This book reveals the huge sales and propagandist potential of Anglican parish magazines, while demonstrating the Anglican Church's misunderstanding of the real issues at its heart, and its collective collapse of confidence as it contemplated social change.

For many years, both Baptists and humanists have been embroiled in heated controversy in the public square. Fundamentalist Baptists have leveled strong charges against humanists, especially secular humanists, accusing them of undermining the moral and social fabric of America. And secular humanists have, in turn, accused some Baptists of betraying democracy and working to establish a theocracy. Can there be common ground between Baptists and humanists?
At a historic dialogue convened at the University of Richmond, Virginia, Baptist and secular humanist scholars in theology, history, philosophy, and the social sciences, came together to define shared concerns and common values. The dialogue focused on major areas of concern: academic freedom; social, political, and religious tolerance; biblical scholarship; separation of church and state; the social agenda of the Christian Coalition and the Southern Baptist Convention; the danger of militant fundamentalism; freedom of conscience and the historic and current role of American Baptists; as well as the plight of pluralistic democracy.
The result of that historic meeting is Freedom of Conscience: A Baptist/Humanist Dialogue, which includes essays by Robert S. Alley, Joe Barnhart, Vern L. Bullough, Bernard C. Farr, George H. Shriver, Paul D. Simmons, George D. Smith, and Dan O. Via. The book concludes with "In Defense of Freedom of Conscience," a cooperative Baptist/Secular Humanist Declaration, authorized by twenty-two distinguished
humanist and Baptist leaders.

The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian denomination and claims a membership of some 80 million members in about 164 countries. Given that there are only around two hundred countries in the world, this makes the churches of the Anglican Communion the most geographically widespread denomination after Roman Catholicism. The 44 essays in this volume embrace a wide range of academic disciplines: theological; historical; demography and geography; and different aspects of culture and ethics. They are united in their discussion of what is effectively a new inter-disciplinary subject which we have termed 'Anglican Studies'. At the core of this volume is the phenomenon of 'Anglicanism' as this is expressed in different places and in a variety of ways across the world. This Handbook covers a far broader set of topics from a wider range of perspectives than has been hitherto attempted in Anglican Studies. At the same time, it doesn't impose a particular theological or historical agenda. The contributions are drawn from across the spectrum of theological views and opinions. It shows that the unsettled nature of the polity is part of its own rich history; and many will see this as a somewhat lustrous tradition. In its comprehensive coverage, this volume is a valuable contribution to Anglican Studies and helps formulate a discipline that might perhaps promote dialogue and discussion across the Anglican world.

In these studies, Alec Cheyne explores the history of the churches of Scotland since the Reformation.Professor Cheyne looks especially at the leaders: among them Robert Rollock, Robert Leighton, William Carstares, Thomas Chalmers, John Tulloch, John Caird, Henry Drummond, John Baillie and Donald Baillie. He illuminates just how much change and diversity in thought, worship, government and culture these four hundred years have witnessed in the churches - far greater than has traditionally been supposed. He also describes the importance of the constant interaction between ecclesiastical and academic affairs, and the very wide influence of the churches on Scottish life as a whole.A significant work of Scottish history and reference.

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.

On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter.
Massacre at Mountain Meadows offers the most thoroughly researched account of the massacre ever written. Drawn from documents previously not available to scholars and a careful re-reading of traditional sources, this gripping narrative offers fascinating new insight into why Mormons settlers in isolated southern Utah deceived the emigrant party with a promise of safety and then killed the adults and all but seventeen of the youngest children. The book sheds light on factors contributing to the tragic event, including the war hysteria that overcame the Mormons after President James Buchanan dispatched federal troops to Utah Territory to put down a supposed rebellion, the suspicion and conflicts that polarized the perpetrators and victims, and the reminders of attacks on Mormons in earlier settlements in Missouri and Illinois. It also analyzes the influence of Brigham Young's rhetoric and military strategy during the infamous "Utah War" and the role of local Mormon militia leaders in enticing Paiute Indians to join in the attack. Throughout the book, the authors paint finely drawn portraits of the key players in the drama, their backgrounds, personalities, and roles in the unfolding story of misunderstanding, misinformation, indecision, and personal vendettas.
The Mountain Meadows Massacre stands as one of the darkest events in Mormon history. Neither a whitewash nor an expose, Massacre at Mountain Meadows provides theclearest and most accurate account of a key event in American religious history.

