The controversial memoir 'Brigham's Destroying Angel' caused a huge rift in the Mormon Church upon its release in 1872 and had a powerful effect on the church's reputation. 'Wild' Bill Hickman's book chronicles his life as a member of the Mormon church and his reputed position as Brigham Young's hatchet-man. Accused at the time of mass-murder, Hickman shares the details of the horrific crimes he committed, which he controversially claims were ordered by Brigham Young. This new 2017 edition of 'Brigham's Destroying Angel' includes an introduction and appendix.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in the views held by Reformed theologians within the parameters of confessional orthodoxy. For example, the doctrine known as 'hypothetical universalism'-the idea that although Christ died in some sense for every person, his death was intended to bring about the salvation only for those who were predestined for salvation. Michael Lynch focuses on the hypothetical universalism of the English theologian and bishop John Davenant (1572-1641), arguing that it has consistently been misinterpreted and misrepresented as a via media between Arminian and Reformed theology. A close examination of Davenent's De Morte Christi, is the central core of the study. Lynch offers a detailed exposition of Davenant's doctrine of universal redemption in dialogue with his understanding of closely related doctrines such as God's will, predestination, providence, and covenant theology. He defends the thesis that Davenant's version of hypothetical universalism represents a significant strand of the Augustinian tradition, including the early modern Reformed tradition. The book examines the patristic and medieval periods as they provided the background for the Lutheran, Remonstrant, and Reformed reactions to the so-called Lombardian formula ('Christ died sufficiently for all, effectually for the elect'). It traces how Davenant and his fellow British delegates at the Synod of Dordt shaped the Canons of Dordt in such a way as to allow for their English hypothetical universalism.

Previous studies of revival have tended to approach these remarkable moments in history from either a strictly local or a sweeping national perspective. In so doing they have dealt with either the detailed circumstances of a particular situation or the broader course of events. These approaches, however, have given the incorrect impression that religious awakening are uniform movements. As a result revivals have been misunderstood as homogeneous campaigns. This is the first study of the 1859 revival from a regional level in a comprehensive manner. It examines this movement, arguably the most significant and far-reaching awakening in modern times, as it appeared in the city of Aberdeen, the rural hinterland of north-east Scotland, and among the fishing villages and towns that stretch along the Moray Firth. It reveals how, far from being unvarying, the 1859 revival was richly diverse. It uncovers the important influence that local contexts brought to bear upon the timing and manifestation of this awakening. Above all, it has established the heterogeneous nature of simultaneous revival movements that appeared in the same vicinity.

This book looks at the Christian idea of salvation as seen through the eyes of five English reformers of the 16th century, including the famous Bible translator, William Tyndale. It highlights their debt to continental theologicans, especially Martin Luther, and reveals how they sought to make theology relevant to the everyday lives of those around them.

Based on interview material with a wide range of Protestant clergy in Northern Ireland, this text examines how Protestant identity impacts on the possibility of peace and stability and argues for greater involvement by the Protestant churches in the transition from conflict to a 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland.

While television today is taken for granted, Americans in the 1950s faced the challenge of negotiating the new medium's place in the home and in American culture in general. Protestant leaders--both mainstream and evangelical--began to think carefully about what television meant for their communities and its potential impact on their work. Using the American Protestant experience of the introduction of television, Rosenthal illustrates the importance of the interplay between a new medium and its users in an engaging book suitable for general readers and students alike.

Exploring the work of William Blake within the context of Methodism - the largest 'dissenting' religious group during his lifetime - this book contributes to ongoing critical debates surrounding Blake's religious affinities by suggesting that, contrary to previous thinking, Blake held sympathies with certain aspects of Methodism.

Specialist historians have long known the usefulness of this 1869 book, now more easily available for anyone interested in the history of London, its buildings, and its religious and social world, in an enhanced edition. William Beck was a Quaker architect, and Frederick Ball grew up in the rambling old Devonshire House building, centre of British Quakerism at the time. Their survey of London Quaker history was part of a mid-19th century awakening of Friends to the significance of their own past. This facsimile reprint contains a new introduction, by Simon Dixon PhD, author of the thesis "Quaker Communities in London 1667-c1714," and Quaker writer and editor Peter Daniels. Where possible, illustrations have been inserted of the buildings described in the book, and there is a comprehensive new index.

This guide serves as a valuable introduction to the documentary heritage and tradition of the third largest group of protestants in the southern United States. A companion to Harold Prince's A Presbyterian Bibliography (1983), it locates and describes the unpublished papers of PCUS ministers. It also documents the larger southern tradition by including selected materials from the antebellum period and from other Presbyterian denominations. The result is a listing of resources for the study of the PCUS as well as southern Presbyterianism. It aims to promote and encourage research in Presbyterian history; to make files, diaries, sermons, minutes, letters more intelligible; and finally, to emphasize the continuing relevance of these materials in contemporary church life. Robert Benedetto's forty-eight-page introduction includes a survey of nine subject areas: theology, education, church and society, international missions, national missions, women, racial ethnic ministries, ecumenical relations, and worship and music. Each area highlights major research and provides a concise orientation to the life and mission of the denomination. Each survey is followed by a brief listing of manuscript materials. The Guide itself includes manuscript collections from the Department of History (Montreat) and other repositories. This thorough volume concludes with a bibliography of PCUS reference works and a complete name and subject index.

