Exploring the response of evangelicals to the collapse of 'Greater Christian Britain' in Australia in the long 1960s, this book provides a new religious perspective to the end of empire and a fresh national perspective to the end of Christendom. In the turbulent 1960s, two foundations of the Western world rapidly and unexpectedly collapsed. 'Christendom', marked by the dominance of discursive Christianity in public culture, and 'Greater Britain', the powerful sentimental and strategic union of Britain and its settler societies, disappeared from the collective mental map with startling speed. To illuminate these contemporaneous global shifts, this book takes as a case study the response of Australian evangelical Christian leaders to the cultural and religious crises encountered between 1959 and 1979. Far from being a narrow national study, this book places its case studies in the context of the latest North American and European scholarship on secularisation, imperialism and evangelicalism. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, it examines critical figures such as Billy Graham, Fred Nile and Hans Mol, as well as issues of empire, counter-cultural movements and racial and national identity. This study will be of particular interest to any scholar of Evangelicalism in the twentieth century. It will also be a useful resource for academics looking into the wider impacts of the decline of Christianity and the British Empire in Western civilisation.

In twenty-two simple yet profound reflections, seasoned minister, Mark Belletini, explores the many and varied forms of grief. His honest, poetic essays serve as a prism, revealing the distinct colours and manifestations of grief in our lives. He addresses the way we respond to the loss of people in our lives, loss of love, loss of focus and loss of the familiar - understanding that grief is as much a part of our lives as our breathing. Belletini uses specific and personal stories to open up to the universal experience. NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY is a gift of awareness, showing how the shades of grief serve our deepest needs.

The Amish relationship to the environment is much more complicated than you might think. The pastoral image of Amish communities living simply and in touch with the land strikes a deep chord with many Americans. Environmentalists have lauded the Amish as iconic models for a way of life that is local, self-sufficient, and in harmony with nature. But the Amish themselves do not always embrace their ecological reputation, and critics have long questioned the portrayal of the Amish as models of environmental stewardship. In Nature and the Environment in Amish Life, David L. McConnell and Marilyn D. Loveless examine how this prevailing notion of the environmentally conscious Amish fits with the changing realities of their lives. Drawing on 150 interviews conducted over the course of 7 years, as well as a survey of household resource use among Amish and non-Amish people, they explore how the Amish understand nature in their daily lives and how their actions impact the natural world. Arguing that there is considerable diversity in Amish engagements with nature at home, at school, at work, and outdoors, McConnell and Loveless show how the Amish response to regional and global environmental issues, such as watershed pollution and climate change, reveals their deep skepticism of environmentalists. They also demonstrate that Amish households are not uniformly lower in resource use compared to their rural, non-Amish neighbors, though aspects of their home economy are relatively self-sufficient. The first comprehensive study of Amish understandings of the natural world, this compelling book complicates the image of the Amish and provides a more realistic understanding of the Amish relationship with the environment.

This 1st Edition Book of Mormon is unique in that it is enlarged for easier reading, contains an original Index; modern day photos of historical sites; and early revelations pertaining to The Book of Mormon.

The letters of Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) illuminate the career and opinions of one of the most prominent and controversial clergymen of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His petitions for liberalism within the Church of England in 1772-3, his subsequent resignation from the church and his foundation of a separate Unitarian chapel in London in 1774 all provoked profound debate in the political as well as the ecclesiastical world. His chapel became a focal point for the theologically and politically disaffected and during the 1770s and early 1780s attracted the interest of many critics of British policy towards the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley and Richard Price were among Lindsey's many acquaintances.BR The second and final volume of this edition covers the period from the regency crisis and the early stages of the French Revolution to Lindsey's death nineteen years later, at the height of the Napoleonic War. His letters from this period reveal in depth Lindsey's central role in the formation of Unitarianism as a distinctive denomination, his involvement in movements for religious and political reform, his close friendship with Joseph Priestley and the tribulations of dissenters during the 1790s. From his vantage point in London, Lindsey was a well-informed and well-connected observer of the responses in Britain to the French Revolution and the war of the 1790s, and he provides a lucid commentary on the political, literary and theological scene. As with Volume I, the letters are fully annotated and are accompanied by a full contextual introduction. G.M. DITCHFIELD is Professor of Eighteenth-Century History, University of Kent at Canterbury.

