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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches
Billy Graham, the high-profile evangelist, author, and founder of
the diverse Billy Graham Evangelical Association, is now in his
80s. Yet his popularity is undiminished, thanks to new generations
seeking Christian spiritual fulfillment. Graham is the superstar
evangelist who has remained untainted by the financial and sex
scandals that have plagued his evangelical peers. His movie-star
looks, manner, and propriety have made him a role model, and have
brought him into close contact with power. He has had a personal
relationship with every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower,
serving as an unofficial White House chaplain and, to some extent,
policy advisor. This balanced biography covers Graham's life and
work, his extraordinary accomplishments, and the criticisms he has
endured. It is clear that Graham will be remembered as a tireless
crusader for his faith in popular revivals around the world. He has
preached in nearly 200 countries, drawing the largest crowds for
religious events in history, and made special efforts to reach
audiences in Communist countries in Asia and the Soviet Union,
which alienated fundamentalists.
In this investigation of Presbyterians and identity in modern
Ireland, Baillie explores a wide range of contemporary topics based
on over 115 interviews with Ministers and individuals from 25
congregations. Among other issues, she explores politics and
culture; social and moral issues; roles of women; the influence of
life history and geographical location; education; inter church
relations; the Orange Order; Freemasonry; the ministry and the
future. Do the institutions of the Presbyterian church help or
hinder individuals in their lives? Baillie helps to demonstrate
that identity is a key concept within the context of postmodernity.
First critical edition and translation of documents crucial to our
understanding of the English Reformation. The English Reformation
began as a dispute over questions of canon law, and reforming the
existing system was one of the state's earliest objectives. A draft
proposal for this, known as the Henrician canons, has survived,
revealing the state of English canon law at the time of the break
with Rome, and providing a basis for Cranmer's subsequent, and much
better known, attempt to revise the canon law, which was published
by John Foxe under the title `Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum' in
1571. Although it never became law, it was highly esteemed by later
canon lawyers and enjoyed an unofficial authority in ecclesiastical
courts. The Henrician canons and the `Reformatio legum
ecclesiasticarum' are thus crucial for an understanding of
Reformation church discipline, revealing the problems and
opportunities facing those who wanted to reform the Church of
England's institutional structure in the mid-Tudor period,an age
which was to determine the course of the church for centuries to
come.This volume makes available for the first time full scholarly
editions and translations of the whole text, taking all the
available evidence into consideration, and setting the `Reformatio'
firmly in both its historical and contemporary context. GERALD BRAY
is Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School,
Samford University.
This is more than an expose? of one scandal, in one denomination,
it is an autopsy of the politically correct, politically powerful,
politically motivated church of today. These pastors (Albert and
Aimee Anderson) have done first-class investigation and fine
reporting.
This book presents the first comprehensive account of the changing
ecumenical relationships between Britain and Serbia. While the
impetus for the collection is the commemoration of the Serbian
seminarians who settled in and around Oxford towards the end of the
First World War, the scope is much broader, including detailed
accounts of the relationships between the Church of England and
Serbia and its Orthodox Church from the middle of the nineteenth
century until World War II. It includes studies of leading thinkers
from the period, especially the charismatic Nikolaj Velimirovic.
The contributors use many unpublished resources that reveal the
centrality of the churches in promoting the Serbian cause through
the course of the First World War and in its aftermath.
The Jesus People movement of the late 1960s and 1970s was an
important force in the lives of millions of American Baby Boomers.
This unique combination of the hippie counterculture and
evangelical Christianity first appeared amid 1967's famed "Summer
of Love" in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district and grew like
wildfire in Southern California and in cities like Seattle,
Atlanta, and Milwaukee. In 1971 the growing movement found its way
into the national spotlight, attracting a great deal of
contemporary media and scholarly attention. In the wake of
publicity, the movement gained momentum and attracted a huge new
following among evangelical church youth who enthusiastically
adopted the Jesus People persona as their own. In the process, the
movement spread across the country - particularly into the Great
Lakes region - and coffeehouses, "Jesus Music" singers, and "One
Way" bumper stickers soon blanketed the land. Within a few years,
however, the movement faded and disappeared and was largely
forgotten by everyone but those who had filled its ranks. God's
Forever Family is the first major attempt to re-examine the Jesus
People phenomenon in over thirty years. It reveals that it was one
of the most important American religious movements of the second
half of the 20th-century. Not only did the Jesus movement produce
such burgeoning new evangelical groups as Calvary Chapel and the
Vineyard movement, but the Jesus People paved the way for the huge
Contemporary Christian Music industry and the rise of "Praise
Music" in the nation's churches. More significantly, perhaps, it
revolutionized evangelicals' relationship with youth and popular
culture-important factors in the evangelical subculture's emerging
engagement with the larger American culture from the late 1970s
forward. God's Forever Family makes the case that the Jesus People
movement not only helped create a resurgent evangelicalism but -
alongside the hippie counterculture and the student movement - must
be considered one of the major formative powers that shaped
American youth in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Wife No. 19 is the compelling, informative and emotionally fraught
biography of Ann Eliza Young, a member and wife within the Mormon
church during the 19th century. Young sets out to chronicle a
lengthy expos of the various misdeeds she witnessed or was
personally part of. She describes the character of the founder and
prophet of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, in the context of his
interpersonal relationships. The gradual emergence of polygamy, and
its uptake among the higher ranking members of the church, is
detailed. Although the title highlights the polygamous
relationships for which Mormonism gained notoriety, this book does
not shy away from the other scandals or controversies. For example;
the means via which Brigham Young dishonestly relieved his
followers of their money, possessions and cattle via a number of
schemes, and the frequent use of the local Native American
populations as scapegoats.
Escaping from narrative history, this book takes a deep look at the
Catholic question in 18th-century Ireland. It asks how people
thought about Catholicism, Protestantism and their society, in
order to reassess the content and importance of the religious
conflict. In doing this, Dr Cadoc Leighton provides a study which
offers thought-provoking ways of looking not only at the 18th
century, but at modern Irish history in general. It also places
Ireland clearly within the mainstream of European historical
developments.
'...a masterly study.' Alister McGrath, Theological Book Review
'...a splendid read.' J.J.Scarisbrick, TLS '...profound, witty...of
immense value.' David Loades, History Today Historians have always
known that the English Reformation was more than a simple change of
religious belief and practice. It altered the political
constitution and, according to Max Weber, the attitudes and motives
which governed the getting and investment of wealth, facilitating
the rise of capitalism and industrialisation. This book
investigates further implications of the transformative religious
changes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the nation,
the town, the family, and for their culture.
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