Originally published in 1948, Christianity and Fear explores the nature and history of Christian love in relation to the problem of fear. Based on methods of depth psychology and mental hygiene, the book argues for the necessity of a general concentration of the Christian religion and way of life upon the unity of love through faith and faith through love. It presents the struggle between the teaching of Christian love and the many instances of disputes on dogma that have prompted hatred and fear throughout ecclesiastical history. By using the theory of fear and compulsions, it attempts to explain the directions assumed by these aberrations in Christian history and to highlight love as the essence of the teaching of Jesus. Christianity and Fear will appeal to those with an interest in the history of Christianity, theology, and the psychology of religion.

The conversion of the lands on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea by Germans, Danes and Swedes in the period from 1150 to 1400 represented the last great struggle between Christianity and paganism on the European continent, but for the indigenous peoples of Finland, Livonia, Prussia, Lithuania and Pomerania, it was also a period of wider cultural conflict and transformation. Along with the Christian faith came a new and foreign culture: the German and Scandinavian languages of the crusaders and the Latin of their priests, new names for places, superior military technology, and churches and fortifications built of stone. For newly baptized populations, the acceptance of Christianity encompassed major changes in the organization and practice of political, religious and social life, entailing the acceptance of government by alien elites, of new cultic practices, and of new obligations such as taxes, tithes and military service in the armies of the Christian rulers. At the same time, as the Western conquerors carried their campaigns beyond pagan territory into the principalities of north-western Russia, the Baltic Crusades also developed into a struggle between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This collection of sixteen essays by both established and younger scholars explores the theme of clash of cultures from a variety of perspectives, discussing the nature and ideology of crusading in the medieval Baltic region, the struggle between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and the cultural confrontation that accompanied the process of conversion, in subjects as diverse as religious observation, political structures, the practice of warfare, art and music, and perceptions of the landscape.

The Boke of Gostely Grace is the anonymous Middle English version of the Liber specialis gratiae by the German visionary Mechthild of Hackeborn (1241-1298). The original Liber, compiled at the convent of Helfta in Saxony, presents Mechthild's visions as she experienced them in the liturgy of the Christian year. Her famous visions of the Sacred Heart follow, along with instructions on the religious life in community and her visions of the afterlife. The Middle English version adapts the text to a new fifteenth-century audience, probably a Birgittine community such as the newly founded Syon Abbey on the Thames near London; it emphasises imagery of the dance of the liturgy, the vineyard and the Sacred Heart in new and vivid terms, while other aspects, such as the bridal imagery, are played down. Within a generation, the English text had become popular among the nobility, and stimulated lay piety and private prayer. While scholars have traced the influence and reception of many continental European women writers, Mechthild's revelations have often escaped their attention, through the lack of suitable editions. This edition of Bodley 220, the manuscript written in the London area, includes introduction, commentary and glossary, and breaks new ground in the study of late medieval vernacular translation and women's literary culture.

Throughout the twentieth century, Britain produced some of the most prominent evangelical theologians in both church and academic circles. This survey and introduction, edited by Thomas Noble and Jason Sexton, presents twelve of these theologians, exploring what made their work so influential and their continued relevance for today. As well as surveying each man's work, British Evangelical Theologians of the Twentieth Century considers what is meant by calling these theologians 'evangelical' Christians - taking into account their understanding of biblical authority, standing in the Reformation tradition and treatment of Scripture as well as their approaches to biblical criticism and liberal theology. As a result, it is ideal for students looking to deeper their understanding of British evangelical Christianity as a whole, as well as increasing their knowledge of the individual figures From James Orr and Lesslie Newbigin to John Stott and J. I. Packer, a range of perspectives within British evangelicalism is reflected. Along with brief biographies, each body of work is examined in three particular areas: stance on the Bible ('biblicism'), the atonement ('crucicentrism'), and concern for mission and evangelism ('conversionism'). British Evangelical Theologians of the Twentieth Century is a thorough introduction to twelve of the keenest and most influential minds in British evangelical thought. It will leave you with an appreciation of each man's contribution to English-speaking evangelicalism, as well as helping you to engage critically with their theology and understand how their work is relevant to the development and discussion of British evangelical theology today.