Scientific evidence and personal experience tell us that sincere, engaging personal relationships are essential for health and happiness. Yet, little is said about how we might actively nurture such relationships for ourselves and for people near us at home and work. Executive Coach Tony Mayo drew on the research of Brene Brown, Joseph Campbell, and others to compose this enthusiastically received non-sectarian sermon. Originally delivered to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston at their Sunday services on January 26, 2014, it has now has been revised and expanded for publication. How do we balance the universal human needs of authenticity and acceptance in our personal lives? How might we foster communities where others have the courage to be truly themselves with us? The word courage originally meant "to speak and act from the heart," or cour in Latin. Courage is required to express our deepest and most authentic selves because we so often fear judgment, rejection and exclusion. Comments from People Who Heard the Sermon "I so appreciate your wonderful talk yesterday morning. A great reminder for me to continue to take risks in my life and get out of my comfort zone as well as trusting others. It also reminded me of the importance of meditation in my life." -Church Member "Your message was loud and clear and magically delivered. Thank you." -Church Member "Tony Mayo covers a lot of meaningful ground in a handful of pages - he brings together courage, bravery, belonging, acceptance, compassion and more - and backs it up with insights, experience, AND academic references I loved it " -Ron Dimon, author of EPM Done Right (Wiley CIO Series) "I am moved and inspired. It is absolutely great, challenging, and rich. Plus more adjectives are in me - all superlative, I'm sure. I must listen to it at least 2 more times; there is a lot to grok here." -Lowell Nerenberg, Executive Coach "We were inspired by what you shared and how you shared it. Thank you." -Church Member "Tony, one of the things I valued most about your sermon is that so few words were wasted. You did not speak just to fill the time; each sentence added to the whole." -Church Member "Thank you, Tony, for such a wonderful message this morning. It was so uplifting and based on feedback, provided many with a transformational experience." -Church Board member "I found your sermon to be rich and meaningful. I agree that you should make it available in print. I would like to revisit it, and those who missed it should take a look " -Church Member "My life could use more Courage just now, and your talk gave me some ideas that could help." -Church Member "Tony, I have it on good authority that your sermon this last Sunday was about the best ever. Could I get a printed copy?" -Email from church member who had been out of town. "True courage comes from the heart. "I was fortunate enough to hear this sermon in real life and was glad to see that Tony has put it in writing so it will be easy to share. I love his distinction between courage that comes from the heart and bravery (related to bravado) that is put on like armor to conceal weakness. He encouraged us to live authentic lives, risking vulnerability as we act from our true selves. I need to revisit what he shared with us on that memorable Sunday " - Laurie Dodd, Attorney "It's rare that I find something so uplifting and encouraging. I am not a religious person and usually when I hear the word 'sermon' I run. His message is for everyone and stays clear of religious views that might preclude any person or group from understanding and enjoying what he has to share. "Tony has a wonderful way with words. I highly recommend reading this book or finding the audio version." - Michael Cohen

The Shakers' spiritual literacies, defined through an examination of their reading and writing practices, blur boundaries between traditionally masculine and feminine realms by using reason and emotion and by being innovative as well as traditional. This exploration of the relationship between literary practices and religious life in the 19th century, of such genres as autobiographies, elegies, histories, and doctrinal works, provides new insights into the many ways in which literacy enriches people's lives.

This volume will appeal not only to the growing body of Shaker scholars, but also to researchers interested in American literature and culture, literacy, religious history, and gender studies.

Combining ethnographic and historical research conducted in Angola, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, A Prophetic Trajectory tells the story of Simao Toko, the founder and leader of one of the most important contemporary Angolan religious movements. The book explains the historical, ethnic, spiritual, and identity transformations observed within the movement, and debates the politics of remembrance and heritage left behind after Toko's passing in 1984. Ultimately, it questions the categories of prophetism and charisma, as well as the intersections between mobility, memory, and belonging in the Atlantic Lusophone sphere.

