Charles Golightly (1807 85) was a notorious Protestant polemicist. His life was dedicated to resisting the spread of ritualism and liberalism within the Church of England and the University of Oxford. For half a century he led many memorable campaigns, such as building a martyr?'s memorial and attempting to close a theological college. John Henry Newman, Samuel Wilberforce, and Benjamin Jowett were among his adversaries. This is the first study of Golightly?'s controversial career.

This book, based on the 2006 Didsbury Lectures, is the first comprehensive study of the systematic, doctrinal and constructive theology produced within the major Nonconformist traditions (Congregational, Baptist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Methodist and United Reformed) during the twentieth century. In the first chapter the landscape is surveyed, with reference to such topics as the New Theology, the First World War, the reception of Karl Barth, the theological excitements of the 1960s and pluralism. The second chapter concerns the major Christian doctrines God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity, while in the third ecclesiological and ecumenical themes are discussed. Eschatology is treated in the concluding chapter and there follows the authors assessment of the significance of twentiethcentury Nonconformist theology and his observations regarding its current state, future content and practitioners.

In the late eighteenth century, German Jews began entering the middle class with remarkable speed. That upward mobility, it has often been said, coincided with Jews' increasing alienation from religion and Jewish nationhood. In fact, Michah Gottlieb argues, this period was one of intense engagement with Jewish texts and traditions. One expression of this was the remarkable turn to Bible translation. In the century and a half beginning with Moses Mendelssohn's pioneering translation and the final one by Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, German Jews produced sixteen different translations of at least the Pentateuch. Exploring Bible translations by Mendelssohn, Leopold Zunz, and Samson Raphael Hirsch, Michah Gottlieb argues that each translator sought a "reformation" of Judaism along bourgeois lines, which involved aligning Judaism with a Protestant concept of religion. Buber and Rosenzweig famously critiqued bourgeois German Judaism as a craven attempt to establish social respectability to facilitate Jews' entry into the middle class through a vapid, domesticated Judaism. But Mendelssohn, Zunz, and Hirsch saw in bourgeois values the best means to serve God and the authentic actualization of Jewish tradition. Through their learned, creative Bible translations, these scholars presented competing visions of middle-class Judaism that affirmed Jewish nationhood while lighting the path to a purposeful, emotionally-rich spiritual life grounded in ethical responsibility.

"Both evangelicalism and feminism are controversial movements that provoke complex loyalties and ambivalence within the church and the world at large. In spite of a considerable degree of shared history, they are quite often defined against each other. Most of the rhetoric from and about the movements assumes that there are few connections and little overlap, and that individuals might locate themselves within one or the other, but not within both. Yet some evangelical women in the academy find themselves living on the boundary between feminism and evangelicalism, or on the boundaries between the multiple forms of both feminism and evangelicalism."--from the first chapter What happens when evangelicalism meets feminism? In their own biblical and theological training, Nicola Creegan and Christine Pohl have each lived at the intersection of these two movements They now both teach in Christian institutions of higher education where others follow along a similar pathway. They have a story to tell about their experience along with those of ninety other women they surveyed who have lived on the boundary between evangelicalism and feminism. They explore what it was like for evangelical women who pursued doctorates in biblical and theological studies. What were their experiences as they taught and wrote, were mentored and became mentors? What are the theological issues they faced, and how did they respond? How have they negotiated professional, family and church commitments? This well-informed, multidimensional and sensitive narrative of women's experience will be illuminating for anyone involved in the academic theological world.

Here is the dramatic story of Martin Niemoeller's evolution from brilliant U$boat commander and strong German nationalist in World War I to a churchman who spent 8 years in concentration camps as Hitler's personal prisoner.

This book seeks to shed new light on the development of the ecclesiology of Jonathan Edwards from the writings of his youth until his Stockbridge treatises, setting this within the context of Reformation and Puritan debates, and his experience of the revivals during his Northampton ministry. Bezzant contends that Edwards repristinated an ossified New England ecclesiology by acknowledging the church's dynamic relationship with the created order, history and the nations, and by advocating renewal in ecclesial life through revivals, itinerancy, Concerts of Prayer, missionary initiatives outside of the local congregation, and doctrinal clarification. Bezzant shows that Edwards accommodated the Christendom model of ecclesiology to the new philosophical, political and social realities of the mid-eighteenth-century British Atlantic world. His ecclesiology can be aptly summarized as prophetic, in as far as the church makes identification with its social context, while yet providing an alternative millennial vision for human flourishing. Edwards's Gospel is preached within a larger vision of transformed society and the glory of God, for whom the church is an orderly but not ordinary instrument to promote visible union between believers and Christ.

