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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > General
This book shows how creative writing gives voice to the drama and
nuance of religious experience in a way that is rarely captured by
sermons, reports, and the minutes of church meetings. The author
explores the history of religious Dissent and Evangelicalism in
Australia through a variety of literary responses to landscape,
from both men and women, lay and ordained. The book explores
transnational themes, along with themes of migration and travel
across the Australian continent. The author gives insight into the
literature of Protestant Dissent, concerned as it is with travel,
belonging, and the intersection of national and religious identity.
Much of the writing is situated on the road: a soldier returning
from the Great War, a child on a lone adventure, a night-time
journey through urban slums; all of these are in some way dependent
on the theme of "walking with Jesus" as the Holy Land travelogues
make explicit. God in the Landscape draws the links between
landscape, literature, and spirituality with imagination and
insight and is an important contribution to the historical study of
religion and the environment.
When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses (reputedly nailed
to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg), he unwittingly
launch a movement that would dramatically change the course of
European history. This superb short introduction to Martin Luther,
written by a leading authority on Luther and the Reformation,
presents this pivotal figure as historians now see him. Instead of
singling him out as a modern hero, historian Scott Hendrix
emphasizes the context in which Luther worked, the colleagues who
supported him, and the opponents who adamantly opposed his agenda
for change. The author explains the religious reformation and
Luther's importance without ignoring the political and cultural
forces, like princely power and Islam, which led the reformation
down paths Luther could neither foresee nor influence. The book
pays tribute to Luther's genius but also recognizes the
self-righteous attitude that alienated contemporaries. The author
offers a unique explanation for that attitude and for Luther's
anti-Jewish writings, which are especially hard to comprehend after
the Holocaust.
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