In this gripping biography, journalist Markus Baum presents Eberhard Arnold's life (1883-1935) as a challenge to all of us to reconsider our response to Jesus' command to "leave everything and follow me".

Baum's account recreates a colorful slice of history, a time when thousands of young men and women across Weimar Germany rejected bourgeois mores and struck out on a different path. Arnold, an aspiring young writer and speaker, was a driving force behind this "Youth Movement". But he went further, leaving the limelight, a comfortable lifestyle, and a promising career, to live the answers he had found. He started a community based on Christ's teachings and example. Arnold was able to unite a motley assortment of workers, aristocrats, and students from diverse political and religious persuasions under a shared vision of Christ's kingdom as a living reality.

Against the Wind explores the forces that shaped Arnold's life -- the early Church, the Anabaptists, the Salvation Army, Charles Finney's Evangelical revival in America -- and his influence on other spiritual leaders of his day -- Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and Martin Buber among them. It recounts his lonely stand against the rise of Nazism, and presents his continuing legacy, the Bruderhof community movement, which carries on his commitment to integrate faith and social action so needed today.

Most of all, Against the Wind gives flesh, blood, and personality to a man whose role in history has been obscured. Arnold abhorred private property and institutional religion, hated hypocrisy and embraced absolutes. Even during his lifetime he was dubbed a "modern St. Francis". But he also struggled to find his convictions and put theminto action. He chose to walk resolutely against the prevailing winds, but not without difficulty and disappointment.

Published in 1905: This book discusses Evangelism and Christianity.

American Evangelicals Today assesses the contemporary social, religious, and political characteristics of evangelical Protestants today, and it does so in light of (1) whether these characteristics are similar to, or different from, the corresponding characteristics of adherents of other major faith traditions in American religious life, and (2) the extent which these particular characteristics among evangelicals may have changed over the past four decades. In addition, it analyzes the extent which evangelicals are divided today, and it does so within the framework of four potential factors that might shape such divisions -- racial/ethnic differences, generational differences, educational differences, and religious differences. American Evangelicals Today is designed to serve as an accessible, but scholarly, overview of American evangelicals, one that is appealing to all scholars, students, and laity alike. Smidt offers a discussion of the nature of evangelical Protestantism, highlights the particular analytical issues at play when one seeks to determine just who are to be classified as evangelicals, and reveals some of the contradictory findings that can emerge through the use of these different analytical frameworks for defining evangelicals. The volume not only analyzes the current characteristics of evangelicals in light of those exhibited by other religious traditions as well as how evangelicals have changed over time, but it looks toward the future, addressing generational differences and other possible factors for change among evangelical Protestants.

This new study explores the role the Unitarians played in female emancipation. Many leading figures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were Unitarian, or were heavily influenced by Unitarian ideas, including: Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Florence Nightingale. Ruth Watts examines how far they were successful in challenging the ideas and social conventions affecting women. In the process she reveals the complex relationship between religion, gender, class and education and her study will be essential reading for those studying the origins of the feminist movement, nineteenth-century gender history, religious history or the history of education.

This title provides privileged insight into the spiritual heart of iBandla lamaNazaretha, or the Nazareth Church (currently estimated to have over a million members) and its visionary leader, Isaiah Shembe, the founder (in 1910). Shembe was an extraordinary man of immense spiritual power, who gained Messiah/like status among his followers. Prefaced by a message from the present leader of the main branch of the Church, Bishop Vimbeni Shembe, and including an enlightening introduction by Liz Gunner, this three part title makes available in English and in isiZulu source material, transcribed and translated from the original longhand books of the Church archives held at Ekuphakameni. It offers in Isaiah Shembe's own voice some of the founding tenets of the Nazareth Church and records the moving testimony of Meshack Hadebe, a 1920's believer, who relates how his family travelled from 'the land of Mashoeshoe' to Ekuphakameni, the holy place 'in the land of Natal'. Their journey in search of 'the Prophet of Jehovah' is inspired by the appearance of an extraordinary star, similar to that which led the Three Wise Men on their holy pilgrimage. Also included is some of the beautiful sacred poetry which forms part of the Church's enduring hymnal. The man of heaven is a unique treasure trove in many respects, that will appeal not just to Shembe followers but to all who have an interest in the complexities of African Christianity. It is invaluable for the intimate access it offers into a fascinating spiritual tradition, and for the voice it gives to a grassroots community immensely powerful but seldom encountered in African literatures.