It has long been accepted that when Samuel Taylor Coleridge rejected the Unitarianism of his youth and returned to the Church of England, he did so while accepting a general Christian orthodoxy. Christopher Corbin clarifies Coleridge's religious identity and argues that while Coleridge's Christian orthodoxy may have been sui generis, it was closely aligned with moderate Anglican Evangelicalism. Approaching religious identity as a kind of culture that includes distinct forms of language and networks of affiliation in addition to beliefs and practices, this book looks for the distinguishable movements present in Coleridge's Britain to more precisely locate his religious identity than can be done by appeals to traditional denominational divisions. Coleridge's search for unity led him to desire and synthesize the "warmth" of heart religion (symbolized as Methodism) with the "light" of rationalism (symbolized as Socinianism), and the evangelicalism in the Church of England, being the most chastened of the movement, offered a fitting place from which this union of warmth and light could emerge. His religious identity not only included many of the defining Anglican Evangelical beliefs, such as an emphasis on original sin and the New Birth, but he also shared common polemical opponents, appropriated evangelical literary genres, developed a spirituality centered on the common evangelical emphases of prayer and introspection, and joined Evangelicals in rejecting baptismal regeneration. When placed in a chronological context, Coleridge's form of Christian orthodoxy developed in conversation with Anglican Evangelicals; moreover, this relationship with Anglican Evangelicalism likely helped facilitate his return to the Church of England. Corbin not only demonstrates the similarities between Coleridge's relationship to a form of evangelicalism with which most people have little familiarity, but also offers greater insight into the complexities and tensions of religious identity in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain as a whole.

Mark Amstutz offers a groundbreaking exploration of the rise, evolution, and crucial impact of Evangelicals on American foreign affairs. In the nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries spearheaded global engagement by serving throughout the world. They gained fluency in foreign languages, developed knowledge about distant societies, and increased cross-cultural awareness. They also played a vital role in advancing human dignity by teaching and modeling values, building schools and clinics, and creating institutions that nurtured civil society. In view of their important role in global affairs, Amstutz argues, Evangelicals can be regarded as America's first internationalists. When modernists gained control of Protestant denominations at the turn of the twentieth century, traditional Protestants responded by creating a Fundamentalist movement that gave precedence to spiritual life but neglected social and political concerns. Four decades later, orthodox believers sought to restore the spiritual-temporal balance that had characterized traditional Protestantism. To a significant degree, contemporary Evangelicalism is the result of this movement. Amstutz illuminates the influence of the political theology of this group of believers on Evangelicals' thought and action on global affairs. Although the New Evangelicals have not established a body of teachings comparable to Catholics', they have developed a framework that has shaped members' social thought and political action. After highlighting distinctive features of Evangelicals' political ethics, Amstutz illustrates how such thinking has influenced the analysis of global poverty, U.S. foreign policy towards Israel, and a variety of foreign policy initiatives. In view of the increasing political advocacy of Evangelical groups, Amstutz concludes with a number of recommendations on how to strengthen Evangelicals' global engagement.

Mormonism and the Emotions: An Analysis of LDS Scriptural Texts is an introductory Latterday Saint (LDS) theology of emotion that is both canonically based and scientifically informed. It highlights three widely accepted characteristics of emotion that emerge from scientific perspectives-namely, the necessity of cognition for its emergence, the personal responsibility attached to its manifestations, and its instrumentality in facilitating various processes of human development and experience. In analyzing the basic theological structure of Mormonism and its unique canonical texts the objective is to determine the extent to which LDS theology is compatible with this three-fold definition of emotion. At this basic level of explanation, the conclusion is that science and Mormon theology undoubtedly share a common perspective. The textual investigation focuses on unique Mormon scriptures and on their descriptions of six common emotions: hope, fear, joy, sorrow, love, and hate. For each of these emotional phenomena the extensive report of textual references consistently confirms an implied presence of the outlined three-fold model of emotion. Thus, the evidence points to the presence of an underlying folk model of emotion in the text that broadly matches scientific definitions. Additionally, the theological examination is enlarged with a particular focus on the Mormon theology of atonement, which is shown to play a significant role in LDS understandings of emotions. A broad exploration of such areas as epistemology, cosmology, soteriology, and the theological anthropology of Mormonism further contextualizes the analysis and roots it in the LDS theological worldview.

