John Henry Newman is often described as 'the Father of the Second Vatican Council'. He anticipated most of the Council's major documents, as well as being an inspiration to the theologians who were behind them. His writings offer an illuminating commentary both on the teachings of the Council and the way these have been implemented and interpreted in the post-conciliar period. This book is the first sustained attempt to consider what Newman's reaction to Vatican II would have been. As a theologian who on his own admission fought throughout his life against theological liberalism, yet who pioneered many of the themes of the Council in his own day, Newman is best described as a conservative radical who cannot be classed simply as either a conservative or liberal Catholic. At the time of the First Vatican Council, Newman adumbrated in his private letters a mini-theology of Councils, which casts much light on Vatican II and its aftermath. Noted Newman scholar, Ian Ker, argues that Newman would have greatly welcomed the reforms of the Council, but would have seen them in the light of his theory of doctrinal development, insisting that they must certainly be understood as changes but changes in continuity rather than discontinuity with the Church's tradition and past teachings. He would therefore have endorsed the so-called 'hermeneutic of reform in continuity' in regard to Vatican II, a hermeneutic first formulated by Pope Benedict XVI and subsequently confirmed by his successor, Pope Francis, and rejected both 'progressive' and ultra-conservative interpretations of the Council as a revolutionary event. Newman believed that what Councils fail to speak of is of great importance, and so a final chapter considers the kind of evangelization - a topic notably absent from the documents of Vatican II - Newman thought appropriate in the face of secularization.

Combining vivid ethnographic storytelling and incisive theoretical analysis, New Monasticism and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism introduces readers to the fascinating and unexplored terrain of neo-monastic evangelicalism. Often located in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, new monastic communities pursue religiously inspired visions of racial, social, and economic justice-alongside personal spiritual transformation-through diverse and creative expressions of radical community For most of the last century, popular and scholarly common-sense has equated American evangelicalism with across-the-board social, economic, and political conservatism. However, if a growing chorus of evangelical leaders, media pundits, and religious scholars is to be believed, the era of uncontested evangelical conservatism is on the brink of collapse-if it hasn't collapsed already. Wes Markofski has immersed himself in the paradoxical world of evangelical neo-monasticism, focusing on the Urban Monastery-an influential neo-monastic community located in a gritty, racially diverse neighborhood in a major Midwestern American city. The resulting account of the way in which the movement is transforming American evangelicalism challenges entrenched stereotypes and calls attention to the dynamic diversity of religious and political points of view which vie for supremacy in the American evangelical subculture. New Monasticism and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism is the first sociological analysis of new monastic evangelicalism and the first major work to theorize the growing theological and political diversity within twenty-first-century American evangelicalism.

To many people, the Church of England and worldwide Anglican Communion has the aura of an institution that is dislocated and adrift. Buffeted by tempestuous and stormy debates on sexuality, gender, authority and power - to say nothing of priorities in mission and ministry, and the leadership and management of the church - a once confident Anglicanism appears to be anxious and vulnerable. The Future Shape of Anglicanism offers a constructive and critical engagement with the currents and contours that have brought the church to this point. It assesses and evaluates the forces now shaping the church and challenges them culturally, critically, and theologically. The Future Shape of Anglicanism engages with the church of the present that is simultaneously dissenting and loyal, as well as critical and constructive. For all who are engaged in ecclesiological investigations, and for those who study the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, this book offers new maps and charts for the present and future. It is an essential companion and guide to some of the movements and forces that are currently shaping the church.

Most Christians are completely unaware that for over 200 years there has existed in England, and at times in Wales, Scotland, Canada, Bermuda, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and the USA, an episcopal Church, similar in many respects to the Church of England, worshipping with a Prayer Book virtually identical to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and served by bishops, presbyters and deacons whose orders derive directly from Canterbury, and ecumenically enriched by Old Catholic, Swedish, Moravian and other successions. The Free Church of England as an independent jurisdiction within the Universal Church began in the reign of George III. In 1991 the Church sent a bishop to George Carey's Enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury. In addition to presenting for the first time a detailed history of the Free Church of England, John Fenwick also explores the distinctive doctrinal emphases of the denomination, its Constitution, its liturgical tradition, its experience of the historic episcopate, and its many connections with other churches (including the Reformed Episcopal Church in the USA). He discusses why the Church has, so far, failed to fulfil the vision of its founders, and what the possible future of the Church might be - including a very significant expansion as many Anglicans and other Christians considering new options discover this historic, episcopal, disestablished, Church with its international connections and ecumenical character.

