The Lutheran Reformation of the early sixteenth century brought about immense and far-reaching change in the structures of church and state, and in religious and secular ideas. This book investigates the relationship between the law and religious ideology in Luther's Germany, showing how they developed in response to the momentum of Lutheran teachings and influence. John Witte, Jr. argues that it is not enough to understand the Reformation in either only theological or legal terms but that a perspective is required which takes proper account of both.

This book marks a major development in our understanding of the religious history of both Europe and North America during the first half of the eighteenth century. It studies the early history of the Protestant revival movements from a pan-European, as well as Anglo-American viewpoint, and shows the interrelationships and movements among the major Protestant communities. It is a contribution to the history not only of religious belief and practice, but also to that of the successes and failures of eighteenth-century statecraft in dealing with problems of religious excitement and division during an age of enlightenment. It is based on a vast range of archival resources and published scholarly work ranging from Eastern Europe to the American colonies.

The Reformation: A Brief History is a succinct and engaging introduction to the origins and history of the Protestant Reformation. * A rich overview of the Reformation, skillfully blending social, political, religious and theological dimensions * A clearly and engagingly written narrative which draws on the latest and best scholarship * Includes the history of the Reformation in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, areas that are rarely covered in any detail * The Reformation is placed in the context of the entire history of Christianity to draw out its origins, impetus, and legacy

Contingent Citizens features fourteen essays that track changes in the ways Americans have perceived the Latter-day Saints since the 1830s. From presidential politics, to political violence, to the definition of marriage, to the meaning of sexual equality-the editors and contributors place Mormons in larger American histories of territorial expansion, religious mission, Constitutional interpretation, and state formation. These essays also show that the political support of the Latter-day Saints has proven, at critical junctures, valuable to other political groups. The willingness of Americans to accept Latter-day Saints as full participants in the United States political system has ranged over time and been impelled by political expediency, granting Mormons in the United States an ambiguous status, contingent on changing political needs and perceptions. Contributors: Matthew C. Godfrey, Church History Library; Amy S. Greenberg, Penn State University; J. B. Haws, Brigham Young University; Adam Jortner, Auburn University; Matthew Mason, Brigham Young University; Patrick Q. Mason, Claremont Graduate University; Benjamin E. Park, Sam Houston State University; Thomas Richards, Jr., Springside Chestnut Hill Academy; Natalie Rose, Michigan State University; Stephen Eliot Smith, University of Otago; Rachel St. John, University of California Davis

For 50 years, Margaret Mead told Americans how cultures worked, and Americans listened. While serving as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and as a professor of anthropology at Columbia University, she published dozens of books and hundreds of articles, scholarly and popular, on topics ranging from adolescence to atomic energy, Polynesian kinship networks to kindergarten, national morale to marijuana. At her death in 1978, she was the most famous anthropologist in the world and one of the best-known women in America. She had amply achieved her goal, as she described it to an interviewer in 1975, "To have lived long enough to be of some use." As befits her prominence, Mead has had many biographers, but there is a curious hole at the center of these accounts: Mead's faith. Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith introduces a side of its subject that few people know. It re-narrates her life and reinterprets her work, highlighting religious concerns. Following Mead's lead, it ranges across areas that are typically kept academically distinct: anthropology, gender studies, intellectual history, church history, and theology. It is a portrait of a mind at work, pursuing a unique vision of the good of the world.

The publication of a critical-historical edition of the works of August Hermann Francke continues with the second volume of his writings on Biblical hermeneutics. In addition to an extensive introduction, this volume again providesnotes about the sources for each printed work plus multiple indices.