The history of the Lollard movement is intimately concerned with their writings and literacy. The connection between the writings of Wyclif himself and Lollars popularisers in Latin and English has never been clear, especially in the crucial years between Wyclif's death in 1382 and archbishop Arundel's visitation of Oxford in 1411. Anne Hudson's work in this fields is the most important contribution to the subject. As editor of English Wycliffite Sermons and Selections From Wycliffite Writings,her work is based on a uniquely close study of the manuscript sources. Lollards and Their Books brings together the articles that she has published since 1971; together they make indisepensable reading for anyone interested in the history or the literature of the period.Anne Hudson shows that the debate on translating the Bible was not closed by the condemnation of Wyclif himself, but continued until Arundel's Constitutions; she examines the material for the life and work of John Purvey, for long held to be one of Wyclif's principal successors, and demonstrates the significance of the Opus Aruduum, written within the six years of Wyclif's death, as evidence for the progress of Lollardy in Oxford at that time. As well as discussing the dissemination of Lollard thought and the production of Lollard books, Anne Hudson discusses how far the Lollard heresy was connected with the use of English in theological topics, the examination of Lollards by the authorities, the links between Hussites in Bohemia and Wcyliffites in England as shown by manuscripts, and the printing of Lollard texts in the early years of the Reformation.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in the views held by Reformed theologians within the parameters of confessional orthodoxy. For example, the doctrine known as 'hypothetical universalism'-the idea that although Christ died in some sense for every person, his death was intended to bring about the salvation only for those who were predestined for salvation. Michael Lynch focuses on the hypothetical universalism of the English theologian and bishop John Davenant (1572-1641), arguing that it has consistently been misinterpreted and misrepresented as a via media between Arminian and Reformed theology. A close examination of Davenent's De Morte Christi, is the central core of the study. Lynch offers a detailed exposition of Davenant's doctrine of universal redemption in dialogue with his understanding of closely related doctrines such as God's will, predestination, providence, and covenant theology. He defends the thesis that Davenant's version of hypothetical universalism represents a significant strand of the Augustinian tradition, including the early modern Reformed tradition. The book examines the patristic and medieval periods as they provided the background for the Lutheran, Remonstrant, and Reformed reactions to the so-called Lombardian formula ('Christ died sufficiently for all, effectually for the elect'). It traces how Davenant and his fellow British delegates at the Synod of Dordt shaped the Canons of Dordt in such a way as to allow for their English hypothetical universalism.

This book looks at the Christian idea of salvation as seen through the eyes of five English reformers of the 16th century, including the famous Bible translator, William Tyndale. It highlights their debt to continental theologicans, especially Martin Luther, and reveals how they sought to make theology relevant to the everyday lives of those around them.

Based on interview material with a wide range of Protestant clergy in Northern Ireland, this text examines how Protestant identity impacts on the possibility of peace and stability and argues for greater involvement by the Protestant churches in the transition from conflict to a 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland.

While television today is taken for granted, Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Protestant leaders--both mainstream and evangelical--began to think carefully about what television meant for their communities and its potential impact on their work. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users in an engaging book suitable for general readers and students alike.

Analyzes the rise and decline of Lutheran orthodoxy.

