The creative clash of tradition and innovation causes many cultures to be in continuous remix. Crucibles of adaptation are present in religion, law, education, science, technology, publishing, arts, media, etc. The present volume Anabaptist ReMix: The Varieties of Cultural Engagement is a case study of one tradition-Anabaptists and Mennonites-and fragments of its transformation in the modern and post-modern era. Today, in the face of a global pandemic, climate disaster, social fragmentation, and the prospect of nuclear annihilation, the descendants of radical reformers seek to live out the wisdom of that original revolution. Theology is re-imagined as a conversation about human nature and emergent images of the divine. In this volume, the arts are re-framed as an examination of conflict, catharsis, and justice. Christian pacifism is given new partners with those in the just-war tradition. Women find a new voice to tell stories of abuse, oppression, and healing. Native American, Black, and Latinx voices call attention to buried stories calling for resurrection. The power of institutional structures is interrogated and challenged to act on prophetic missions of equality, healing, and justice.

In this book S. J. D. Green offers an important account of the causes, courses and consequences of the secularisation of English society. He argues that the critical cultural transformation of modern English society was forged in the agonised abandonment of a long-domesticated Protestant, Christian tradition between 1920 and 1960. Its effects were felt across the nation and among all classes. Yet their significance in the evolution of contemporary indigenous identities remains curiously neglected in most mainstream accounts of post-Victorian Britain. Dr Green traces the decline of English ecclesiastical institutions after 1918. He also investigates the eclipse of once-common moral sensibilities during the years up to 1945. Finally, he examines why subsequent efforts to reverse these trends so comprehensively failed. His work will be of enduring interest to modern historians, sociologists of religion, and all those concerned with the future of faith in Britain and beyond.

With its exalted emotionality, Pentecostalism is a widespread religious movement in Latin America and Africa. It is a blend of Methodism and African religious culture which arouses the passions of the poorest Brazilian masses. Pentecostal conversion is experienced as a sudden break which radically transforms the life of these sectors of the population. Pentecostalism is an Utopia of equality, love, and emotion, which is staged during the worship service. However, it is also characterized by authoritarian features. This book explores Pentecostalism and how it is slowly eroding the foundation of Western political categories.

This book offers a detailed analysis of one of the key episodes of twentieth-century ecumenism, focusing on the efforts made to reconcile the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain in the years since the First World War. Drawing on newly available archives as well as on a broad range of historical, theological, and liturgical expertise, the contributions explore what was attempted, why success proved elusive, and how the quest for unity was reconfigured into the twenty-first century. The volume sets contemporary ecumenical ambitions in historical context, explains the origins, course, and aftermath of the Anglican-Methodist 'Conversations' of 1955-72, retrieves their enduring global legacy, and explores the fraught nature of the ecumenical quest. It will be of key interest to scholars with an interest in ecumenism, Methodist studies, and church history.

Demonstrates the vital role Sunday schools played in forming and sustaining faith before, during, and after the First World War for British populations both at home and abroad. Sunday schools were an important part of the religious landscape of twentieth-century Britain and they were widely attended by much of the British population. The Sunday School Movement in Britain argues that the schools played a vital role in forming and sustaining the faith of those who lived and served during the First World War. Moreover, the volume contends that the conflict did not cause the schools to decline and proposes that decline instead set in much earlier in the twentieth century. The book also questions the perception that the schools were ineffective tools of religious socialisation and examines the continued attempts of the Sunday school movement to professionalise and improve their efforts. Thus, the involvement of the movement with the World's Sunday School Association is revealed to be part of the wider developing international ecumenical community during the twentieth century. Drawing together under-utilised material from archives and newspapers in national and local collections, The Sunday School Movement in Britain presents a history of the schools demonstrating their lasting significance in the religious life of the nation and, by extension, the enduring importance of Christianity in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century.

Faith Active in Love is a perspective on Michael Welker's theology - a Biblisch-realistische Theologie from a perspective of the Spirit. Van der Westhuizen argues that it is a multisystemic theology that in multiple tensions and triplexes - held together by the resurrection and resonance, the pouring out and structured pluralism, the reign and emergence - in complex ways cultivates a hermeneutic for faith active in love, a hermeneutic for public theology.