This book draws on the life of Presbyterian minister and diarist Archibald Simpson (1734-1795) to examine the history of evangelical Protestantism in South Carolina and the British Atlantic during the last half of the eighteenth century. Although he grew up in the evangelical heartland of Scotland in the wake of the great mid-century revivals, Simpson spurned revivalism and devoted himself instead to the grinding work of the parish ministry. At age nineteen he immigrated to South Carolina, where he spent the next eighteen years serving slaveholding Reformed congregations in the lowcountry plantation district. Here powerful planters held sway over slaves, families, churches, and communities, and Simpson was constantly embattled as he sought to impose an evangelical order on his parishes. In refusing to put the gospel in the pockets of planters who scorned it-and who were accustomed to controlling their parish churches-he earned their enmity. As a result, every relationship was freighted with deceit and danger, and every practice-sermons, funerals, baptisms, pastoral visits, death narratives, sickness, courtship, friendship, domestic concerns-was contested and politicized. In this context, the cause of the gospel made little headway in Simpson's corner of the world. Despite the great midcentury revivals, the steady stream of religious dissenters who poured into the province, and all the noise they made about slave conversions, Simpson's story suggests that there was no evangelical movement in colonial South Carolina, just a tired and frustrating evangelical slog.

This book explores Mormon theology in new ways from a scholarly non-Mormon perspective. Bringing Jesus and Satan into relationship with Joseph Smith the founding prophet, Douglas Davies shows how the Mormon 'Plan of Salvation' can be equated with mainstream Christianity's doctrine of the Trinity as a driving force of the faith. Exploring how Jesus has been understood by Mormons, his many Mormon identities are described in this book: he is the Jehovah of the Bible, our Elder Brother and Father, probably also a husband, he visited the dead and is also the antagonist of Satan-Lucifer. This book offers a way into the Mormon 'problem of evil' understood as apostasy, from pre-mortal times to today. Three images reveal the wider problem of evil in Mormonism: Jesus' pre-mortal encounter with Lucifer in a heavenly council deciding on the Plan of Salvation, Jesus Christ's great suffering - engagement with evil in Gethsemane, and Joseph Smith's First Vision of the divine when he was almost destroyed by an evil force. Douglas Davies, well-known for his previous accounts of Mormon life and thought, shows how renewed Mormon interest in theological questions of belief can be understood against the background of Mormon church-organization and its growing presence on the world-stage of Christianity.

In the last fifty years, religion in America has changed dramatically, and Mainline Protestantism is following suit. This book reveals a fundamental transformation taking place in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA is looking to postdenominational Christianity for inspiration on how to attract people to the pews, but is at the same time intent on preserving its confessional, liturgical tradition as much as possible in late modernity. As American religion grows increasingly experiential and individualistic, the ELCA is caught between its church heritage and a highly innovative culture that demands participative structures and a personal relationship with the divine. In the midst of this tension, the ELCA is deflating its church hierarchy and encouraging people to become involved in congregations on their own terms, while it continues to celebrate its confessional, liturgical identity. But can this balance between individual and institution be upheld in the long run? Or will the democratization and pluralization of the faith ultimately undermine the church? This book explores how the ELCA attempts to resist the forces of Americanization in late modernity even as it slowly but surely comes to resemble mainstream American religion more and more.