In this new edition of "The Amish and the State" Donald Kraybill brings together legal scholars and social scientists to explore the unique series of conflicts between a traditional religious minority and the modern state. In the process, the authors trace the preservation--and the erosion--of religious liberty in American life. Kraybill begins with an overview of the Amish in North America and describes the "negotiation model" used throughout the book to interpret a variety of legal conflicts. Subsequent chapters deal with specific aspects of religious freedom over which the Amish and the state have clashed. Focusing on the period from 1925 to 2001 in the United States, the authors examine conflicts over military service and conscription, Social Security and taxes, education, health care, land use and zoning, regulation of slow-moving vehicles, and other first amendment issues. New concluding chapters, by constitutional expert William Ball, who defended the Amish before the Supreme Court in 1972 in the landmark "Wisconsin v. Yoder" case, and law professor Garret Epps, assess the Amish contribution to preserving religious liberty in the United States.

HONOURING THE DECLARATION provides academic resources to help The United Church of Canada and other Canadian denominations enact their commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and offers a framework for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. Featuring essays from scholars working from a range of disciplines, including religious studies, Indigenous legal studies, Christian theology and ethics, Biblical studies, Indigenous educational leadership within the United Church, and social activism, the collection includes both Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices, all of whom respond meaningfully to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. The texts explore some of the challenges that accepting the UN Declaration as a framework poses to the United Church and other Canadian denominations, and provides academic reflection on how these challenges can be met. These reflections include concrete proposals for steps that Canadian denominations and their seminaries need to take in light of their commitment to the Declaration, a study of a past attempt of the United Church to be in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, and discussions of ethical concepts and theological doctrines that can empower and guide the church in living out this commitment.

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-daySaints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation'selite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, andStanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundredsof LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when churchauthority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia UniversityLaw School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons' search forintellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parametersthat in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life.At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched tosuch universities to "gather the world's knowledge to Zion." Simpson, drawingon unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS studentscommonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostereda personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisionalreconciliations of Mormon and American identities and religious and scientificperspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism diedand a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in theUnited States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholarsand church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and thehistoricity of Mormonism's sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpsonconcludes, linger.

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than fifty women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical expose, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion.

After the 1844 murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Young gathered those Latter-day Saints who would follow him and led them over the Rocky Mountains. In Utah, he styled himself after the patriarchs, judges, and prophets of ancient Israel. As charismatic as he was autocratic, he was viewed by his followers as an indispensable protector and by his opponents as a theocratic, treasonous heretic.

Under his fiery tutelage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints defended plural marriage, restricted the place of African Americans within the church, fought the U.S. Army in 1857, and obstructed federal efforts to prosecute perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. At the same time, Young's tenacity and faith brought tens of thousands of Mormons to the American West, imbued their everyday lives with sacred purpose, and sustained his church against adversity. Turner reveals the complexity of this spiritual prophet, whose commitment made a deep imprint on his church and the American Mountain West."

Christian punk is a surprisingly successful musical subculture and a fascinating expression of American evangelicalism. Situating Christian punk within the modern history of Christianity and the rapidly changing culture of spirituality and secularity, this book illustrates how Christian punk continues punk's autonomous and oppositional creative practices, but from within a typically traditional evangelical morality. Analyzing straight edge Christian abstinence and punk-friendly churches, this book also focuses on gender performance within a subculture dominated by young men in a time of contested gender roles and ideologies. Critically-minded and rich in ethnographic data and insider perspectives, Christian Punk will engage scholars of contemporary evangelicalism, religion and popular music, and punk and all its related subcultures.

A sweet and heartwarming Amish romance where no disaster can conquer true love. Dairy farmer Abe Stoltzfus wants to propose to Lavinia Fisher, the beautiful young woman he's been dating, but being a traditional Amish man, he worries about how he can provide for her. Farming can be uncertain enough with weather conditions, crops not doing well, all manner of uncertainties. And after a bad summer storm and a serious injury from a rooftop tumble, Abe wants to wait until both he and his farm are back on their feet. Lavinia is relieved when Abe survives the fall, yet it seems like it's only the start of events that threaten their future together. But Lavinia is not only a talented Amish crafter, she's also the daughter of a farmer. She knows what the life of a farm wife is like and remains optimistic things will turn around. And when Abe continues to drag his feet, Lavinia makes him an interesting proposal. Will Abe be able to resist it-and her?

