'To endure the hardships of the frontier took more than a determined pioneer spirit. It required a faith that everything would work out for the best-that something more was to come other than the meager crops they scratched out of the earth."-from "The Minutes of Salem Baptist Church"Salem Baptist Church was one of the small pioneer churches that nurtured that faith. Located near Birchwood, Tennessee, Salem Baptist Church led the community in the midst of its physical hardships from 1835 to 1941. Through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the migration of its members to Texas for cheap land, the turn of the century, and later, the depression, the small church led its community in faith.The minutes and supporting research provide not only a unique history of the families in the community, but also a unique genealogical record of over 175 families told through church action and membership records. Join Daniel Lee Roark on his journey through the history of this small pioneer church in East Tennessee. Experience the coming together of these families, turning to the Lord in difficult circumstances.

Faith, Reason, and Revelation in the Thought of Theodore Beza investigates the direction of religious epistemology under a chief architect of the Calvinistic tradition (1519-1605). Mallinson contends that Beza defended and consolidated his tradition by balancing the subjective and objective aspects of faith and knowledge. He makes use of newly published primary sources and long-neglected biblical annotations in order to clarify the thought of an often misunderstood individual from intellectual history.

The Oxford History of Anglicanism is a major new and unprecedented international study of the identity and historical influence of one of the world's largest versions of Christianity. This global study of Anglicanism from the sixteenth century looks at how was Anglican identity constructed and contested at various periods since the sixteenth century; and what was its historical influence during the past six centuries. It explores not just the ecclesiastical and theological aspects of global Anglicanism, but also the political, social, economic, and cultural influences of this form of Christianity that has been historically significant in western culture, and a burgeoning force in non-western societies today. The chapters are written by international experts in their various historical fields which includes the most recent research in their areas, as well as original research. The series forms an invaluable reference for both scholars and interested non-specialists. Volume one of The Oxford History of Anglicanism examines a period when the nature of 'Anglicanism' was still heavily contested. Rather than merely tracing the emergence of trends that we associate with later Anglicanism, the contributors instead discuss the fluid and contested nature of the Church of England's religious identity in these years, and the different claims to what should count as 'Anglican' orthodoxy. After the introduction and narrative chapters explain the historical background, individual chapters then analyse different understandings of the early church and church history; variant readings of the meaning of the royal supremacy, the role of bishops and canon law, and cathedrals; the very diverse experiences of religion in parishes, styles of worship and piety, church decoration, and Bible usage; and the competing claims to 'Anglican' orthodoxy of puritanism, 'avant-garde conformity' and Laudianism. Also analysed are arguments over the Church of England's confessional identity and its links with the foreign Reformed Churches, and the alternative models provided by English Protestant activities in Ireland, Scotland and North America. The reforms of the 1640s and 1650s are included in their own right, and the volume concludes that the shape of the Restoration that emerged was far from inevitable, or expressive of a settled 'Anglican' identity.

This volume is a comprehensive collection of articles on Bunyan as well as including several broader views of the Nonconformist tradition.

One of the most significant developments within contemporary American Christianity, especially among younger evangelicals, is a groundswell of interest in the Reformed tradition. In Reformed Resurgence, Brad Vermurlen provides a comprehensive sociological account of this phenomenon - known as New Calvinism - and what it entails for the broader evangelical landscape in the United States. Vermurlen develops a new theory for understanding how conservative religion can be strong and thrive in the hypermodern Western world. His paradigm uses and expands on strategic action field theory, a recent framework proposed for the study of movements and organizations that has rarely been applied to religion. This approach to religion moves beyond market dynamics and cultural happenstance and instead shows how religious strength can be fought for and won as the direct result of religious leaders' strategic actions and conflicts. But the battle comes at a cost. For the same reasons conservative Calvinistic belief is experiencing a resurgence, present-day American evangelicalism has turned in on itself. Vermurlen argues that in the end, evangelicalism in the United States consists of pockets of subcultural and local strength within the "cultural entropy" of secularization, as religious meanings and coherence fall apart.