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) is often considered the Father of Modern Theology, known for his attempt to reconcile traditional Christian doctrines with philosophical criticisms and scientific discoveries. Despite the influence of his work on significant figures like Karl Barth, he has been largely ignored by contemporary theologians. Focussing on Schleiermacher's doctrine of sin, this book demonstrates how Schleiermacher has not only been misinterpreted, but also underestimated, and deserves a critical re-examination. The book approaches Schleiermacher on sin with respect to three themes: one, its power to transcend an intractable metaethical dilemma at the heart of modern debates over sin; two, its intended compatibility with natural science; and three, to re-evaluating its place, and so Schleiermacher's place, in the history of theology. It solves and dissolves problems arising simultaneously from natural science, confessional theology, ethics, and metaphysics in a single, integrated account using Schleiermacher's understudied thought from his dogmatics The Christian Faith. In contrast to the account sometimes given of modern theology as marked by a break with "Greek metaphysics," Schleiermacher's account is shown to stand in stark contrast by retrieving, not excising, ancient thought in service of an account of sin adequate to natural science. This is a vital rediscovery of a foundational voice in theology. As such, it will greatly appeal to scholars of Modern Theology, theological ethics, and the history of Modern Christianity.

This is the story of how the Protestants in the GDR struggled to survive while striving to put their theology into practice and remaining true to their vision of what the role of the church should be - a 'church for others' as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it. Having taken the reader from the foundation of the GDR, through the peaceful revolution, to the unification of Germany, the story ends with some reflections on the church's past as well as on the challenges it faces in present-day Europe. Protestants in Communist East Germany makes a unique contribution to existing literature by drawing not only on written sources but on a series of first-hand interviews with theologians, pastors and lay people of different ages whose experiences, views and analyses bring the story to life. The East German church's relationship to the state will probably always remain controversial and the vision for a different socialism in the GDR espoused by those involved in the peaceful revolution may now be considered illusory. Nevertheless, many of the issues raised by the Protestants in the GDR remain as vital challenges to the churches in Europe today. Foreword by Paul Oestreicher.

In this book Sunggu Yang proposes five socio-ecclesial codes as unique faith fundamentals of Korean American Christianity. Drawing from rigorous research and years of ecclesial experience, Yang names the codes as follows: the Wilderness Pilgrimage code, the Diasporic Mission Code, the Confucian Egalitarian code, the Buddhist Shamanistic code, and the Pentecostal Liberation code. These five codes, he asserts, help Korean Americans sustain their lives, culture, faith, and evangelical mission as aliens or "pilgrims" in the American "wilderness." Yang outlines how his five proposed codes serve as liberative and prophetic mechanisms of faith through which Korean Americans can contribute to racial harmony and cultural diversity in North America. In this sense, Korean American Christianity-its theology and spirituality-works not only on behalf of Korean Americans, but also for the sake of all Americans. Yang shows how the Korean American pulpit is the locus where these five codes appear most vividly.

This book highlights the life and writings of an itinerant preacher in John Wesley's Methodist Connexion, Thomas Wride (1733-1807). Detailed studies of such rank and file preachers are rare, as Methodist history has largely been written by and about its leadership. However, Wride's ministry shows us that the development of this worldwide movement was more complicated and uncertain than many accounts suggest. Wride's attitude was distinctive. He was no respecter of persons, freely criticising almost everyone he came across, and in doing so exposing debates and tensions within both Methodism and wider society. However, being so combative also led him into conflict with the very movement he sought to promote. Wride is an authentic, self-educated, and non-elite voice that illuminates important features of Eighteenth-Century life well beyond his religious activities. He sheds light on his contemporaries' attitudes to issues such as the role of women, attitudes towards and the practice of medicine, and the experience and interpretation of dreams and supernatural occurrences. This is a detailed insight into the everyday reality of being an Eighteenth-Century Methodist minister. As such, this text will be of interest to academics working in Methodist Studies and Religious History, as well as Eighteenth-Century History more generally.