This book, first published in 1974, shows how social class and origins in mid-nineteenth century Aberdeen were reflected in religious belief and observance, and how in turn this acted as a catalyst for change in society. Through a detailed analysis of this topic, particularly in relation to the Presbyterian denominations, the author directs fresh light on the emergence and development of the Free Church. The Disruption in the Church of Scotland is examined within the context of changes which had taken place in the form of industrial production, whereby the city as a centre of manufacturing had replaced the domestic production of the countryside. The concomitant changes in the social structure, and the divisions which resulted within the old ruling families, are probed. The social patterns of adherence to the Established and Free Churches are analysed in detail, and the subsequent development of the Free Church is examined in terms of the social support it enjoyed in 1843.

The purpose of this book, first published in 1945, is to consider the problem of religion in its relation to the family. Even in 1945 there had been much talk regarding the break-up of family life and the weakening of parental control, and this book examines the role of religion in the social changes within the family unit.

Approaching Wordsworth' writings from perspectives which have not been considered in critical literature, this book offers a multiangled reflection on the technicalities of the poet's religious discourse, including the methodology of The Prelude revision, or Wordsworth's patent art of "pious postscripts." The book constitutes a self-contained whole and can be read independently. Simultaneously, it creates an unusual duet with The Absent God in The Works of William Wordsworth, whose six chapters follow this book's eight chapters like a sestet which complements the octave-becoming, thus, a tribute to Wordsworth as one of the most prolific sonneteers in history. Both monographs build their theses on Wordsworth's entire oeuvre and embrace the whole of his wide lifespan. Their completion in 2020 coincides with several round anniversaries: the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth's birth, the 200th anniversary of The River Duddon, and the 170th anniversary of the publication of his autobiographical masterpiece, The Prelude.

This volume covers a period of major change that had a lasting impact on art, science, economics, political thought, and education. Rudolph W. Heinze examines the various positions taken by medieval church reformers, explores the efforts of the leading reformer Martin Luther, and emphasises how the reformations brought moral and doctrinal changes to Christianity, permanently altering the religious landscape, then and now.

Princes, Pastors and People traces the many changes in religious life that took place in the turbulent years of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book explains the major historical controversies surrounding the period:
* the English Reformation
* the popularity of the Elizabethan Protestant Church
* the impact of the Laudian innovations of the 1630s
* the Puritan attempt to control popular culture and belief
Princes, Pastors and People also charts the long-term developments across the period in all the key areas including doctrinal and liturgical change, the role of the clergy and the importance of religion in the everyday lives of people.

Why did the medieval West condemn clerical marriage as an abomination while the Byzantine Church affirmed its sanctifying nature? This book brings together ecclesiastical, legal, social, and cultural history in order to examine how Byzantine and Western medieval ecclesiastics made sense of their different rules of clerical continence. Western ecclesiastics condemned clerical marriage for three key reasons: married clerics could alienate ecclesiastical property for the sake of their families; they could secure careers in the Church for their sons, restricting ecclesiastical positions and lands to specific families; and they could pollute the sacred by officiating after having had sex with their wives. A comparative study shows that these offending risk factors were absent in twelfth-century Byzantium: clerics below the episcopate did not have enough access to ecclesiastical resources to put the Church at financial risk; clerical dynasties were understood within a wider frame of valued friendship networks; and sex within clerical marriage was never called impure in canon law, as there was little drive to use pollution discourses to separate clergy and laity. These facts are symptomatic of a much wider difference between West and East, impinging on ideas about social order, moral authority, and reform.

The historian's task involves unmasking the systems of power that underlie our sources. A historian must not only analyze the content and context of ancient sources, but also the structures of power, authority, and political contingency that account for their transmission, preservation, and survival. But as a tool for interpreting antiquity, "authority" has a history of its own. As authority gained pride of place in the historiographical order of knowledge, other types of contingency have faded into the background. This book's introduction traces the genesis and growth of the category, describing the lacuna that scholars seek to fill by framing texts through its lens. The subsequent chapters comprise case studies from late ancient Christian and Jewish sources, asking what lies "beyond authority" as a primary tool of analysis. Each uncovers facets of textual and social history that have been obscured by overreliance on authority as historical explanation. While chapters focus on late ancient topics, the methodological intervention speaks to the discipline of history as a whole. Scholars of classical antiquity and the early medieval world will find immediately analogous cases and applications. Furthermore, the critique of the place of authority as used by historians will find wider resonance across the academic study of history.

Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho is the oldest preserved literary dialogue between a Jew and a Christian and a key text for understanding the development of early Judaism and Christianity. In Between Jews and Heretics, Matthijs den Dulk argues that whereas scholarship has routinely cast this important text in terms of "Christianity vs. Judaism," its rhetorical aims and discursive strategies are considerably more complex, because Justin is advocating his particular form of Christianity in constant negotiation with rival forms of Christianity. The striking new interpretation proposed in this study explains many of the Dialogue's puzzling features and sheds new light on key passages. Because the Dialogue is a critical document for the early history of Jews and Christians, this book contributes to a range of important questions, including the emergence of the notion of heresy and the "parting of the ways" between Jews and Christians.

Most Wesleyan-Holiness churches started in the US, developing out of the Methodist roots of the nineteenth-century Holiness Movement. The American origins of the Holiness movement have been charted in some depth, but there is currently little detail on how it developed outside of the US. This book seeks to redress this imbalance by giving a history of North American Wesleyan-Holiness churches in Australia, from their establishment in the years following the Second World War, as well as of The Salvation Army, which has nineteenth-century British origins. It traces the way some of these churches moved from marginalised sects to established denominations, while others remained small and isolated. Looking at The Church of God (Anderson), The Church of God (Cleveland), The Church of the Nazarene, The Salvation Army, and The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Australia, the book argues two main points. Firstly, it shows that rather than being American imperialism at work, these religious expressions were a creative partnership between like-minded evangelical Christians from two modern nations sharing a general cultural similarity and set of religious convictions. Secondly, it demonstrates that it was those churches that showed the most willingness to be theologically flexible, even dialling down some of their Wesleyan distinctiveness, that had the most success. This is the first book to chart the fascinating development of Holiness churches in Australia. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of Wesleyans and Methodists, as well as religious history and the sociology of religion more generally.

Preaching was an integral part of the crusade movement. This book focuses on the efforts of the first four Avignon popes to organize crusade preaching campaigns to the Eastern Mediterranean and on the role of the secular and regular clergy in their implementation. Historians have treated the fall of Acre in 1291 as an arbitrary boundary in crusader studies for far too long. The period 1305-1352 was particularly significant for crusade preaching, yet it has not been studied in detail. This volume thus constitutes an important addition to the flourishing field of late medieval crusade historiography. The core of the book deals with two interlocking themes: the liturgy for the Holy Land and the popular response to crusade preaching between the papacies of Clement V and Clement VI. The book analyses the evolving use of the liturgy for the crusade in combination with preaching and it illustrates the catalytic role of these measures in driving popular pro-crusade sentiments. A key theme in the account is the analysis of the surviving crusade sermons of the Parisian theologians from the era. Critical editions of these previously neglected propagandistic texts are a valuable addition to our corpus of papal correspondence relating to the crusades in the later Middle Ages. This book will be of interest both to specialized historians and to students of late medieval crusading.

Historians have long relied on Bede's Ecclesiastical History for their narrative of early Christian Anglo-Saxon England, but what material lay behind Bede's own narrative? What were his sources and how reliable were they? How much was based on contemporary material? How much on later evidence? What was rhetoric? What represents his own agendas, deductions or even inventions? This book represents the first systematic attempt to answer these questions for Bede's History, taking as a test case the coherent narrative of the Gregorian mission and the early Church in Kent. Through this critique, it becomes possible, for the first time, to catalogue Bede's sources and assess their origins, provenance and value - even reconstructing the original shape of many that are now lost. The striking paucity of his primary sources for the period emerges clearly. This study explains the reason why this was the case. At the same time, Bede is shown to have had access to a greater variety of texts, especially documentary, than has previously been realised. This volume thus reveals Bede the historian at work, with implications for understanding his monastery, library and intellectual milieu together with the world in which he lived and worked. It also showcases what can be achieved using a similar methodology for the rest of the Ecclesiastical History and for other contemporary works. Most importantly, thanks to this study, it is now feasible - indeed necessary - for subsequent historians to base their reconstructions of the events of c.600 not on Bede but on his sources. As a result, this book lays the foundations for future work on the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England and offers the prospect of replacing and not merely refining Bede's narrative of the history of early Christian Kent.

