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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > General
An accessible and comprehensive introduction to the life and thought of the Swiss reformer and theologian, The book provides a clear discussion of the main themes in Zwingli's thought, setting his ideas in a historical context, and comparing them with those of other contemporary reformers such as Erasmus and Luther.
The contributors to this volume examine the complex and dynamic
role that Protestant majorities and minorities played in shaping
the Reformations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In
doing so, it offers an important perspective on the range of
intellectual, social, economic, political, theological and
ecclesiological factors that governed intra- and inter-confessional
encounter in the early modern period. While the principal focus is
on the situation of different Protestant majority and minority
groups, many of the contributions also engage the relation of
Protestants and Catholics, with a number also considering early
modern Christian dialogue with Muslims and Jews.The volume is
organised into five sections, which together provide a
comprehensive picture of Protestant majorities and minorities. The
first section explores intellectual trajectories, especially those
which promoted confessional unity or sought to break down
confessional boundaries. The second section, taking the neglected
Spanish Reformation as an important case-study, examines the
clandestine aspect of minority activities and the efforts of
majorities to control and suppress them. The third section pursues
a similar theme but examines it through the lens of Flemish and
Walloon Reformed refugee communities in Germany and the
Netherlands, demonstrating the way in which confessional factors
could lead to the integration or exclusion of minorities. The
fourth section examines marginal or peripheral Reformations,
whether geographically or doctrinally understood, focussing on
attempts to implement reform in the shadow of the Ottoman Empire.
Finally, the fifth section looks at confessional identity and
otherness as a principal theme of majority and minority relations,
providing both theoretical and practical frameworks for its
evaluation.
For too long, scholars have published new research on Edwards
without paying due attention to the work he took most seriously:
biblical exegesis. Edwards is recognized as an innovative
theologian who wielded tremendous influence on revivalism,
evangelicalism, and New England theology. What is often missed is
how much time he devoted to studying and understanding the Bible.
He kept voluminous notebooks on Scripture and died with unrealized
plans for major treatises on the Bible. More and more experts now
recognize the importance of this aspect of his life; this book
brings together the insights of leading Edwards scholars on this
topic. The essays in Jonathan Edwards and Scripture set Edwards'
engagement with Scripture in the context of seventeenth-century
Protestant exegesis and eighteenth-century colonial interpretation.
They provide case studies of Edwards' exegesis in varying genres of
the Bible and probe his use of Scripture to develop theology. The
authors also set his biblical interpretation in perspective by
comparing it with that of other exegetes. This book advances our
understanding of the nature and significance of Edwards' work with
Scripture and opens new lines of inquiry for students of early
modern Western history.
This is a much-revised version of Professor Cottret's acclaimed
study of the Huguenot communities in England, first published in
French by Aubier in 1985. The Huguenots in England presents a
detailed, sympathetic assessment of one of the great migrations of
early modern Europe, examining the social origins, aspirations and
eventual destiny of the refugees, and their responses to their
new-found home, a Protestant terre d'exil. Bernard Cottret shows
how for the poor weavers, carders and craftsmen who constituted the
majority of the exiles the experience of religious persecution was
at once personal calamity, disruptive of home and family, and
heaven-sent economic opportunity, which many were quick to exploit.
The individual testimonies contained in consistory registers
contain a wealth of personal narrative, reflection and reaction,
enabling Professor Cottret to build a fully rounded picture of the
Huguenot experience in early modern England. In an extended
afterword Professor Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie considers the Huguenot
phenomenon in the wider context of the contrasting British and
French attitudes to religious minorities in the early modern
period.
The Reformation was a seismic event in history, whose consequences
are still working themselves out in Europe and across the world.
The protests against the marketing of indulgences staged by the
German monk Martin Luther in 1517 belonged to a long-standing
pattern of calls for internal reform and renewal in the Christian
Church. But they rapidly took a radical and unexpected turn,
engulfing first Germany and then Europe as a whole in furious
arguments about how God's will was to be 'saved'. However, these
debates did not remain confined to a narrow sphere of theology.
They came to reshape politics and international relations; social,
cultural, and artistic developments; relations between the sexes;
and the patterns and performances of everyday life. They were also
the stimulus for Christianity's transformation into a truly global
religion, as agents of the Roman Catholic Church sought to
compensate for losses in Europe with new conversions in Asia and
the Americas. Covering both Protestant and Catholic reform
movements, in Europe and across the wider world, this beautifully
illustrated volume tells the story of the Reformation from its
immediate, explosive beginnings, through to its profound
longer-term consequences and legacy for the modern world. The story
is not one of an inevitable triumph of liberty over oppression,
enlightenment over ignorance. Rather, it tells how a multitude of
rival groups and individuals, with or without the support of
political power, strove after visions of 'reform'. And how, in
spite of themselves, they laid the foundations for the plural and
conflicted world we now inhabit.
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