Abraham Kuyper is known as the energetic Dutch Protestant social activist and public theologian of the 1898 Princeton Stone Lectures, the Lectures on Calvinism. In fact, the church was the point from which Kuyper's concerns for society and public theology radiated. In his own words, ''The problem of the church is none other than the problem of Christianity itself.'' The loss of state support for the church, religious pluralism, rising nationalism, and the populist religious revivals sweeping Europe in the nineteenth century all eroded the church's traditional supports. Dutch Protestantism faced the unprecedented prospect of ''going Dutch''; from now on it would have to pay its own way. John Wood examines how Abraham Kuyper adapted the Dutch church to its modern social context through a new account of the nature of the church and its social position. The central concern of Kuyper's ecclesiology was to re-conceive the relationship between the inner aspects of the church-the faith and commitment of the members-and the external forms of the church, such as doctrinal confessions, sacraments, and the relationship of the church to the Dutch people and state. Kuyper's solution was to make the church less dependent on public entities such as nation and state and more dependent on private support, especially the good will of its members. This ecclesiology de-legitimated the national church and helped Kuyper justify his break with the church, but it had wider effects as well. It precipitated a change in his theology of baptism from a view of the instrumental efficacy of the sacrament to his later doctrine of presumptive regeneration wherein the external sacrament followed, rather than preceded and prepared for, the intenral work grace. This new ecclesiology also gave rise to his well-known public theology; once he achieved the private church he wanted, as the Netherlands' foremost public figure, he had to figure out how to make Christianity public again.

Bonhoeffer says spiritual care is a function of the congregation and that it is an aspect of the broader, more encompassing activity of proclamation. In Spiritual Care, we are confronted with the awesome truth that in speech God's presence is known and that speech is also our own; in silence God's presence is known and that silence is also our own. The text demands us to consider how the gospel message is brought to people in the midst of their personal lives, and his message and counsel use the tools given within the traditional life of the church so that such grace becomes enacted, enfleshed, and incarnate in the Christian community.

The Dublin stage of the Restoration and the 18th century has largely been dismissed as "West British" and its plays for the most part have been forgotten. This book examines the works by Protestant dramatists that reveal the complex alliance and fissures of Anglo-Irish society during the age of the Penal Laws. From Richard Head's Hic et Ubique (1663) to Mary O'Brien's The Fallen Patriot (1790), Wheatley shows how selected plays demonstrate that the Irish Protestants were far from a monolithic caste united by the shared interest of maintaining control over the Catholic majority. He traces the slow transition by which the English of Ireland came to think of themselves as Irish - without necessarily being prepared to allow Irish emancipation. Precisely because drama is the product of a complex interaction between text, company and audience, these plays reveal the many divergent factions and conflicting impulses that shaped Ireland between about 1660 and 1800, the traces of which remain in Irish society today. Beneath Ierne's Banners: Irish Protestant Drama of the Restoration and 18th Century offers an important picture of how these Protestant playwrights thought about the world, and is a valuable resource for Irish studies and drama scholars.

Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod follows the rise of two Lutheran clergymen - Herman Otten and J. A. O. Preus - who led different wings of a conservative movement that seized control of a theologically conservative but socially and politically moderate church denomination (LCMS) and drove "moderates" from the church in the 1970s. The schism within what was then one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States ultimately reshaped the landscape of American Lutheranism and fostered the polarization that characterizes today's Lutheran churches.

This is a facsimile of 1760 Luke Hinde edition.

John Foxe's ground-breaking chronicle of Christian saints and martyrs put to death over centuries remains a landmark text of religious history. The persecution of Christians was for centuries a fact of living in Europe. Adherence to the faith was a great personal risk, with the Roman Empire leading the first of such persecutions against early Christian believers. Many were crucified, put to the sword, or burned alive - gruesome forms of death designed to terrify and discourage others from following the same beliefs. Appearing in 1563, Foxe's chronicle of Christian suffering proved a great success among Protestants. It gave literate Christians the ability to discover and read about brave believers who died for expressing their religion, much as did Jesus Christ. Perhaps in foretelling, the final chapter of the book focuses upon the earliest Christian missions abroad: these, to the Americas, Asia and other locales, would indeed see many more martyrs put to death by the local populations.

