An important new study of the life and ministry of the Anglican minister and Evangelical leader Charles Wesley (1707-88) which examines the often-neglected contribution made by John Wesley's younger brother to the early history of the Methodist movement. Charles Wesley's importance as the author of classic hymns like 'Love Divine' and 'O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing' is well known, but his wider contribution to Methodism, the Church of England and the Evangelical Revival has been overlooked. Gareth Lloyd presents a new appraisal of Charles Wesley based on his own papers and those of his friends and enemies. The picture of the Revival that results from a fresh examination of one of Methodism's most significant leaders offers a new perspective on the formative years of a denomination that today has an estimated 80 million members worldwide.

Korea has had a miraculous history of Christian church growth. But it came at a price of much suffering, death, persecution, and hardship. Korean Church history of modern times has been intertwined with American history, such as involving World War 2, and American church politics, such as the Fundamentalist Debate of early 1900s. In this biography of a key figure in Korean Church history, Rev. Sang-Dong Han (the founder of the Korean Presbyterian Church in Korea, Koshin, denomination), Rev. Koon Sik Shim, a personal friend of Rev. Sang-Dong Han and person who also experienced various stages of Korean history as "a living witness" recounts the life and work of Rev. Sang-Dong Han. This book is a "must have" for all those who are interested in Korean history and learning how it relates to American and world church history.

For at least the past two decades, international Anglicanism has been gripped by a crisis of identity: what is to be the dynamic between autonomy and interdependence? Where is authority to be located? How might the local relate to the international? How are the variously diverse national churches to be held together 'in communion'? "A Still More Excellent Way" presents a comprehensive account of the development and nature of metropolitical authority and the place of the 'province' within Anglican polity, with an emphasis on the contemporary question of how international Anglicanism is to be imagined and take shape. The first comprehensive historical examination of the development of metropolitical authority and provincial polity within international Anglicanism, the book offers hope to those wearied by the deadlock and frustration around questions of authority which have dogged Anglicanism.

This is a comprehensive study of the impact of ritualism on the Church of England, other Anglican churches, and non-Anglican churches in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on an exhaustive study of archival and contemporary printed sources, Dr Yates presents a new and refreshing approach to this fascinating subject.

This book offers the first cultural history of Universalism and the Universalist idea - the idea that an all-good and all-powerful God saves all souls. Ann Bressler argues that Universalism begins as a radical, eschatological, and communally-oriented faith and only later became a 'comfortably established' progressive and individualistic one. Although Universalists are usually classed with Unitarians as pioneering Protestant liberals, says Bressler, they were in fact quite different from both contemporary and later liberalism in their ideas and goals. Unitarians began by rejecting the Calvinist idea of sin as corporate, universal, and absolute, replacing it with their moral self-cultivation. Universalists, on the other hand, accepted the Calvinist view of absolute corporeal sinfulness but insisted on absolute corporeal salvation. Bressler's surprising claim is that Universalists, in their defiance of individualistic moralism, were for much of the 19th century the only consistent Calvinists in America. Bressler traces the emergence of the Universalists' 'improved' Calvinism and its gradual erosion over the course of the 19th century.

John Henry Newman (180190) was brought up in the Church of England in the Evangelical tradition. An Oxford graduate and Fellow of Oriel College, he was appointed Vicar of St Mary's Oxford in 1828; from 1839 onwards, he began to have doubts about the claims of the Anglican Church for Catholicity and in 1845 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He was made a Cardinal in 1879. His influence on both the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England and the advance of Catholic ideas in the Church of England was profound.
Volume XXXII contains a further 513 letters which have surfaced since the publication of the preceding volumes, spanning the years 1830 until virtually the eve of Newman's death on August 11, 1890. There are, for example, thirty-four letters to Thomas Arnold, Jr., following his conversion to Roman Catholicism on January 18, 1856, in Van Diemen's Land and his subsequent return to England with his wife and family; seven letters to Charles Marriott and seven letters from him dealing mainly with the sale of the Littlemore property following Newman's secession to Rome on October 9, 1845; and eighteen letters to various members of the Mozley family, including two letters to Jemima in the wake of the Achilli trial in 1853.
Other recipients include the Duke of Norfolk and his family; Charles Wellington Furse, Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, near Oxford, and future Archdeacon of Westminster; and Miss Maria Trench, who was preparing some of Keble's papers and reviews for publication. There are also two letters to Pope Leo XIII petitioning him for the canonization of John Fisher, Thomas More, and the English Martyrs.