'The limits of radicalism are those which end not in chaos but in the breaking of fresh ground.' Howard E. Root Previously unpublished--and only recently rediscovered by Dr Christopher R. Brewer in an uncatalogued box in the archives of Lambeth Palace Library--Canon Howard E. Root's 1972 Bampton Lectures, 'The Limits of Radicalism', have to do with nothing less than 'what theology is', a topic no less relevant today than it was in 1972. Against the radical reductionism of his time, Root defended the integrity of theology and 'theological truth'. Advocating a 'backward-looking' radicalism, he thought that tradition should display 'recognisable continuity', and yet at the same time--against reductionistic tendencies--that it might be enriched and enlarged via a wide variety of 'additive imagery' including, though not limited to, poetry and pop art, music and even television. We must 'begin where we are', said Root, for we cannot, in the manner of Leonard Hodgson, 'think ourselves into the minds and feelings of men 2000 years ago.' In this volume, which begins with a substantial, mostly biographical introduction, Dr Brewer argues that Root--a backward-looking radical who defended metaphysics and natural theology, and insisted that theologians look to the arts as theological resources--anticipates the work of David Brown and others concerned with tradition and imagination, relevance and truth. A fascinating glimpse into the recent history of British Christianity, Root's lectures, as well as the related appendices, are essential reading for theologians interested in the dynamics of a developing tradition and the theme of openness, as well as those with a particular interest in 1960s Cambridge radicalism and the British reception of the Second Vatican Council.

Popular Evangelicalism in American Culture explores the controversies, complexities, and historical development of the evangelical movement in America and its impact on American culture. Evangelicalism is one of the most dynamic and growing religious movements in America and has been both a major force in shaping American society and likewise a group which has resisted aspects of the modern world. Organised thematically this book demonstrates the impact of American culture on popular evangelicalism by exploring the following topics: politics; economics; salvation; millennialism; the megachurch and electronic churches; and popular culture. This accessible and thought-provoking volume will interest anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical movement in America.

Hans Mol was born in the Netherlands during the 1920s. His imprisonment by the Gestapo during World War II began a long intellectual journey, exploring the role of religion in society. His work on the sociology of religion throughout the 20th and 21st Century is distinctive in its quest for both methodological and existential balance Part One of this book includes a brief outline of Mol's most influential theory as originally explicated in Identity and the Sacred (1976). This is followed by a look at the initial reception of that theory in relation to the competing concepts of Mol's contemporaries. Part Two is comprised of four previously-unpublished essays written by Mol during the 70s and 80s. Covering topics from evolution to evangelicalism, the papers display the sweeping ambition of this sociologist as well as the tone and contours of his intellectual articulation. In the Postscript this volume concludes with select transcripts of interviews conducted between Adam Powell and Hans Mol during the Spring of 2012. This volume of Mol's work will be of keen interest to academics and students with an interest in the sociology of religion post-World War II and the development of contemporary Christian theology.

Many twenty-first-century evangelical charismatics in Britain are looking for a faith that works. They want to experience the miraculous in terms of healings and Godsent financial provision. Many have left the mainstream churches to join independent charismatic churches led by those who are perceived to have special insights and to teach principles that will help believers experience the miraculous. But all is not rosy in this promised paradise, and when people are not healed or they remain poor they are often told that it is because they did not have enough faith. This study discovers the origin of the principles that are taught by some charismatic leaders. Glyn Ackerley identifies them as the same ideas that are taught by the positive confession, health, wealth, and prosperity movement, originating in the United States. The origins of the ideas are traced back to New Thought metaphysics and its background philosophies of subjective idealism and pragmatism. These principles were imported into the UK through contact between British leaders and those influenced by American "word of faith" teachers. Glyn Ackerley explains the persuasiveness of such teachers by examining case studies, suggesting their "miracles" may well have social and psychological explanations rather than divine origins.

This book focuses on the gender roles within the Unification Church, and on particularly the gender roles as expressed through the vows of marriage. It examines the more widely shared patriarchal assumptions about women in a circumscribed socio-religious environment, with the Church's gender role system being investigated largely on the level of its theological explanations for gender roles. The Church's ethos, its lived reality, is also examined, and for this many interviews have been conducted with the 'blessed', the married couples. First published in 1992.