Kevin M. Watson offers the first in-depth examination of the early Methodist band meeting: a small group of five to seven people focusing on the confession of sin in order to grow in holiness. The ''social holiness'' of the band meeting figures significantly both in the development of eighteenth-century British Methodism and in understanding shifting forms of community in the context of rapidly changing British society. Arguing that neither John Wesley's theology nor popular Methodism can be understood independent of each other, Watson shows how Wesley synthesized important aspects of Anglican (an emphasis on a disciplined practice of the means of grace) and Moravian (an emphasis on an experience of justification by faith and the witness of the Spirit) piety in his own version of the band meeting. The small groups were of particular significance in John Wesley's theology of discipleship because the bands united his emphasis on the importance of holiness with his conviction that Christians are most likely to make progress in the Christian life together, rather than in isolation.

The primary aim of this book is to explore the contradiction between widely shared beliefs in the USA about racial inclusiveness and equal opportunity for all and the fact that most churches are racially homogeneous and do not include people with disabilities. To address the problem Mary McClintock Fulkerson explores the practices of an interracial church (United Methodist) that includes people with disabilities. The analysis focuses on those activities which create opportunities for people to experience those who are different' as equal in ways that diminish both obliviousness to the other and fear of the other. In contrast with theology's typical focus on the beliefs of Christians, this project offers a theory of practices and place that foregrounds the instinctual reactions and communications that shape all groups. The effect is to broaden the academic field of theology through the benefits of ethnographic research and postmodern place theory.

Samuel Rees Howells, A Life of Intercession: The Legacy of Prayer and Spiritual Warfare of an Intercessor by Richard A. Maton, Paul Backholer and Mathew Backholer. Hardback and paperback edtions have 39 black and white photos interspersed throughout the book.
Rees Howells, a powerful intercessor, taught his son Samuel the principles of intercession and commissioned him some weeks before his death, stating, "Whatever you do, stand and maintain these intercessions." For the next fifty-four years, Samuel Rees Howells exercised a powerful intercessory ministry as he focused prayer on gospel liberty, in order for the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be given to every creature.
With the mantle of intercession weighing heavily upon him, Samuel spent decades participating with others in their own countries, in profound spiritual struggles that shook world events and shaped history for God's glory Discover how Samuel was led by the Holy Spirit to exercise authority over the principalities and powers, and to 'pray through' until God's purposes were fulfilled in many lethal world conflicts. Learn how God still intervenes in world history, from the Korean War to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and from the Six-Day War to the fall of the Soviet Union
Beginning in the days of Rees Howells, this book continues this powerful story of intercession and traces its effectual legacy into the twenty-first century. Filled with principles of intercession, faith and spiritual warfare, this book provides a fascinating insight into what is possible when the Holy Spirit finds an individual, who will stand in the gap and become a channel for His intercession. Ezekiel 22:30, Romans 8:26-27, Ephesians 6:12.
Richard A. Maton worked under Samuel's ministry for forty-seven years and provides us with an eyewitness account of Samuel's life of intercession. Richard is married to Kristine who joined Rees Howells' Bible College in 1936 and prayed alongside him. Together Richard and Kristine spent more than 120 years at the College

Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), perhaps the most prominent Particular Baptist of the eighteenth century, has been the subject of much scholarly interest in recent years. No comparative study, however, has been done on the two biographies that give us much of our knowledge of Fuller's life. John Ryland Jr. (1753-1826), Fuller's closest friend and ministry partner, not only supervised the publication of Fuller's works, but sought to give a careful accounting of his friend's piety. But Ryland's volume stood in contrast with the less-flattering portrait painted by publisher and pastor, J.W. Morris (1763-1836). This critical edition of Ryland's 1816 biography provides contextual background and comparative analysis of the two volumes, and shows how Ryland amended his text for its 1818 republication in light of Morris' work. It also demonstrates the profound influence of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) on Ryland's biographical approach. While Edwards's influence on Ryland and Fuller is widely known, this volume shows how Edwards's biographical work, especially that of David Brainerd, influenced Ryland's aim to promote "pure and undefiled religion" through recounting the life of his friend.