N. T. Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God is widely heralded as one of the most significant and brilliantly argued works in the current "third quest" of the historical Jesus. In this second volume of his multivolume investigation entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God, Wright uncovers a Jesus that most historians and believers have never met. Rooted and engaged in the soil of Israel's history, its first-century plight and its prophetic hope, Wright's portrait of Jesus has set new terms of discourse and debate. Through Wright's lens, familiar sayings and actions of Jesus have fresh meaning. But in the midst of all that is new, Wright also offers a profile of Jesus that bears striking lines of continuity with the Jesus of Christian belief and worship. This resemblance has captured the attention of confessing Christian biblical scholars and theologians. Wright's work thus far is of such consequence that it seemed timely and strategic to publish a scholarly engagement with his reconstruction of the historical Jesus. Like all works in progress, Wright's proposal is still under construction. But its cornerstone has been laid, the foundation has been formed, the pillars and walls are going up, and even if we cannot yet see how the ceiling, roof and parapets will look, there is quite enough to engage the minds of colleagues, critics and other curious onlookers. For the purposes of this book (and in keeping with IVP's own evangelical identity), editor Carey Newman invited scholars who are committed to Christian belief as it has been classically defined to engage Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God. Newman sets the stage with an introduction, and Craig Blomberg offers a critical and appreciative overview of Jesus and the Victory of God. Various facets of Wright's proposal are then investigated by contributors: Paul Eddy on Jesus as prophet, Messiah and embodiment of Yahweh Klyne Snodgrass on the parables Craig Evans on Israel under continuing exile Darrell Bock on the trial and death of Jesus Dale Allison on apocalyptic language Richard Hays on ethics Alister McGrath on the implications for evangelical theology Stephen Evans on methodological naturalism in historical biblical scholarship Luke Timothy Johnson on Wright's historiography To these essayists Wright extends his "grateful dialogue." He gives this spirited and illuminating reply to his interlocuters: "The high compliment of having a whole book devoted to the discussion of one's work is finely balanced by the probing, intelligent questions and by the occasional thud of a blunt instrument on the back of one's head. . . . Only once did I look up my lawyer's telephone number." After Wright takes his turn, his good friend and frequent partner in debate Marcus Borg offers his "appreciative disagreement." Newman then concludes the dialogue with his own reflections on moving from Wright's reconstruction of the historical Jesus to the church's Christ. A book assessing a scholar's work is usually an end-of-career event. But in this case interested readers can look forward with eager anticipation to Wright's next volume in Christian Origins and the Question of God--this one on the resurrection of Jesus.

Traditionally Protestant theology, between Luther's early reforming career and the dawn of the Enlightenment, has been seen in terms of decline and fall into the wastelands of rationalism and scholastic speculation. Editors Trueman and Clark challenge this perception in this transatlantic collection of eighteen essays covering: Luther and Calvin; Early Reformed Orthodoxy; the British Connection; From High Orthodoxy to Enlightenment; and the Rise of Lutheran Orthodoxy.

New historical sources shed a different light upon the teachings and actions of Lutherans under Adolf Hitler.

Graceful Reading is a study of the writings of the seventeeth-century preacher John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress. It reassesses the relationship between Bunyan's theology and his narrative style, redefining them both according to a more specific understanding of seventeenth-century 'Calvinism', and a more 'postmodernist' understanding of narrative.

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"This is a timely book about the tortuous journey of biblical feminism in our time. The book will sober its own constituencies while also contributing to the ongoing analysis of contemporary American religion and gender."
--Marie Griffith, author of "God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission"

"Pamela Cochran interweaves two engaging stories in this carefully researched study, both of which are vitally important to our understanding of American evangelicalism. One story is about the small cadre of feminist leaders within evangelicalism who struggled heroically against the tide of rising political conservatism and male dominance. The other is about evangelicalism's often unwitting embrace of biblical hermeneutics, therapeutic individualism, and consumerism, and its difficulties in adapting to an increasingly pluralistic culture. Scholars in religious studies, history, and the social sciences will benefit greatly from reading this book."
--Robert Wuthnow, author of "Saving America?: Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society"

"A valuable book that tells a story that is obscured amid the thunderous and simplifying voices that dominate public discussion of religion and gender politics."
--"Altar Magazine"

"Finally! Cochran's Evangelical Feminism provides a detailed analysis of the articulation of egalitarianism and feminist ideas--and their opponents--in evangelical organizations, theological debates and leadership in the 1970s and 1980s. A welcome addition to the field."
--Sally K. Gallagher, author of "Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life"

"Cochran intends herconcrete analysis of the split among evangelical feminists to exemplify larger themes in the story of American religious life, including inclusivity, anti-institutionalism, individualism, voluntarism, and populism. This text would make a worthy addition to women's studies collections and to theological libraries." --"Choice"

For most people, the terms "evangelical" and "feminism" are contradictory. "Evangelical" invokes images of conservative Christians known for their strict interpretation of the Bible, as well as their support of social conservatism and traditional gender roles. So how could an evangelical support feminism, a movement that seeks, at its most basic level, to redress the inequalities, injustice, and discrimination that women face because of their sex?

Evangelical Feminism offers the first history of the evangelical feminist movement. It traces the emergence and theological development of biblical feminism within evangelical Christianity in the 1970s, how an internal split among members of the movement came about over the question of lesbianism, and what these developments reveal about conservative Protestantism and religion generally in contemporary America.

Cochran shows that biblical feminists have been at the center of changes both within evangelicalism and in American culture more broadly by renegotiating the religious symbols which shape its deepest values.