An accessible and academic reading of the doctrine of justification by faith. It is often assumed that the Reformation taught justification by faith as if there was a monolithic view of the doctrine. Since We Are Justified By Faith is a collection of important essays that dispel this myth, demonstrating the diverse theologies of that period. Experts in the field, including Cameron MacKenzie, Aaron OKelly, Jeff Fisher, Kirk MacGregor, Mary Patton Baker, Karin Spiecker Stetina, David Hall, Bonnie Pattison, Timothy Shaun Price, Andre Gazal, and Chris Ross, write on the theologies of Luther, Melanchthon, Oecolampadius, Marpeck, Calvin, and the English reformers to give a nuanced reading of the doctrine in sixteenth-century Protestant theology.

Balthasar Hubmaier remains one of the most significant figures in the radical reformation of the sixteenth century. A Pledge of Love is close and thorough examination of Hubmaiers view of the sacraments within the context of worship. This ground-breaking work examines the distinctive theology of this important Anabaptist and his possible influence upon others.

Exploring the parameters of the African Methodist Episcopal Church's dual existence as evangelical Christians and as children of Ham, this book explains how the denomination relies on the rhetoric of evangelicalism and heathenism to construct an identity. A. Nevell Owens shows how the Voice of Mission, the missionary newspaper of the church, played an integral role in the definition of the denomination as evangelical vis-a-vis the "heathen African." By looking at the Voice of Mission as a primary source document, this book further examines the extent to which the African Methodist Episcopal Church affectively lived out its existence in two different worlds that were more often than not diametrically opposed to each other.

Mormon studies is one of the fastest-growing subfields in religious studies. For this volume, Terryl Givens and Philip Barlow, two leading scholars of Mormonism, have brought together 45 of the top scholars in the field to construct a collection of essays that offers a comprehensive overview of scholarship on Mormons. The book begins with a section on Mormon history, perhaps the most well-developed area of Mormon studies. Chapters in this section deal with questions ranging from how Mormon history is studied in the university to the role women have played throughout Mormon history. Other sections examine revelation and scripture, church structure and practice, theology, society, and culture. The final two sections look at Mormonism in a larger context. The authors examine Mormon expansion across the globe-focusing on Mormonism in Latin America, the Pacific, Europe, and Asia-in addition to the interaction between Mormonism and other social systems, such as law, politics, and other faiths. Bringing together an unprecedented body of scholarship in the field of Mormon studies, The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism will be an invaluable resource for those within the field, as well as for people studying the broader, ever-changing American religious landscape.

This series of four volumes honors the lifetime achievements of the distinguished activist and scholar Elise Boulding (1920-2010) on the occasion of her 95th birthday. This first anthology documents the breadth of Elise Boulding's contributions to Peace Research, Peacemaking, Feminism, Future Studies, and Sociology of the Family. Known as the "matriarch" of the twentieth century peace research movement, she made significant contributions in the fields of peace education, future studies, feminism, and sociology of the family, and as a prominent leader in the peace movement and the Society of Friends.

It is equally true that the Reformation was inspired and defined by the Bible and that the Bible was reshaped by the intellectual, political, and cultural forces of the Reformation. In this book, a distinguished scholar-whose contributions to the field of religious studies have won him wide renown-explores this relationship, examining both the role of the Bible in the Reformation and the effect of the Reformation on the text of the Bible, Biblical studies, preaching and exegesis, and European culture in general. Jaroslav Pelikan begins by discussing the philological foundations of the "reformation" of the Biblical text, focusing on the revival of Greek and Hebrew language study and the important contributions to textual criticism by humanist scholars. He then examines the changing patterns of interpretation and communication of the Biblical text, the proliferation of vernacular versions of scripture and their impact on various national cultures, and the impact of the Reformation Bible on art, music, and literature of the period. The book is richly illustrated with examples of early printed editions of Bibles, commentaries, sermons, vernacular translations, and other works with Biblical themes, all of which are identified and discussed. The book serves as the catalog for a major exhibition of early Bibles and Reformation texts that has been organized at Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, and will also be shown at the Yale Center for British Art, the Houghton Library and the Widener Library at Harvard University, and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University. Copublished with the Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University