Richard Hooker (1554-1600) is one of the greatest theologians of the Church of England. In the light of fierce recent debate, this book argues vigorously against the new orthodoxy that Hooker was a Reformed or Calvinist theologian. In so doing it considers such central religious questions as human freedom, original sin, whether people can deserve salvation, and the nature of religious authority.

New historical sources shed a different light upon the teachings and actions of Lutherans under Adolf Hitler.

Graceful Reading is a study of the writings of the seventeeth-century preacher John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress. It reassesses the relationship between Bunyan's theology and his narrative style, redefining them both according to a more specific understanding of seventeenth-century 'Calvinism', and a more 'postmodernist' understanding of narrative.

Starting from small numbers before 1914, the Pentecostal and charismatic movement now comprises nearly one third of the whole of the global Christian population. Scholarly accounts of Pentecostal and charismatic congregations in various countries have been written but this book does something new. It provides an interconnected account of Pentecostalism in Europe, something never before been attempted because of the diversity of languages spoken across the continent. This book shows how Pentecostalism spread from the north of Europe and how it fared during two horrific wars and under communist dictatorships. In doing so it provides new theological, historical and sociological information about Pentecostal churches in eastern and southern Europe, about the Catholic Charismatic Movement and about the state of western groupings.

In 2006, the contemporary American Pentecostal movement celebrated its 100th birthday. Over that time, its African American sector has been markedly influential, not only vis-a-vis other branches of Pentecostalism but also throughout the Christian church. Black Christians have been integrally involved in every aspect of the Pentecostal movement since its inception and have made significant contributions to its founding as well as the evolution of Pentecostal/charismatic styles of worship, preaching, music, engagement of social issues, and theology. Yet despite its being one of the fastest growing segments of the Black Church, Afro-Pentecostalism has not received the kind of critical attention it deserves.

Afro-Pentecostalism brings together fourteen interdisciplinary scholars to examine different facets of the movement, including its early history, issues of gender, relations with other black denominations, intersections with popular culture, and missionary activities, as well as the movement's distinctive theology. Bolstered by editorial introductions to each section, the chapters reflect on the state of the movement, chart its trajectories, discuss pertinent issues, and anticipate future developments.

Contributors: Estrelda Y. Alexander, Valerie C. Cooper, David D. Daniels III, Louis B. Gallien, Jr., Clarence E. Hardy III, Dale T. Irvin, Ogbu U. Kalu, Leonard Lovett, Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Cheryl J. Sanders, Craig Scandrett-Leatherman, William C. Turner, Jr., Frederick L. Ware, and Amos Yong

Despite being widely recognized as John Wesley's key moment of Christian conversion, Aldersgate has continued to mystify regarding its exact meaning and significance to Wesley personally. This book brings clarity to the impact this event had on Wesley over the course of his lifetime by closely examining all of Wesley's writings pertaining to Aldersgate and framing them within the wider context of contemporary conversion narratives. The central aim of this study is to establish Wesley's interpretation of his Aldersgate experience as it developed from its initial impressions on the night of 24 May 1738 to its mature articulation in the 1770s. By paying close attention to the language of his diaries, letters, journals, sermons, tracts and other writings, fresh insights into Wesley's own perspective are revealed. When these insights are brought into wider context of other conversion narratives in the Christian milieu in which Wesley worked and wrote, this book demonstrates that this single event contributed in significant ways to the ethos of the Methodist movement, and many other denominations, even up to the present day. This is a unique study of the conversion of one of history's most influential Christian figures, and the impact that such narratives still have on us today. As such, it will be of great use to scholars of Methodism, theology, religious history and religious studies more generally.