The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume I traces the emergence of Anglophone Protestant Dissent in the post-Reformation era between the Act of Uniformity (1559) and the Act of Toleration (1689). It reassesses the relationship between establishment and Dissent, emphasising that Presbyterians and Congregationalists were serious contenders in the struggle for religious hegemony. Under Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts, separatists were few in number, and Dissent was largely contained within the Church of England, as nonconformists sought to reform the national Church from within. During the English Revolution (1640-60), Puritan reformers seized control of the state but splintered into rival factions with competing programmes of ecclesiastical reform. Only after the Restoration, following the ejection of two thousand Puritan clergy from the Church, did most Puritans become Dissenters, often with great reluctance. Dissent was not the inevitable terminus of Puritanism, but the contingent and unintended consequence of the Puritan drive for further reformation. The story of Dissent is thus bound up with the contest for the established Church, not simply a heroic tale of persecuted minorities contending for religious toleration. Nevertheless, in the half century after 1640, religious pluralism became a fact of English life, as denominations formed and toleration was widely advocated. The volume explores how Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers began to forge distinct identities as the four major denominational traditions of English Dissent. It tracks the proliferation of Anglophone Protestant Dissent beyond England-in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Dutch Republic, New England, Pennsylvania, and the Caribbean. And it presents the latest research on the culture of Dissenting congregations, including their relations with the parish, their worship, preaching, gender relations, and lay experience.

AQUINAS AMONG THE PROTESTANTS This major new book provides an introduction to Thomas Aquinas's influence on Protestantism. The editors, both noted commentators on Aquinas, bring together a group of influential scholars to demonstrate the ways that Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed thinkers have analyzed and used Thomas through the centuries. Later chapters also explore how today's Protestants might appropriate the work of Aquinas to address a number of contemporary theological and philosophical issues. The authors set the record straight and disavow the widespread impression that Aquinas is an irrelevant figure for the history of Protestant thought. This assumption has dominated not only Protestant historiography but also Roman Catholic accounts of the Reformation and Protestant intellectual life. The book opens the possibility for contemporary reception, engagement, and critique and even intra-Protestant relations and includes: Information on the fruitful appropriation of Aquinas in Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed theologians over the centuries Important essays from leading scholars on the teachings of Aquinas New perspectives on Thomas Aquinas's position as a towering figure in the history of Christian thought Aquinas Among the Protestants is a ground-breaking and interdenominational work for students and scholars of Thomas Aquinas and theology more generally.

This volume contains studies on two of the most fascinating personalities in the academic world of the 20th century. In their common years in Heidelberg, both Weber and Troeltsch developed a research program in sociology of religion which was devoted to the analysis of the "cultural importance" of religion, in particular Protestant piety. Their common interest in an analytical explanation of religion as vital power ("Lebensmacht"), however, resulted in different and competing theoretical programs. The studies in this book explore the constellations of the two men's lives and works.

Given the significance of spiritual direction in modern Christianity, surprisingly little attention has been given to the tradition upon which today's spiritual direction is built. A long and interesting history does exist, though, as shown by Patricia Ranft in A Woman's Way. Ranft's insights shed light on the understanding society had of women as spiritual beings and on the position of women in a Christian society. This book delineates the history of spiritual direction for women and by women within the larger context of the history of Christian spirituality and its understanding of human perfectibility. By examining the ways in which women practiced spiritual direction, this study reveals the degree to which women influenced society by using an avenue of influence previously overlooked by scholars.

John Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, one of the most notorious political tracts of the sixteenth century, has been more often referred to than read. Its true significance as one of a series of pamphlets which Knox wrote in 1558 on the theme of rebellion is therefore easily overlooked. This new edition of his writings includes not only The First Blast, but the three other tracts of 1558 -The Letter to the Regent of Scotland, The Appellation to the Scottish Nobility, and The Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland - in which Knox confronted the problem of resistance to tyranny. Related material, mostly drawn from Knox's own History of the Reformation in Scotland, illuminates the development of his views before 1558 and illustrates their application in the specific circumstances of the Scottish Reformation and the rule of Mary Queen of Scots. This edition thus brings together for the first time all of Knox's most important writings on rebellion.

John Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, one of the most notorious political tracts of the sixteenth century, has been more often referred to than read. Its true significance as one of a series of pamphlets which Knox wrote in 1558 on the theme of rebellion is therefore easily overlooked. This new edition of his writings includes not only The First Blast, but the three other tracts of 1558 -The Letter to the Regent of Scotland, The Appellation to the Scottish Nobility, and The Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland - in which Knox confronted the problem of resistance to tyranny. Related material, mostly drawn from Knox's own History of the Reformation in Scotland, illuminates the development of his views before 1558 and illustrates their application in the specific circumstances of the Scottish Reformation and the rule of Mary Queen of Scots. This edition thus brings together for the first time all of Knox's most important writings on rebellion.

This book offers a creative and illuminating discussion of Protestant theology. Veteran teacher Phillip Cary explains how Luther's theology arose from the Christian tradition, particularly from the spirituality of Augustine. Luther departed from the Augustinian tradition and inaugurated distinctively Protestant theology when he identified the gospel that gives us Christ as its key concept. More than any other theologian, Luther succeeds in carrying out the Protestant intention of putting faith in the gospel of Christ alone. Cary also explores the consequences of Luther's teachings as they unfold in the history of Protestantism.

This study investigates the historical and political conditions which have contributed to the state of the Protestant community in China, and the kinds of spirituality and religious life that it has evolved. The authors draw on extensive fieldwork, and offer fascinating insights into the beliefs and practices of a little-documented section of Chinese society. They show that healing, protection, and vengeance by gods have been deep-rooted elements of Chinese religiosity for several hundred years, notions appropriated by Christians who now emphasize the powers of Jesus. Chinese Protestantism is seen to result from an interesting blend of the old and the new, and comparative material is adduced which sets Protestantism side by side with Catholicism and Buddhism, the two religions in China of comparable scope. A wide range of sources are utilized by the authors, and these lead to one of the most complete and detailed surveys of Christianity in China ever produced.

This book studies the early history of the Protestant revival movements of the eighteenth century from a European as well as Anglo-American perspective. Professor Ward examines the crisis in the Protestant world beyond that established and protected by the Westphalia treaties, and its impact upon the morale of Protestant communities which enjoyed diplomatic guarantees or other forms of public protection. He traces the widespread outbreak of forms of revival to the emergence of a common Protestant mind, shaped by the appreciation of common problems. The religious effects of widespread emigration produced by persecution, war and distress are traced, and the chronology of the familiar revivals of the West is related to the crises of Eastern revival. The Protestant Evangelical Awakening is based on archival and published resources extending from Eastern Europe to the American colonies, and marks a major contribution to our understanding of the religious history of both continents.

The religious revolution known as the 'Reformation' must rank among the most crucial and transforming events in English history. Yet its original reception by the English people remains largely obscure. Did they welcome the innovations - or did they resist? By what internal motivations were their responses determined? And by what external influences were their attitudes shaped? These are the key issues explored by Robert Whiting in this major investigation, based primarily on original research in the south-west. Dr Whiting's controversial conclusion is that for most of the population the Reformation was less a conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism than a transition from religious commitment to religious passivity or even indifference.

Ab 1906 erschienen unter der Leitung des Kulturphilosophen Paul Hinneberg im Leipziger Teubner-Verlag die ersten Bande einer ehrgeizigen Enzyklopadie: "Die Kultur der Gegenwart, ihre Entwicklung und ihre Ziele" lautete der Titel dieser systematisch aufgebauten Gesamtdarstellung der Gegenwartskultur. Ernst Troeltsch oblag die Abfassung des Abschnittes uber Protestantisches Christentum und Kirche in der Neuzeit, der 1906 in erster Auflage erschien und 1909 in einer stark erweiterten zweiten Auflage, die 1922 noch einmal unverandert abgedruckt wurde. Im vorliegenden Band wird Troeltschs Studie erstmals als separate Buchausgabe prasentiert. Troeltsch rekonstruiert in dieser Abhandlung die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Protestantismus von der Reformation bis in die Gegenwart. Als Leitfaden dient ihm die Unterscheidung zwischen einer altprotestantischen Epoche, die starker dem Mittelalter angehoert, und der neuprotestantischen Epoche, die er eher der aufgeklarten Neuzeit zurechnet. Troeltsch macht die epochalen Differenzen durchsichtig, indem er insbesondere die Wandlungen in den Kulturbeziehungen und damit in der Kulturbedeutung des Protestantismus herausstreicht. Dieser Beitrag in der "Kultur der Gegenwart" begrundete Troeltschs Ruhm als Kulturtheoretiker des Neuprotestantismus.