Mormon Women's History: Beyond Biography demonstrates that the history and experience of Mormon women is central to the history of Mormonism and to histories of American religion, politics, and culture. Yet the study of Mormon women has mostly been confined to biographies, family histories, and women's periodicals. The contributors to Mormon Women's History engage the vast breadth of sources left by Mormon women-journals, diaries, letters, family histories, and periodicals as well as art, poetry, material culture, theological treatises, and genealogical records-to read between the lines, reconstruct connections, recover voices, reveal meanings, and recast stories. Mormon Women's History presents women as incredibly inter-connected. Familial ties of kinship are multiplied and stretched through the practice and memory of polygamy, social ties of community are overlaid with ancestral ethnic connections and local congregational assignments, fictive ties are woven through shared interests and collective memories of violence and trauma. Conversion to a new faith community unites and exposes the differences among Native Americans, Yankees, and Scandinavians. Lived experiences of marriage, motherhood, death, mourning, and widowhood are played out within contexts of expulsion and exile, rape and violence, transnational immigration, establishing "civilization" in a wilderness, and missionizing both to new neighbors and far away peoples. Gender defines, limits, and opens opportunities for private expression, public discourse, and popular culture. Cultural prejudices collide with doctrinal imperatives against backdrops of changing social norms, emerging professional identities, and developing ritualization and sacralization of lived religion. The stories, experiences, and examples explored in Mormon Women's History are neither comprehensive nor conclusive, but rather suggestive of the ways that Mormon women's history can move beyond individual lives to enhance and inform larger historical narratives.

How does one become 'righteous among the Nations'? In the case of Henri Nick (1868-1954) and Andre Trocme (1901-1971), two French Protestant pastors who received the title for their acts of solidarity toward persecuted Jews, it was because they had been immersed, from an early age, in the discourses and practices of social Christianity. Focussing on the lives of these two remarkable figures of twentieth-century Christianity, Revivalism and Social Christianity is the first study in English on the Social Gospel in French Protestantism. Chalamet presents a genealogy of the movement, from its emergence in the last decades of the nineteenth century to its high point during World War II, in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, where Trocme and many local people rescued hundreds of Jewish refugees. As social Christians who prayed and worked for the coming of God's kingdom on earth in the midst of a society ravaged by two world wars, Henri Nick and Andre Trocme combined a deep revivalist faith with a concern for the concrete conditions in which people live.

The purpose of this study, first published in 1990, is to investigate the Americanization of an immigrant church in rural North America. The study focuses on General Conference Mennonites who came from Russia and east Europe to settle in central Kansas in 1874. The Americanization of a Rural Immigrant Church will be of interest to students of American and rural history.

"Shakerism teaches God's immanence through the common life shared in Christ's mystical body." Like many religious seekers throughout the ages, they honor the revelation of God but cannot be bound up in an unchanging set of dogmas or creeds. Freeing themselves from domination by the state religion, Mother Ann Lee and her first followers in mid-18th-century England labored to encounter the godhead directly. They were blessed by spiritual gifts that showed them a way to live the heavenly life on Earth. The result of their efforts was the fashioning of a celibate communal life called the Christlife, wherein a person, after confessing all sin, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, can travel the path of regeneration into ever- increasing holiness. Pacifism, equality of the sexes, and withdrawal from the world are some of the ways the faith was put into practice. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Shakers contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on Shaker communities, industries, individual families, and important people. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Shakers.

Christian churches and groups within Anglo-American contexts have increasingly used popular music as a way to connect with young people. This book investigates the relationships between evangelical Christianity and popular music, focusing particularly on electronic dance music in the last twenty years. Author Stella Lau illustrates how electronic dance music is legitimized in evangelical activities by Christians' discourses, and how the discourses challenge the divide between the 'secular' and the 'sacred' in the Western culture. Unlike other existing books on the relationships between music cultures and religion, which predominantly discuss the cultural implications of such phenomenon, Popular Music in Evangelical Youth Culture examines the notion of 'spirituality' in contemporary popular electronic dance music. Lau's emphasis on the sonic qualities of electronic dance music opens the door for future research about the relationships between aural properties of electronic dance music and religious discourses. With three case studies conducted in the cultural hubs of electronic dance music - Bristol, Ibiza and New York - the monograph can also be used as a guidebook for ethnographic research in popular music.