Although often regarded as marginal or obscure, Mormonism is a significant American religious minority, numerically and politically. The successes and struggles of this U.S. born religion reveal much about how religion operates in U.S. society. Mormonism: The Basics introduces the teachings, practices, evolution, and internal diversity of this movement, whose cultural icons range from Mitt Romney to the Twilight saga, from young male missionaries in white shirts and ties to polygamous women in pastel prairie dresses. This is the first introductory text on Mormonism that tracks not only the mainstream LDS but also two other streams within the movement-the liberalized RLDS and the polygamous Fundamentalists-thus showing how Mormons have pursued different approaches to defining their identity and their place in society. The book addresses these questions. Are Mormons Christian, and why does it matter? How have Mormons worked out their relationship to the state? How have Mormons diverged in their thinking about gender and sexuality? How do rituals and regulations shape Mormon lives? What types of sacred spaces have Mormons created? What strategies have Mormons pursued to establish a global presence? Mormonism: The Basics is an ideal introduction for anyone wanting to understand this religion within its primarily American but increasingly globalized contexts.

This book focuses on the gender roles within the Unification Church, and on particularly the gender roles as expressed through the vows of marriage. It examines the more widely shared patriarchal assumptions about women in a circumscribed socio-religious environment, with the Church s gender role system being investigated largely on the level of its theological explanations for gender roles. The Church s ethos, its lived reality, is also examined, and for this many interviews have been conducted with the blessed, the married couples.

First published in 1992."

In the late eighteenth century a small Shaker community travelled to America under the leadership of 'Mother Ann' Lee. The American communities they founded were based on ideals of pacifism, celibacy and gender equality. The texts included in this edition come from first-hand accounts of life in the Shaker communities during the nineteenth century.

What does it mean to grow up as an evangelical Christian today? What meanings does 'childhood' have for evangelical adults? How does this shape their engagements with children and with schools? And what does this mean for the everyday realities of children's lives? Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three contrasting evangelical churches in the UK, Anna Strhan reveals how attending to the significance of children within evangelicalism deepens understanding of evangelicals' hopes, fears and concerns, not only for children, but for wider British society. Developing a new, relational approach to the study of children and religion, Strhan invites the reader to consider both the complexities of children's agency and how the figure of the child shapes the hopes, fears, and imaginations of adults, within and beyond evangelicalism. The Figure of the Child in Contemporary Evangelicalism explores the lived realities of how evangelical Christians engage with children across the spaces of church, school, home, and other informal educational spaces in a de-christianizing cultural context, how children experience these forms of engagement, and the meanings and significance of childhood. Providing insight into different churches' contemporary cultural and moral orientations, the book reveals how conservative evangelicals experience their understanding of childhood as increasingly countercultural, while charismatic and open evangelicals locate their work with children as a significant means of engaging with wider secular society. Setting out an approach that explores the relations between the figure of the child, children's experiences, and how adult religious subjectivities are formed in both imagined and practical relationships with children, this study situates childhood as an important area of study within the sociology of religion and examines how we should approach childhood within this field, both theoretically and methodologically.

This book examines the historic tensions between Jehovah's Witnesses and government authorities, civic organisations, established churches and the broader public. Witnesses originated in the 1870s as small, loose-knit groups calling themselves Bible Students. Today, there are some eight million Witnesses worldwide, all actively engaged in evangelism under the direction of the Watch Tower Society. The author analyses issues that have brought them global visibility and even notoriety, including political neutrality, public ministry, blood transfusion, and anti-ecumenism. It also explores anti-Witness discourse, from media portrayals of the community as marginal and exotic to the anti-cult movement. Focusing on varied historical, ideological and national contexts, the book argues that Witnesses have had a defining influence on conceptions of religious tolerance in the modern world.

The Shakers are perhaps the best known of American religious communities. Their ethos and organization had a practical influence on many other communities and on society as a whole. This three volume collection presents writings from a broad cross-section of those who opposed the Shakers and their way of life.

To Hutterites and members of other pacifist sects, serving the military in any way goes against the biblical commandment "thou shalt not kill" and Jesus' admonition to turn the other cheek when confronted with violence. Pacifists in Chains tells the story of four young men - Joseph Hofer, Michael Hofer, David Hofer, and Jacob Wipf - who followed these beliefs and refused to perform military service in World War I. The men paid a steep price for their resistance, imprisoned in Alcatraz and Fort Leavenworth, where the two youngest died. The Hutterites buried the men as martyrs, citing mistreatment. Using archival material, letters from the four men and others imprisoned during the war, and interviews with their descendants, Duane C. S. Stoltzfus explores the tension between a country preparing to enter into a world war and a people whose history of martyrdom for their pacifist beliefs goes back to their sixteenth-century Reformation beginnings.