The career of the Revd Ian Paisley raises vital questions about the links between religion and politics in the modern world. Paisley is unique in having founded his own church and party and led both to success, so that he effectively has a veto over political developments in Northern Ireland. Steve Bruce draws on over 20 years of close acquaintance with Paisley's people to describe and explain Paisleyism. In this clearly written account, Bruce charts Paisley's movement from the maverick fringes to the centre of Ulster politics and discusses in detail the changes in his party that accompanied its rise. At the heart of this account are vital questions for modern societies. How can religion and politics mix? Do different religions produce different sorts of politics? What is clear is that Paisley's people are not jihadis intent on imposing their religion on the unGodly. For all that religion plays a vital part in Paisley's personal political drive and explains some of his success, he plays by the rules of liberal democracy.

In this book, twelve historians examine the nature of the American Protestant establishment and its response to the growing pluralism of this century. The authors conclude that the period surveyed forms a distinct epoch in the evolution of American Protestantism. The days when Protestant cultural authority could be taken for granted were over, but a new era in which religious pluralism would be widely accepted had not yet arrived.

In Jonathan Edwards on God and Creation, Oliver D. Crisp considers two central themes in Edwards's thought--namely, his doctrine of God and his understanding of the created order, and how God and creation interrelate. Crisp argues that Edwards offers some truly original insights on these twin loci that have important implications for current theological discussion. What emerges is a picture of Edwards's understanding of God's relationship to the created order that differs in important respects from those offered by several influential recent interpreters.
Crisp does not flinch from showing where Edwards made mistakes as well as where he offers fresh insights. Edwards is shown to be at once relevant to current discussion of issues like perfect being theology, panentheism, divine freedom or union with Christ, while remaining something of an idiosyncratic figure whose idealism and commitment to an uncompromising theological determinism can seem out of step with certain modern sensibilities. But, argues Crisp, even if we disagree with the conclusions Edwards reaches, which sometimes jar with our own intuitions about the divine nature or the created order, the clarity, rigor and sheer originality of his thinking offer an important set of themes and ideas with which contemporary theologians can fruitfully engage as they set about the task of constructive theology.

Scholars have associated Calvinism with print and literary cultures, with republican, liberal, and participatory political cultures, with cultures of violence and vandalism, enlightened cultures, cultures of social discipline, secular cultures, and with the emergence of capitalism. Reflecting on these arguments, the essays in this volume recognize that Reformed Protestantism did not develop as a uniform tradition but varied across space and time. The authors demonstrate that multiple iterations of Calvinism developed and impacted upon differing European communities that were experiencing social and cultural transition. They show how these different forms of Calvinism were shaped by their adherents and opponents, and by the divergent political and social contexts in which they were articulated and performed. Recognizing that Reformed Protestantism developed in a variety of cultural settings, this volume analyzes the ways in which it related to the multi-confessional cultural environment that prevailed in Europe after the Reformation.

Congregational Music, Conflict and Community is the first study of the music of the contemporary 'worship wars' - conflicts over church music that continue to animate and divide Protestants today - to be based on long-term in-person observation and interviews. It tells the story of the musical lives of three Canadian Mennonite congregations, who sang together despite their musical differences at the height of these debates in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Mennonites are among the most music-centered Christian groups in North America, and each congregation felt deeply about the music they chose as their own. The congregations studied span the spectrum from traditional to blended to contemporary worship styles, and from evangelical to liberal Protestant theologies. At their core, the book argues, worship wars are not fought in order to please congregants' musical tastes nor to satisfy the theological principles held by a denomination. Instead, the relationships and meanings shaped through individuals' experiences singing in the particular ways afforded by each style of worship are most profoundly at stake in the worship wars. As such, this book will be of keen interest to scholars working across the fields of religious studies and ethnomusicology.