In the course of the nineteenth century, the boundaries that divided Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Germany were redrawn, challenged, rendered porous and built anew. This book addresses this redrawing. It considers the relations of three religious groups-Protestants, Catholics, and Jews-and asks how, by dint of their interaction, they affected one another.Previously, historians have written about these communities as if they lived in isolation. Yet these groups coexisted in common space, and interacted in complex ways. This is the first book that brings these separate stories together and lays the foundation for a new kind of religious history that foregrounds both cooperation and conflict across the religious divides. The authors analyze the influences that shaped religious coexistence and they place the valences of co-operation and conflict in deep social and cultural contexts. The result is a significantly altered understanding of the emergence of modern religious communities as well as new insights into the origins of the German tragedy, which involved the breakdown of religious coexistence.

Every year an estimated 600,000 U.S. Latinos convert from Catholicism to Protestantism. Today, 12.5 million Latinos self-identify as Protestant--a population larger than all U.S. Jews and Muslims combined. Spearheading this spiritual transformation is the Pentecostal movement and Assemblies of God, which is the destination for one out of four converts. In a deeply researched social and cultural history, Gaston Espinosa uncovers the roots of this remarkable turn and the Latino AG's growing leadership nationwide. Latino Pentecostals in America traces the Latino AG back to the Azusa Street Revivals in Los Angeles and Apostolic Faith Revivals in Houston from 1906 to 1909. Espinosa describes the uphill struggles for indigenous leadership, racial equality, women in the ministry, social and political activism, and immigration reform. His analysis of their independent political views and voting patterns from 1996 to 2012 challenges the stereotypes that they are all apolitical, right-wing, or politically marginal. Their outspoken commitment to an active faith has led a new generation of leaders to blend righteousness and justice, by which they mean the reconciling message of Billy Graham and the social transformation of Martin Luther King Jr. Latino AG leaders and their 2,400 churches across the nation represent a new and growing force in denominational, Evangelical, and presidential politics. This eye-opening study explains why this group of working-class Latinos once called "the Silent Pentecostals" is silent no more. By giving voice to their untold story, Espinosa enriches our understanding of the diversity of Latino religion, Evangelicalism, and American culture.

Surprisingly Supernatural: A Practical Guide to Releasing the Gifts of the Spirit teaches believers to receive the gifts of the Spirit, and then how to release the spiritual gifts of prophecy, healings and miracles, discernment, and binding or driving out demons. Then the believers are encouraged to bring in the harvest. When believers learn how to release the gifts of the Spirit that is what the Bride of Christ is to do at the end of the age, and then she will enter into the wedding banquet (see Matt. 24:14; 25:9-10).

You Will Learn -That you are supposed to ask for the Holy Spirit, and ask for the gifts of the Spirit, and being continually filled by the Spirit was what the first disciples experienced, and they were the first ones called "Christians." -That if you will learn the conditions required for you to hear God's voice, then you will be able to prophecy. -That if you will learn the keys to healing, then you will begin to see the sick healed when you lay your hands on them. -That when you ask for the gift of discernment, then you will begin to discern demons and the defilement that is around you. Then you can cast out those demons. -That leylines are spiritual highways that demons travel on over the earth, and you will learn how to clean them off. -That when you release the gifts of the Spirit, you will easily be able to show nonbelievers that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is the Savior of the World. -That the Bride of Christ is to be continually filled by the Spirit until she is clothed in the armor of light and clothed in Jesus Christ, then she will bring glory to the Lord (see Rom. 13:12, 14).