This book examines how biblical interpretation promoted both violent persecution and religious liberty in colonial America. Frequently, the Bible was a violent force in Puritan New England, where ministers and magistrates used biblical passages to justify the punishment of many religious radicals. Encouraged by the Bible, Puritans whipped and imprisoned Baptists, banished a variety of radicals from the Puritan colonies, and even sent Quakers to the gallows. Among those banished was Roger Williams, the advocate of religious liberty who also founded the colony of Rhode Island and established the first Baptist church in America. Williams opposed the Puritans' use of the Bible to persecute radicals who rejected the state's established religion. In retaliation against the use of scripture for violent purposes, Williams argued that religious liberty was a biblical concept that offered the only means of eliminating the religious wars and persecutions that plagued the seventeenth century. Empowered by his interpretation of scripture, Williams posed a serious challenge to a colonial society in which the Bible was the paramount guide in every aspect of life, both public and private.

As Byrd reveals, Williams's biblical case for religious liberty was multifaceted. He drew from a wide range of scriptural texts and wrestled with a variety of interpreters. By focusing on Williams's biblical opposition to religious persecution, this book demonstrates the importance of the Bible to violence, religious liberty, and the relationship between church and state in early American history. Included is a reference guide to Williams's biblical interpretation which features the only biblical indices to hispublished works, accompanied by rankings of his biblical citations in various categories, including his most cited biblical passages throughout his career.

This is the first study of an important group in early Methodism. It was quite separate from Wesley's followers, with its own preachers, chapels, training college, and statement of belief. The book shows how the Connexion operated at the grass roots - including how congregations formed, how chapels came to be built, and how the Connexion related to other religious groups.

Anglican theology has been a hotbed of debate about the issue of authority since the Reformation. What do we really appeal to when attempting to decide matters of doctrine, worship, ministry or ethics? The debate is very much alive today, between Evangelical, Liberal and Catholic Anglicans around the world. This proposed book focuses on the understanding of authority in Anglican theology. It looks at the way that Anglican theologians, in the past and today, have developed their theories of authority in relation to burning issues. Avis critiques them in a continuous dialogue or running commentary and set them in an ecumenical context, comparing Anglican positions with Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant ones. In each area - Bible, tradition, reason, experience -he sets out a new understanding of authority in a constructive and persuasive way, moving to a series of overall conclusions and recommendations. The sharp critiques of various positions will help to make it the subject of discussion and debate.

"Both evangelicalism and feminism are controversial movements that provoke complex loyalties and ambivalence within the church and the world at large. In spite of a considerable degree of shared history, they are quite often defined against each other. Most of the rhetoric from and about the movements assumes that there are few connections and little overlap, and that individuals might locate themselves within one or the other, but not within both. Yet some evangelical women in the academy find themselves living on the boundary between feminism and evangelicalism, or on the boundaries between the multiple forms of both feminism and evangelicalism."--from the first chapter What happens when evangelicalism meets feminism? In their own biblical and theological training, Nicola Creegan and Christine Pohl have each lived at the intersection of these two movements They now both teach in Christian institutions of higher education where others follow along a similar pathway. They have a story to tell about their experience along with those of ninety other women they surveyed who have lived on the boundary between evangelicalism and feminism. They explore what it was like for evangelical women who pursued doctorates in biblical and theological studies. What were their experiences as they taught and wrote, were mentored and became mentors? What are the theological issues they faced, and how did they respond? How have they negotiated professional, family and church commitments? This well-informed, multidimensional and sensitive narrative of women's experience will be illuminating for anyone involved in the academic theological world.

The Chautauqua Institution was started in 1874 by the Normal Department of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a two-week program to instruct Sunday school teachers of all Protestant denominations. The program proved to be a popular combination of worship, education, and recreation and each year brought thousands of visitors to the beautiful shores of Chautauqua Lake. As Chautauqua became a model of for lifelong learning and the good use of leisure time, hundreds of similar sites were built across the continent. The Chautauqua program included lectures, classes, symphony concerts, opera, theater, art, and recreations such as golf, tennis, swimming, and sailing. In time, the movement embraced all denominations and faiths. Today Chautauqua offers a vacation filled with many opportunities in a setting that could be from a century ago.