Blackness, as a concept, is extremely fluid: it can refer to cultural and ethnic identity, socio-political status, an aesthetic and embodied way of being, a social and political consciousness, or a diasporic kinship. It is used as a description of skin color ranging from the palest cream to the richest chocolate; as a marker of enslavement, marginalization, criminality, filth, or evil; or as a symbol of pride, beauty, elegance, strength, and depth. Despite the fact that it is elusive and difficult to define, blackness serves as one of the most potent and unifying domains of identity. God and Blackness offers an ethnographic study of blackness as it is understood within a specific community--that of the First Afrikan Church, a middle-class Afrocentric congregation in Atlanta, Georgia. Drawing on nearly two years of participant observation and in‑depth interviews, Andrea C. Abrams examines how this community has employed Afrocentrism and Black theology as a means of negotiating the unreconciled natures of thoughts and ideals that are part of being both black and American. Specifically, Abrams examines the ways in which First Afrikan's construction of community is influenced by shared understandings of blackness, and probes the means through which individuals negotiate the tensions created by competing constructions of their black identity. Although Afrocentrism operates as the focal point of this discussion, the book examines questions of political identity, religious expression and gender dynamics through the lens of a unique black church.

Truth and Love is a tribute to the United Presbyterian Church of North America 150 years after its founding and 50 years after it merged with the Presbyterian Church, and a reference work containing a directory of ministers and congregations.

After the Great War, some texts by British Army veterans portrayed the Anglican chaplains who had served with them in an extremely negative light. This book examines the realities of Anglican chaplains' wartime experiences and presents a compelling picture of what it meant to be a clergyman-in-uniform in the most devastating war in modern history.

Two powerful and interrelated transnational cultural expressions mark our epoch. They are Charismatic spirituality and the global city. This book offers a fresh and challenging articulation of the character of the charismatic renewal of Christianity in the framework of global cities, the socio-economic situation of poor urban residents, and urban space, resulting in a vision for the future city as a religious, ethical, and political space. The book studies the social, economic, and ethical implications of the charismatic renewal on urban living and urban design aimed at promoting human flourishing. From multidisciplinary perspectives Nimi Wariboko investiages the nature and impact of interreligious dialogues and encounters between charismatic Christianity and other religions in global cities.

This title presents theology of biblical interpretation, treating both topics in light of their relationship to the triune God and the economy of redemption. "Trinity, Revelation, and Reading (TRR)" is a theological introduction to the Bible and biblical interpretation. The overarching thesis is that neither the Bible nor biblical hermeneutics can be understood or practiced properly apart from an appreciation of their relationship to the triune God and his gracious economy of redemption. Scott Swain treats the role of the Word in the saving economy of the triune God, the role and status of Scripture as the Word of God, the nature of biblical reading as a covenantal enterprise, as well as a host of other related topics. These topics are addressed by way of a constructive appropriation, or ressourcement, of many of the themes of patristic theology and early Protestant divinity (esp. Reformed Orthodoxy), while building upon the work of important contemporary theologians as well (e.g., Karl Barth, John Webster, Kevin Vanhoozer). The ultimate goal of this study is that readers will appreciate better the ways in which biblical interpretation is an aspect of their covenantal engagement with the triune God.

This bibliography will facilitate research in the history of American Presbyterianism in particular and American history in general. Among the major areas covered are: autobiographies and biographies; Presbyterian denominations; states; institutions of learning, including academies, colleges, universities, and theological seminaries; institutionalized forms of church work, i.e., home and foreign missions, publications, Christian education; urban work; polity; and ecumenism. There are also considerable references to minorities. A thorough topical index to the entries gives easy access to all of these areas of study.