This book brings together philosophical and theological perspectives on agapistic love. The aim of the text is to illuminate the nature of unlimited love by distinct and integrative approaches to the intersection of the divine and the human. Various scientific approaches to human forms of love seem to shed light on our nature as social beings. But to what extent are the natural desires for affection, sexual love and friendship augmented, revised, perfected or replaced by the gift of grace? In other words, we can ask how is it that agape modifies or shapes the natural loves? Diverse theological and moral traditions address the question in quite startling contrast. Thomists follow the dictum that 'Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it'. Lutherans draw a sharp contrast between law and Gospel while Wesleyans see charity as the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Some feminist theorists see the idea of self-giving love as contrary to genuine self-fulfilment while the neo-Kantians see love as a duty to others, and some Kierkegaardians see the command to love as an unusual manifestation of divine command ethics. These diverse approaches, in light of contemporary research in the natural and social sciences, can provide fertile ground for the exploration of the intersection of human and divine love. To date, there is no text available that brings scholars from various theological and philosophical backgrounds together to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue on this important and much neglected aspect of research into the human and divine loves. This book offers a significant attempt to remedy the situation.

Towards Liturgies that Reconcile reflects upon Christian worship as it is shaped, and mis-shaped, by human prejudice, specifically by racism. African Americans and European Americans have lived together for 400 years on the continent of North America, but they have done so as slave and master, outsider and insider, oppressed and oppressor. Scott Haldeman traces the development of Protestant worship among whites and blacks, showing that the following exist in tension: African American and European American Protestant liturgical traditions are both interdependent and distinct; and that multicultural communities must both understand and celebrate the uniqueness of various member groups while also accepting the risk and possibility of praying themselves into an integrated body, one new culture.

This volume is a unique interpretation of what Martin Luther contributes to renewed appreciation of Biblical diversity. The Church in the West is struggling. One reason behind this is that the prevailing models for Theology have imposed logical and modern ways of thinking about faith that renders theology academic, and therefore largely irrelevant for daily life. By letting the first Reformer speak for himself in this book, Mark Ellingsen shows how Martin Luther's theological approach can reform the Church's theology today. The real Luther-not the one taught by his various systematic interpreters-presents Christian faith in its entirety, with all its rough edges, in such a way as to direct on how and when to employ those dimensions of the Biblical witness most appropriate for the situation in which we find ourselves.

Can evangelicals and Roman Catholics be allies in the culture wars now being waged against Christian beliefs and values?

This courageous book seeks a way to allow sectarian strife between the two groups to give way to a decision to work together to mend the fabric of values that has been relentlessly rent in the last thirty-five years. Here, both evangelicals and Roman Catholic authors ask whether the time has come to present a united front against the onslaught of publicly sanctioned unbelief in the land.

Growing out of a historic seminar in the spring of 1994, this bold statement with its probing questions admits the deep differences in Roman Catholic and evangelical attitudes toward the Church, Papal authority, and the sacraments. But it also holds that with more openness, and more clarity about continuing doctrinal differences, enough common ground can be found to engage the larger enemy of skepticism that threatens the country's foundations.

Several of the contributors to this book have been criticized for daring to suggest cooperation between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. They respond with careful concern for their detractors but affirm courageously with Martin Luther: "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise."

All thinking Christians owe it to themselves to see whether this conviction is based on God's Word - and to consider the shared spiritual commitment proposed by these authors.

Latino Protestantism is growing rapidly in the United States. Researchers estimate that by 2030 half of all Latinos in America will be Protestant. This remarkable growth is not just about numbers. The rise of Latino Protestants will impact the changing nature of American politics, economics, and religion. Latino Protestants in America takes readers inside the numbers to highlight the many reasons Latino Protestants are growing as well as the diversity of this group. The book brings together the best existing scholarship on this group with original research to offer a nuanced picture of Latino Protestants in America, from worship practices to political engagement. The narrative helps readers move beyond misconceptions about Latino religion and offers a window into the diverse ways that religion plays out in real life. Latino Protestants in America is an essential resource for anyone interested in the beliefs and practices of this group, as well as the implications for its growth and areas for further study.