Is the longevity of the Catholic Church what Rome says it is? Were Christ's Apostles the original Catholics? Did Mary the mother of Jesus really help her Son to redeem mankind? Was the Gospel Jesus left to His disciples incomplete and in need of many additions to perfect it? This book, written by a convert from Catholicism to biblical Christianity, puts the chief claims and doctrines of the Catholic religion under the divine light of God's Word; searches for them in the halls of history; combs through the writings of apostolic fathers for evidence of their veracity.

Chapter by chapter, Scripture by Scripture, the facade of holiness and patristic authority is peeled away, and the true apostate nature of Catholicism is exposed. For evangelical Christians, this work is a gold mine of information about Catholic doctrines and how to deal with the deeply embedded beliefs of those who call themselves Roman Catholics. To the devout Catholic, this book will be either a source of enduring anger, or a bright neon arrow pointing to the eternal, soul-saving Word of God.

The Southern Baptist published beliefs from the years 1833 through 2000 and particularly as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention, 14 June 2000 are reviewed. The questions are asked; "As published do they clearly show the plan of salvation?" and "does the average Southern Baptist know and understand them?" If not, they represent some type of tool for the leadership who in some instances seem to show an almost pathological dedication to them, even overshadowing the Scriptures. (They are "a witness to the world." Baptist Faith and Message 2000, p. 3) The Baptist Faith & Message Statement has always created controversy. The one from the year 2000 created the most, however, not nearly as much as Jesus created. Even Calvin (1509-1564) noted, "Tumult and unrest often accompany the true proclamation of God's word." (Shepherds Notes, Calvins Institutes, Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1998 p.14) These conclusions have come from discussions and written reviews by senior Baptists, some who have, at least psychologically, left the Southern Baptist Convention. I am reminded of the words of Paul, "I am debtor to the barbarians; and both to the wise and unwise." (Romans 1:14) There is no doubt in my mind that if Christ were to return in this century as He did 2000 years ago He would be crucified again; this time probably by Baptists instead of the Jews. Major issues will be discussed. Baptists have always had the right to discuss and compare their beliefs. I can clearly remember my father, who was the best true Christian that I have ever known saying, "Son, I am a Southern Baptist because I believe they are closer to what the Bible teaches than anyone else." This book is really 18 books in one. It reviews many "big" current religious issues including: refuting the concept of the original sin, clarification of predestination, what is truth (The question Pilate asked Jesus and did not wait for an answer), the Philosophy of War (effects of religion, pacifists, the "Just War," Terror-Us (A new word for crime in America.), shame in our churches, our children moving from television to video games and further away from the Bible, the false concept and security of Baptist in the non-biblical widespread belief of a pre-tribulation rapture, the Biblical warnings that must happen before Christ comes again, a description of the End of the World, and America going to hell reading religious novels. I mentioned to a friend the distraction of reading two novels a week instead of reading the Bible. The answer, " I don't care, I'm going to read them." This is a classic example of the addiction of reading novels and their substitution as an idol. No one will be Left Behind. Everyone will either be flown to Heaven or thrown into Hell.

Emily B. Baran offers a gripping history of how a small, American-based religious community, the Jehovah's Witnesses, found its way into the Soviet Union after World War II, survived decades of brutal persecution, and emerged as one of the region's fastest growing religions after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In telling the story of this often misunderstood faith, Baran explores the shifting boundaries of religious dissent, non-conformity, and human rights in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses are a fascinating case study of dissent beyond urban, intellectual nonconformists. Witnesses, who were generally rural, poorly educated, and utterly marginalized from society, resisted state pressure to conform. They instead constructed alternative communities based on adherence to religious principles established by the Witnesses' international center in Brooklyn, New York. The Soviet state considered Witnesses to be the most reactionary of all underground religious movements, and used extraordinary measures to try to eliminate this threat. Yet Witnesses survived, while the Soviet system did not. After 1991, they faced continuing challenges to their right to practice their faith in post-Soviet states, as these states struggled to reconcile the proper limits on freedom of conscience with European norms and domestic concerns. Dissent on the Margins provides a new and important perspective on one of America's most understudied religious movements.

If God means for us to save sex for marriage, why doesn't he just zap us with sexuality on our wedding night? Why do most of us experience sexual feelings throughout our adult lives, not just in the safe confines of marriage? Is limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman anything but outdated prejudice? What is our sexuality actually for? Today's culture overwhelmingly tells us that sex is essential for human flourishing. Far too often the church perpetuates the same message - as long as you are married. But far from being liberating, this idolising of sex leaves us even more sexually broken than before. With refreshing honesty and clarity, Ed Shaw calls on the church to rediscover its confidence in the Bible's teaching about our ability to experience or express sexual feelings. He points us to how God's word reveals that sexuality's ultimate purpose is to help us better know God and the full power of his passionate love. He shows us how this is surprisingly good news for all our joys and struggles with sexuality.