This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite-Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed farm-houses, with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little porch under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and cats; on the ground floor a large and light sitting-room, separated from the milch-cattle apartment by a partition; and in the front yard rose stately and fine the wealth and pride of the house, the manure-pile. That sentence is Germanic, and shows that I am acquiring that sort of mastery of the art and spirit of the language which enables a man to travel all day in one sentence without changing cars. There was a village a mile away, and a horse doctor lived there, but there was no surgeon. It seemed a bad outlook; mine was distinctly a surgery case. Then it was remembered that a lady from Boston was summering in that village, and she was a Christian Science doctor and could cure anything. So she was sent for. It was night by this time, and she could not conveniently come, but sent word that it was no matter, there was no hurry, she would give me "absent treatment" now, and come in the morning; meantime she begged me to make myself tranquil and comfor-table and remember that there was nothing the matter with me. I thought there must be some mistake.

Night time signifies many things. Apart from the rest and refreshment that sleep brings, the night is a time for gazing at the stars, dreaming and loving. For some it means keeping vigil as they tend the very young, or the sick. For others, it means working so that others may rest peacefully. For most people, there are occasions when the night brings no relief: when we are worried or afraid, trouble never looms larger than in the early sleepless hours. Yet such times can lead to a richer experience of intercession, meditation and contemplation. These experiences of the night are universal and have inspired poetry, prayers, lullabies, songs and stories down the ages. This wide-ranging collection is the perfect bedside companion and will help soothe us to sleep, dispel night time fears and attune us to the gifts and opportunities that each new day brings.

Newman himself called the Oxford University Sermons, first published in 1843, the best, not the most perfect, book I have done'. He added, I mean there is more to develop in it'. Indeed, the book is a precursor of all his major later works, including especially the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine and the Grammar of Assent. Dealing with the relationship of faith and reason, the fifteen sermons represent Newman's resolution of the conflict between heart and head that so troubled believers, non-believers, and agnostics of the nineteenth century, Their controversial nature also makes them one of the primary documents of the Oxford Movement. This new edition provides an introduction to the sermons, a definitive text with textual variants, extensive annotation, and appendices containing previously unpublished material.

The unique character of Rudolf Bultmann's thought has been missed by many traditional studies that cast him in exegetical or hermeneutic frameworks. His methods of source criticism and his concept of 'demythologizing'have led some to reject his thought in toto, otherstolabel him as a subjectivist. Tim Labron steps out of such traditional studies by reading Bultmann as a unique scholar and leading to the keys that unlockthe distinct character of Bultmann's thought, namely, John 1,14 and the principle of justification by faith.Bultmann uses them in aparallel function - to burn the traditional subject-object hierarchies and self-made foundationsto the ground. Labron shows the implications this hadfor theology, religious studies and philosophy.

In histories of American Presbyterianism, the southern branch of the New School Church has received little attention despite its importance to church history as a whole. This new study provides a complete account of the southern church, tracing the events and controversies that led to schism, the founding of the United Synod, and eventual reunification with the Old School, South. The author begins by reviewing the causes of the original and Old School-New School schism of 1837-1838 and the circumstances that gradually deepened the separation between the northern and southern wings of the New School. The emergence of United Synod of the South and its activities in the antebellum period and during the Civil War are considered next. The author concludes with a discussion of the final union with the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1864 and assesses the reasons why the southern New School/United Synod failed to grow and reach the potential of other Presbyterian churches of that day.

Theodore Parker, a great orator of the mid-19th century, was a Unitarian clergyman who directed much of his oratory towards ecclesiastical and social reform. Parker challenged slavery and other social ills. As a volume in the Great American Orators series, the focus is on Parker's oratory and its effect on theology and the social structures of the mid-19th century. Biographical information pertains to those aspects of Parker's life that influenced and shaped his elocution and ideas. Parker's rhetoric and rhetorical techniques are examined. Three of Parker's important speeches are included, each with an introduction that places it in its proper context.

This study will appeal to students of rhetoric, theology, and mid-nineteenth-century American religious history. The book is divided into two sections. The first concentrates on Parker's life, his role as an abolitionist, social reformer, and public order. Part Two scrutinizes three of Parker's most famous discourses. The author establishes Parker's place among mid-19th-century preachers.