Of particular significance for an understanding of early Church history are the Waldensians, members of a dissident religious movement which originated in France in the twelfth century and resided primarily in the Duchy of Savoy and Northern and Southern Italy, before moving to other parts of Europe. Bringing together contributions by leading scholars in the field, this volume of essays discusses the construction and transmission of Waldensian identity through discourse and cultural production. It highlights in particular the religious and political significance of the Waldensians at an international level, not least with regard to the Reformation and its aftermath. Fundamental to the research presented are the rich holdings of Waldensian manuscripts in the Old Library of Trinity College Dublin and also in Cambridge, Geneva and Grenoble. The volume is divided into two parts and its first section, "Editing Waldensian Texts and Manuscripts", considers Waldensian texts and manuscripts, their circulation, physical characteristics, language and textual sources. The second section, "Constructing Waldensian Identity", examines the shifting representation of Waldensian identity through stereotypes, modern literature, the visual arts and historical accounts; the role played by specific libraries, individuals, gifts, and countries in promoting and fashioning Waldensian identity is also brought to light. A key aim of the volume is to offer a review of research to date and to point to future directions for study.

Protestants have been the dominant religious group since the colonial period, and they remain a vibrant and influential cultural force in the United States. But the term "Protestant" encompasses people with a vast range of beliefs, backgrounds, politics, and experiences, and this books provides an accessible introduction to this complex situation. The Protestant Experience in America lays out the history of Protestants in America, the core beliefs and common practices that they mostly share, the major events and controversies, and long-term trends for the future of Protestants in the United States. Even for those Americans intimately familiar with Protestant life and faith, The Protestant Expereince in America will give readers a new perspective on this important cultural influence in American life: BLProvides a concise overview of the core beliefs and common practices of most Protestants BLIntroduces the major events and controversies of the history of the Protestant faith in America BLIdentifies long term trends in Protestant life BLDiscusses the major figures in the history of Protestantism, from Jonathan Edwards to Martin Luther King, and how they impacted the daily life of Protestants

W.R. Ward was one of the most influential historians of modern religion to be found at work in Britain during the twentieth century. Across fifty years his writings provoked a major reconsideration by historians of the significance of religion in society and its importance in the contexts of political, cultural and intellectual life. Ward was, above all, an international scholar who did much to repudiate any settled understanding that religious history existed in merely national categories. In particular, he showed how much British and American religion owed to the insights of Continental European thought and experience. This book presents many of Ward's most important articles and gives a picture of the character, and extraordinary breadth, of his work. Embracing studies of John Wesley and the development of Methodism at large, the ambitions of Evangelicals in an age of international mission, the place of mysticism in evolution of Protestantism and the relations of churches and secular powers in the twentieth century, Andrew Chandler concludes that it was in such scholarship that Ward 'quietly recast the picture that we have of the past and drew our attention towards a far greater, more difficult and more interesting, landscape.'

With the extraordinary growth of Christianity in the global south has come the rise of "reverse missions," in which countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America send missionaries to re-evangelize the West. In The Spirit Moves West, Rebecca Kim focuses on South Korea as a case study of how non-Western missionaries evangelize Americans, particularly white Americans. Known as the "Asian Protestant Superpower," South Korea now sends more missionaries abroad than any country except the United States; there are approximately 22,000 Korean missionaries in over 160 countries. Drawing on four years of in-depth interviews, participant observation, and surveys of South Korea's largest non-denominational missionary-sending agency, University Bible Fellowship, Rebecca Kim gives us an inside look at reverse missions. Conducting her research both in the US and South Korea, she studies the motivations and methods of Korean evangelicals who have sought to "bring the gospel back" to America since the 1970s. She also explores how a mission movement from the global South could evolve over time in the West. The Spirit Moves West is the first empirically-grounded examination of a much-discussed phenomenon, which concludes by considering what the future of non-Western, especially Korean, missions will bring.