The Jehovah's Witnesses endured intense persecution under the Nazi regime, from 1933 to 1945. Unlike the Jews and others persecuted and killed by virtue of their birth, Jehovah's Witnesses had the opportunity to escape persecution and personal harm by renouncing their religious beliefs. The vast majority refused and throughout their struggle, continued to meet, preach, and distribute literature. In the face of torture, maltreatment in concentration camps, and sometimes execution, this unique group won the respect of many contemporaries. Up until now, little has been known of their particular persecution.

Although this work takes proper notice of its origins in John Wesley's 18th-century movement in England, it assumes that in America the people called Methodists developed in distinctive fashion. The volume examines this American version, its organization, leadership, and form of training and incorporating new members. The authors treat Methodism as defined by conferences bound together by a commitment to episcopal leadership and animated by various forms of lay piety. Offering a fresh perspective based on sound, modern scholarship, this study will be of interest to scholars, students, and anyone interested in church history. American Methodists early organized into conferences that defined Methodist space and time and served as the locus of power. At the same time, they created a strong episcopal form of church government, subject to the body of preachers in conference, but free to lead and direct the organization as a whole. This mission was clear, well understood, and suited to the ethos of a growing America--"to spread scriptural holiness in the land and to create a desire to flee from the wrath to come." By the middle of the 19th century, Methodists in America had grown from an insignificant sect to America's largest Protestant group. Essential to that growth were structures and processes of lay involvement, particularly class meetings and Sunday schools.

Joel Osteen, Paula White, T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren pastor some the largest churches in the nation, lead vast spiritual networks, write best-selling books, and are among the most influential preachers in American Protestantism today. Spurred by the phenomenal appeal of these religious innovators, sociologist Shayne Lee and historian Phillip Luke Sinitiere investigate how they operate and how their style of religious expression fits into America's cultural landscape. Drawing from the theory of religious economy, the authors offer new perspectives on evangelical leadership and key insights into why some religious movements thrive while others decline.

Holy Mavericks provides a useful overview of contemporary evangelicalism while emphasizing the importance of "supply-side thinking" in understanding shifts in American religion. It reveals how the Christian world hosts a culture of celebrity very similar to the secular realm, particularly in terms of marketing, branding, and publicity. Holy Mavericks reaffirms that religion is always in conversation with the larger society in which it is embedded, and that it is imperative to understand how those religious suppliers who are able to change with the times will outlast those who are not.

The first of three theological volumes, this volume is devoted tofour of John Wesley's foundational treatises on soteriology. These treatises include, first, Wesley s extract from the Homilies of the Church of England, which he published to convince his fellow Anglican clergy that the evangelical emphasis on believers experiencing a conscious assurance of God s pardoning love was consistent with this standard of Anglican doctrine. Next comes Wesley s extract of Richard Baxter s Aphorisms of Justification, aimed more at those who shared his evangelical emphasis, invoking this honored moderate Puritan to challenge antinomian conceptions of the doctrine of justification by faith. This is followed by Wesley s abridgement of the Shorter Catechism issued by the Westminster Assembly in his Christian Library, where he affirms broad areas of agreement with this standard of Reformed doctrine while quietly removing items with which he disagreed. The fourth item is Wesley s extended response to the Dissenter John Taylor on the doctrine of original sin, which highlights differences within the broad Arminian camp, with Wesley resisting a drift toward naively optimistic views of human nature that he discerned in Taylor. "

Tracing the religious history of Siler City, North Carolina, Chad E. Seales argues that southern whites cultivated their own regional brand of American secularism and employed it, alongside public religious performances, to claim and regulate public spaces. Over the course of the twentieth century, they wielded secularism to segregate racialized bodies, to challenge local changes resulting from civil rights legislation, and to respond to the arrival of Latino migrants. Combining ethnographic and archival sources, Seales studies the themes of industrialization, nationalism, civility, privatization, and migration through the local history of Siler City; its neighborhood patterns, Fourth of July parades, Confederate soldiers, minstrel shows, mock weddings, banking practices, police shootings, Good Friday processions, public protests, and downtown mural displays. Offering a spatial approach to the study of performative religion, The Secular Spectacle presents a generative narrative of secularism from the perspective of evangelical Protestants in the American South.

Although much has been written on the Afro-Catholic syncretic religions of Vodou, Candomble, and Santeria, the Spiritual Baptists--an Afro-Caribbean religion based on Protestant Christianity--have received little attention. This work offers the first detailed examination of the Spiritual Baptists or "Converted". Based on 18 months of fieldwork on the Island of St. Vincent (where the religion arose) and among Vincentian immigrants in Brooklyn, Zane's analysis makes a contribution to the literature on African-American and African Diaspora religion and the anthropology of religion more generally.