Irena Backus offers the first examination of Leibniz as both scholar and theologian in more than four hundred years, illuminating the relationship between metaphysics and theology in Leibniz's handling of key theological issues of his time: predestination, sacred history, the Eucharist, and efforts for a union between Lutherans and Catholics and between Lutherans and Calvinists.
Drawing on a wide range of Leibniz's writings, Backus carefully presents the philosophical points and counterpoints of Leibniz's positions. She shows how Leibniz's essentially Lutheran nonorthodox theology was reconciled with his philosophy and demonstrates that Leibniz was not a typical Lutheran: the solutions he sought to the problems of confessional division were more philosophical than theological, and his view of sacred history was intended to vindicate his theodicy. Leibniz's unique integration of theology into philosophy proved satisfactory neither to theologians nor to many philosophers of his time.
This study delves into a wealth of previously unexplored material, and includes the first-ever English translation of the Unvorgreiffliches Bedencken. It will be an important contribution to the history of ideas, and to understanding Leibniz's place in the mainstream Protestant theology of his time.

With its exalted emotionality, Pentecostalism is a widespread religious movement in Latin America and Africa. It is a blend of Methodism and African religious culture which arouses the passions of the poorest Brazilian masses. Pentecostal conversion is experienced as a sudden break which radically transforms the life of these sectors of the population. Pentecostalism is an Utopia of equality, love and emotion, which is staged during the worship service. However, it is also characterized by authoritarian features. Pentecostalism is slowly eroding the foundation of Western political categories.

In this book, author Alan Tulchin breaks apart the process of mass conversion in the sixteenth century to explain why the Reformation occurred, using Nimes, the most Protestant town in France, as a case study. Protestantism was overwhelmingly successful in Nimes, since most people converted, but the process culminated in two bloody massacres of Nimes's remaining Catholics. Beginning in 1559, Nimes underwent a revolutionary period comparable to 1789 in its intensity. Townspeople flocked to hear Protestant preachers, and then took over Catholic churches, destroyed statues and stained glass, and zealously took part in the Wars of Religion, which convulsed France beginning in 1562. As the Protestant movement grew, it had to adapt to changing circumstances. Nimes's first Protestants were attracted to Calvin's Eucharistic theology; later converts believed that the Church needed to be cleansed of its excesses to encourage moral reform of the Crown; and in the end, many converted due to peer pressure or under duress. Thus rather than argue that one factor - whether religious, economic, or political - explains the Reformation, That Men Will Praise the Lord emphasizes that the Protestant movement was the result of compromises forged among its members. The result is a new theory of the Reformation, which explains how previous theories, thought to be incompatible, in fact fit together. In order to prove his thesis, Tulchin constructed a database of all surviving wills and marriage contracts for the period. He also consulted church, court, city council, and tax records. The book thus marries quantitative techniques from the social sciences and anthropology to cultural history in a dramatic analytic narrative.

In life he was larger than life. He made an immediate and memorable impact on those he met and with whom he worked. He was incredibly industrious in all his teaching, speaking, lecturing, composing, and above all in his writing. In the time others would take to think through the possibility of authoring a book, Erik would have gone to his longsuffering and slightly dyslexic typewriter and completed the manuscript. Gathering with his family at Westminster Abbey for his memorial service, the idea of a random collection of essays or a series of personal anecdotes was discarded by the editors. To appropriately honor this substantial life, something more systematic was required. Thus the idea for this volume was born. Each of the contributors, who has benefited in some way from his friendship, teaching and writing, has examined an area or a subject in which Erik Rowley has made his mark. Significantly, it has taken seventeen authors to cover some of the ground where his footprints are still fresh and the clarity of his voice still rings.

The correspondence of the Puritan divine Richard Baxter is an unusually rich source of evidence for 17th century history, in particular for the period's involved ecclesiastical history and its intellectual, cultural, and bibliographical tastes, as well as for Baxter himself. The 1250 or so extant letters, spanning 1638-1691 and varying in length from brief notes to mini-treatises, are exchanged with a very wide range of correspondents and touch on a great variety of topics, from pastoral advice and theological controversy to current political afffairs and legislation. The great majority of the letters, often undated and unattributed, have never been published. The present Calendar makes the substance of the correspondence fully available for the first time. The chronological sequence of letters is established, correspondents are identified with full biographical information, and the occasion and essential subject of every letter indicated. In the great majority of cases detailed summaries are given, often with extensive quotation verbatim; and all persons, books, and other matters of fact mentioned in the letters are glossed and annotated. There are also indexes of persons, of places, and of Baxter's works. In the course of annotation and contextualization, the Calendar frequently corrects or expands standard reference works, while the letters themselves often supply previously unknown information about the period.