This book focuses on the historiography of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is a study of the various ways Adventist historians have approached history. The author concentrates on select historians whose publications cover important issues for Seventh-day Adventist history. Such historians are recognized for their contributions, both published and unpublished, that are foundational to Adventist history and historiography. The book analyzes basic historical facts as used in the writing of Seventh-day Adventist history. It is analytical in nature by using documentary sources including relevant books, articles, and other research materials. It departs from using a strict chronological approach and instead focuses on major themes from Adventist history that illustrate Adventist historiography. Recommendations Gabriel Masfa has described the various threads of Seventh-day Adventist approaches to history. His book is a masterful treatment of a wide variety of approaches. It is an indispensable introduction to a fascinating historical topic. Edward Allen, President of the Association of Adventist Historians. Professor of Religion, Union College, Nebraska, United States Dr. Masfa's monograph is to be welcomed as the first critical historiographical analysis of Adventist Studies and the first substantive history of Seventh-day Adventist historiography. David Trim, Ph.D., F.R. Hist. S. Director of Archives, Statistics, and Research General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists This work will remain the benchmark standard for Adventist historiography for some time to come, and for this, the author must be commended. Michael W. Campbell, Ph. D, Professor of Religion at Southwestern Adventist University, Texas, United States

W.R. Ward was one of the most influential historians of modern religion to be found at work in Britain during the twentieth century. Across fifty years his writings provoked a major reconsideration by historians of the significance of religion in society and its importance in the contexts of political, cultural and intellectual life. Ward was, above all, an international scholar who did much to repudiate any settled understanding that religious history existed in merely national categories. In particular, he showed how much British and American religion owed to the insights of Continental European thought and experience. This book presents many of Ward's most important articles and gives a picture of the character, and extraordinary breadth, of his work. Embracing studies of John Wesley and the development of Methodism at large, the ambitions of Evangelicals in an age of international mission, the place of mysticism in evolution of Protestantism and the relations of churches and secular powers in the twentieth century, Andrew Chandler concludes that it was in such scholarship that Ward 'quietly recast the picture that we have of the past and drew our attention towards a far greater, more difficult and more interesting, landscape.'

Theologians and scholars of religion draw on rich resources to address the complex issues raised by political reconciliation in the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. The questions addressed include: Can truth set a person, or a society, free? How is political forgiveness possible? Are political, personal, and spiritual reconciliation essentially related? Explorations in Reconciliation brings Catholic, Protestant, Mennonite, Jewish and Islamic perspectives together within a single volume to present some of the most relevant theological work today. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/ISBN, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. The support of the Irish School of Ecumenics Trust in making this OA version possible is gratefully acknowledged.

Drawing extensively on primary sources, this pioneer work in modern religious history explores the training of preachers, the construction of sermons, and the shaping of the preaching event by Irish evangelicalism and the wider evangelicalism of Great Britain and the United States. Dickson examines evangelical preaching, politics, sectarianism, denominations, education, class, social reform, gender, and revival in order to advance the argument that evangelical sermons and preaching went significantly beyond religious discourse in 19th-century Ireland. This book will interest students of Irish history, culture, and belief; popular religion and society; evangelicalism; preaching and communication.

This study challenges critical assumptions about the role of religion in shaping women's experiences of authorship. Feminist critics have frequently been uncomfortable with the fact that conservative religious and political beliefs created opportunities for women to write with independent agency. The seventeenth-century Protestant women discussed in this book range across the religio-political and social spectrums and yet all display an affinity with modern feminist theologians. Rather than being victims of a patriarchal gender ideology, Lady Anne Sothwell, Anna Trapnel and Lucy Hutchinson, among others, were both active negotiators of gender and active participants in wider theological debates. By placing women's religious writing in a broad theological and socio-political context, Erica Longfellow challenges traditional critical assumptions about the role of gender in shaping religion and politics, and, alongside it, the role of women in defining gender and thus influencing religion and politics.

This book brings together Methodist scholars and reflective practitioners from around the world to consider how emerging practices of mission and evangelism shape contemporary theologies of mission. Engaging contemporary issues including migration, nationalism, climate change, postcolonial contexts, and the growth of the Methodist church in the Global South, this book examines multiple forms of mission, including evangelism, education, health, and ministries of compassion. A global group of contributors discusses mission as no longer primarily a Western activity but an enterprise of the entire church throughout the world. This volume will be of interest to researchers studying missiology, evangelism, global Christianity, and Methodism and to students of Methodism and mission.