In The Emergence of Pastoral Authority in the French Reformed Church, c.1555-c.1572, Gianmarco Braghi offers a broad overview of the issues and ambiguities connected to the implementation of the authority of the first generation of Geneva-trained French Reformed pastors and of their implications for the character and identity of the early French Reformed movement at large, using them as a prism for historical analysis of the transition from loose evangelicalism to a nascent synodal-consistorial network of Reformed congregations scattered across the kingdom of France.

John Calvin, a beacon for the Puritans, receives considerable attention in this volume of Puritan Papers. J. I. Packer contributes a chapter on Calvin as "a servant of the Word." Others treat Calvin the man, his doctrine of God, the Institutes, and sixteenth-century Geneva. These papers were originally presented on the 400th anniversary of Calvin's death. Other biographical chapters feature George Whitefield and Charles Haddon Spurgeon. In addition, Packer writes on the Puritan approach to worship, Jain Murray on "things indifferent, " and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Owen's view of schism.

The definitive biography of John Knox, a leader of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Scotland "Never before has there been such a thoroughly and sympathetically critical treatment of the 16th-century Scottish reformer's thought and times. . . . A joy to read and a book to value."-Sean Michael Lucas, Gospel Coalition Based in large part on previously unavailable sources, including the recently discovered papers of John Knox's close friend and colleague Christopher Goodman, this biography challenges the traditionally held stereotype of the founder of the Presbyterian denomination as a strident and misogynist religious reformer whose influence rarely extended beyond Scotland. Instead, Jane Dawson maintains that Knox relied heavily on the support of his "godly sisters" and conferred as well as argued with Mary, Queen of Scots. He was a proud member of the European community of Reformed Churches and deeply involved in the religious Reformations within England, Ireland, France, Switzerland, and the Holy Roman Empire. Casting a surprising new light on the public and private personas of a highly complex, difficult, and hugely compelling individual, Dawson's fascinating study offers a vivid, fully rounded portrait of this renowned Scottish preacher and prophet who had a seismic impact on religion and society.

Irish Presbyterians and the Shaping of Western Pennsylvania, 1770-1830 is a historical study examining the religious culture of Irish immigrants in the early years of America. Despite fractious relations among competing sects, many immigrants shared a vision of a renewed Ireland in which their versions of Presbyterianism could flourish free from the domination of landlords and established church. In the process, they created the institutional foundations for western Pennsylvanian Presbyterian churches. Rural Presbyterian Irish church elders emphasized community and ethnoreligious group solidarity in supervising congregants' morality. Improved transportation and the greater reach of the market eliminated near-subsistence local economies and hastened the demise of religious traditions brought from Ireland. Gilmore contends that ritual and daily religious practice, as understood and carried out by migrant generations, were abandoned or altered by American-born generations in the context of major economic change.

Reforming the Kirk is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of the Church of Scotland or who wants to understand the deep challenges facing it in contemporary Scotland. The Church of Scotland has had a profound social and cultural influence on all aspects of Scottish life for over 450 years. Yet many feel that times now are harder for the Church than ever before - and that spirits are low. People are asking what has happened to the Church that they have loved, served and belonged to for so long and how the Church can have a strong, vibrant future. The Church's motto, semper reformanda, means 'always to be reformed,' but what kind of reformation is needed now to bring about the future for which so many so long? Doug Gay's analysis brings a rich blend of historical, theological and cultural understanding to bear on analysing patterns of decline within the context of a secularising Scotland and proposing bold and creative ways for the Kirk to respond. Based on the 2017 Chalmers Lectures.