Review" and "Restoration".

In recent decades scholars have rediscovered a handwritten source of historical documentation from the eighteenth-century transatlantic religious movement known as "The Great Awakening." The McCulloch Examinations manuscripts contain more than a hundred first-person conversion narratives from the Cambuslang Revival of 1742 that have never before been published in their entirety. Collected and compiled by Reverend William McCulloch in what was Scotland's first oral history project, these personal accounts open a unique window into the early modern Scottish soul and shed new light upon an important chapter of British and American history. In this first complete, unabridged and fully annotated edition of the Examinations, the editor offers an introduction and analysis of these fascinating narratives, and provides supplementary resources that will illuminate the text for the reader. In addition to preserving the narrative accounts in their original frame, the edition includes the proposed redactions and marginal comments of four prominent Church of Scotland clergy who assisted McCulloch with the project. Keith Edward Beebe is Professor of Church History in the Department of Theology at Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington, and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, USA.

Out of the generation that grew up in the Great Depression and World War II, thousands of young Christians felt called by God to the ends of the earth. Pauline A. Brown, with her husband Ralph, and two other families, went to the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan in 1954 -- their goal, to share God's message love with Muslim Sindhis. This book is not just about North Americans abroad, but about a fellowship of ordinary people crossing cultural and linguistic barriers to take on the extraordinary challenge of establishing the Church in the Sindh desert. Jars of Clay is a story of laughter and tears, of danger and deliverance, of despair and hope, of victory and defeat. Above all, it is a story of perseverance in the face of great odds. The story of how the Church of Jesus Christ, small and fragile as it is, is taking root in the barren desert soil of Sindh in Pakistan, an Islamic Republic, is relevant more than ever in our post 9/11 world.

This book offers the first complete overview of the intellectual history of one of the most significant contemporary cultural trends -- the apocalyptic expectations of European and American evangelicals -- in an account that guides readers into the origins, its evolution, and its revolutionary potential in the modern world.

The third book in The Mission and Marginal Series looks at the lessons we can learn from the testimonies of people living and working on the margins of society. If you look hard enough you will find groups of Christians deeply embedded in the life of every city - serving faithfully, innovating in extraordinarily creative ways and living sacrificially. This book is the third in a six-volume series specifically exploring the theologies and practices that are arising as groups seek to follow Jesus in these challenging situations. At the heart of the series are the core convictions that such involvement must prioritise the marginalised and socially excluded; that theology must be liveable and practical; and that mission studies benefit from engagement with insights from contemporary social science.

The year 1734 marked the beginning of one of the greatest revivals in the history of North America. Sparked by the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, the flames of revival spread throughout New England. Other great awakenings followed across the new nation as God sent spiritual revival through the ministries of George Whitefield, Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody, Billy Graham, and many others. Today, America is in need of a fresh awakening from God. May the captivating stories of what God did in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries inspire you to pray for a new season of great revival.

This book examines how in defending Asian rights and their own version of Christian idealism against scientific racism, missionaries developed a complex theology of race that prefigured modern ideologies of multiculturalism and reached its final, belated culmination in the liberal Protestant support of the civil rights movements in the 1960s

We like to think our church welcomes visitors. But how welcoming can we be, if we are not inviting? We are welcoming as long as people get themselves across the church threshold, but we fail to take our welcome outside. During the years Michael has been developing Back to Church Sunday, he has conducted an extensive study on the seemingly simple subject of 'invitation'. Over 650 times in 12 countries he has asked: 'Why don't we invite our friends to take a closer look at Christ?' The many answers form the impetus for this book. After considering why it seems so hard to invite friends to church, Michael looks at our concerns over acceptance and rejection, and suggests ideas gleaned from years of trying to establish a culture of invitation. 'When I have specifically encouraged Christians to issue an invitation, some people say yes and some no. God sent his son to invite us all into a relationship, and so to be like God is to be a person who invites!'

An analysis of African American televangelists as cultural icons Through their constant television broadcasts, mass video distributions, and printed publications, African American religious broadcasters have a seemingly ubiquitous presence in popular culture. They are on par with popular entertainers and athletes in the African American community as cultural icons even as they are criticized by others for taking advantage of the devout in order to subsidize their lavish lifestyles. For these reasons questions abound. Do televangelists proclaim the message of the gospel or a message of greed? Do they represent the "authentic" voice of the black church or the Christian Right in blackface? Does the phenomenon reflect orthodox "Christianity" or ethnocentric "Americaninity" wrapped in religious language? Watch This! seeks to move beyond such polarizing debates by critically delving into the dominant messages and aesthetic styles of African American televangelists and evaluating their ethical implications.

First published in 1926.
'These documents are full of intimate interest' Times Literary Supplement
'A serious and intensely interesting piece of work' The Guardian
The Jesuit missionaries were some of the earliest Europeans to find their way into the Mogul empire in the sixteenth century. Spending more years at Akbar's court than others did months, and traversing his dominions from Lahore to Kabul, and from Kashmir to the Deccan, they undoubtedly sowed the seeds of British influence in the East.
Reproducing, or summarizing the most valuable of the missionaries' letters written prior to 1610, this volume makes available the illegible and scattered primary sources on the reign of the Emperor Akbar, and as such, forms the earliest European description of the Mogul Empire.

First published in 1930.
'The book is full of splendour and strange scenes' Nation
The Relations of Fernao Guerreiro, from which the three narratives in this volume have been taken, constitute a complete history of the missionary undertakings of the Society of Jesus in the East Indies, China, Japan and Africa during the first decade of the seventeenth century. The work was compiled from the annual letters and reports sent to Europe from the various missionary centres. The original work, which until this edition was published in 1930, had never been reprinted. The only complete copy exists in the British Museum Library, in London.

"The time has come to reimagine how we picture and practice sharing the good news about Jesus. The time has come because the old pictures and practices aren't wearing well and aren't working well. People in our culture aren't responding. And people in the church aren't excited or engaged. . . . The time has come because our culture is shifting." (Rick Richardson, Reimagining Evangelism) Sometimes talking about Jesus with friends can feel like trying to close a deal on a sales call, pushing something on people they may not really want. But what if we thought of it more like inviting friends on a spiritual journey? The Reimagining Evangelism Participant's Guide, in conjunction with the Reimagining Evangelism DVD and Rick Richardson's book Reimagining Evangelism, will help you to reframe evangelism as inviting friends on a journey toward meeting and following Christ. The seven one-hour sessions found in this Participant's Guide are 1. Do What You Love 2. Use Your Gifts 3. Ask Good Questions 4. Respond to Tough Questions 5. Share Your Story 6. Communicate the Good News 7. Invite Response Each session incorporates animated short or live-action video, an introductory discussion of the session's topic, a Bible study, a teaching video and interactive learning. If you are looking for a fresh way to share your faith, you will find the Reimagining Evangelism curriculum a freeing and insightful guide to evangelism in our rapidly changing culture.