The Tropologion is considered the earliest known extant chant book from the early Christian world which was in use until the twelfth century. The study of this book is still in its infancy. It has generally been believed that the book has survived in Georgian translation under the name 'ladgari' but similar books have been discovered in Greek, Syriac and Armenian. All the copies clearly show that the spread and the use of the book were much greater than we had previously assumed and the Georgian ladgari is only one of its many versions. The study of these issues unquestionably confirms the earliest stage of the compilation of the book, in Jerusalem or its environs, and shows its uninterrupted development from Jerusalem to the Stoudios monastery, the most important monastery of Constantinople. Over time many new pieces and new authors were added to the Tropologion. It is almost certain that it was the Stoudios school of poet-composers that divided the content of the Tropologion and compiled separate collections of books, each one containing a major liturgical cycle. In the beginning all of the volumes kept the old title but in the tenth century the copies of the book were renamed, probably according to the liturgical repertory included, and by the thirteenth century the title 'Tropologion' is no longer found in the Greek sources as it became superfluous, and fell out of use.

This book offers a systematic, chronological analysis of the role played by the human senses in experiencing pilgrimage and sacred places, past and present. It thus addresses two major gaps in the existing literature, by providing a broad historical narrative against which patterns of continuity and change can be more meaningfully discussed, and focusing on the central, but curiously neglected, area of the core dynamics of pilgrim experience. Bringing together the still-developing fields of Pilgrimage Studies and Sensory Studies in a historically framed conversation, this interdisciplinary study traces the dynamics of pilgrimage and engagement with holy places from the beginnings of the Judaeo-Christian tradition to the resurgence of interest evident in twenty-first century England. Perspectives from a wide range of disciplines, from history to neuroscience, are used to examine themes including sacred sites in the Bible and Early Church; pilgrimage and holy places in early and later medieval England; the impact of the English Reformation; revival of pilgrimage and sacred places during the nineteenth and twentieth Centuries; and the emergence of modern place-centred, popular 'spirituality'. Addressing the resurgence of pilgrimage and its persistent link to the attachment of meaning to place, this book will be a key reference for scholars of Pilgrimage Studies, History of Religion, Religious Studies, Sensory Studies, Medieval Studies, and Early Modern Studies.

In the second half of the twelfth century, the Catholic Church became convinced that dualist heresy was taking root within Christian society and that it was particularly strong in southern France. The nature and extent of this heresy and the reaction of the Church to the perceived threat have been the focus of extensive research since the mid-nineteenth century, research which has become especially intense in the last decade. Malcolm Barber's second edition of The Cathars (which first appeared in 2000) brings readers up-to-date with the challenges to previous conclusions of recent scholarship. At the same time, the wider implications of the subject remain relevant, most importantly the fundamental questions raised by the belief in the existence of evil, the ethical problems presented by the use of coercion to suppress forms of dissent believed to threaten the social and religious fabric, and the distortion of the past to underpin present-day policies and arguments.

Why have Western societies that were once overwhelmingly Christian become so secular? Looking to the feelings and faith of ordinary people, the award-winning author of Protestants Alec Ryrie offers a bold new history of atheism. We think we know the history of faith: how the ratio of Christian believers has declined and a secular age dawned. In this startlingly original history, Alex Ryrie puts faith in the dock to explore how religious belief didn’t just fade away. Rather, atheism bloomed as a belief system in its own right. Unbelievers looks back to the middle ages when it seemed impossible not to subscribe to Christianity, through the crisis of the Reformation and to the powerful, challenging cultural currents of the centuries since. As this history shows, the religious journey of the Western world was lived and steered not just by published philosophy and the celebrated thinkers of the day – the Machiavellis and Michel de Montaignes – but by men and women at every level of society. Their voices and feelings permeate this book in the form of diaries, letters and court records. Tracing the roots of atheism, Ryrie shows that our emotional responses to the times can lead faith to wax and wane: anger at a corrupt priest or anxiety in a turbulent moment spark religious doubt as powerfully as any intellectual revolution. With Christianity under contest and ethical redefinitions becoming more and more significant, Unbelievers shows that to understand how something as intuitive as belief is shaped over time, we must look to an emotional history – one with potent lessons for our still angry and anxious age.

Employs the social-psychological study of social rejection, social identity theory, and social memory theory, shedding new light on the topic.

This book explores the political dimension of Pope Francis' theology from a variety of perspectives and makes a unique contribution to the ongoing historiography of his pontificate. It defines the concept of political theology when applied to Pope Francis' discourse and reflects on the portrayal of him as the voice of Latin America, a great reformer and a revolutionary. The chapters offer a thorough investigation of core texts and key moments in Pope Francis' papacy (2013-), focusing in particular on their relation to canon theory, liberation theology, the rise of populism, and gender issues. As well as documenting some of the continuities between the ideas of Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI, the author asks what the Argentinian pontiff has brought from Latin America and considers the Latin American dimension to what has become known as the 'Francis effect'. Overall, the book demonstrates how the Pope's words and actions constitute a powerful political theology disseminated from a unique religious and institutional position. It will be of interest to scholars of theology, religion, and politics, particularly those with a focus on world Catholicism, political theology, and church history.

Sanctification is a central theme in the theology of both John and Charles Wesley. However, while John's theology of sanctification has received much scholarly attention, significantly less has been paid to Charles' views on the subject. This book redresses this imbalance by using Charles' many poetic texts as a window into his rich theological thought on sanctification, particularly uncovering the role of resignation in the development of his views on this key doctrine. In this analysis of Charles' theology of sanctification, the centrality he accorded to resignation is uncovered to show a positive attribute involving acts of intention, desire and offering to God. The book begins by putting Charles' position in the context of contemporary theology, and then shows how he differed in attitude from his brother John. It then discusses in depth how his hymns use the concept of resignation, both in relation to Jesus Christ and the believer. It concludes this analysis by identifying the ways in which Charles understood the relationship between resignation and sanctification; namely, that resignation is a lens through which Charles views holiness. The final chapter considers the implications of these conclusions for a twenty-first century theological and spiritual context, and asks whether resignation is still a concept which can be used today. This book breaks new ground in the understanding of Charles Wesley's personal theology. As such, it will be of significant interest to scholars of Methodism and the Wesleys as well as those working in theology, spirituality, and the history of religion.

Nietzsche was famously an atheist, despite coming from a strongly Protestant family. This heritage influenced much of his thought, but was it in fact the very thing that led him to his atheism? This work provides a radical re-assessment of Protestantism by documenting and extrapolating Nietzsche's view that Christianity dies from the head down. That is, through Protestantism's inherent anarchy. In this book, Nietzsche is put into conversation with the initiatives of several powerful thinking writers; Luther, Boehme, Leibniz, and Lessing. Using Nietzsche as a critical guide to the evolution of Protestant thinking, each is shown to violate, warp, or ignore gospel injunctions, and otherwise pose hazards to the primacy of Christian ethics. Demonstrating that a responsible understanding of Protestantism as a historical movement needs to engage with its inherent flaws, this is a text that will engage scholars of philosophy, theology, and religious studies alike.

Discipline in an ecclesiastical context can be defined as the power of a church to maintain order among its members on issues of morals or doctrine. This book presents a scholarly engagement with the way in which legal discipline has evolved within the Church of England since 1688. It explores how the Church of England, unusually among Christian churches, has come to be without means of effective legal discipline in matters of controversy, whether liturgical, doctrinal, or moral. The author excludes matters of blatant scandal to focus on issues where discipline has been attempted in controversial matters, focussing on particular cases. The book makes connections between law, the state of the Church, and the underlying theology of justice and freedom. At a time when doctrinal controversy is widespread across all Christian traditions, it is argued that the Church of England has an inheritance here in need of cherishing and sharing with the universal Church. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers in the areas of law and religion, and ecclesiastical history. .