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'Coffin roads' along which bodies were carried for burial are a marked feature of the landscape of the Scottish Highlands and islands - many are now popular walking and cycling routes. This book journeys along eight coffin roads to discover and explore the distinctive traditions, beliefs and practices around dying, death and mourning in the communities which created and used them. The result is a fascinating snapshot into place and culture. After more than a century when death was very much a taboo subject, this book argues that aspects of the distinctive West Highland and Hebridean way of death and approach to dying and mourning may have something helpful and important to offer to us today. Routes covered in this book are: The Kilmartin Valley - the archetypal coffin road in this ritual landscape of the dead. The Street of the Dead on Iona - perhaps the best known coffin road in Scotland. Kilearnadil Graveyard, Jura - a perfect example of a Hebridean graveyard. The coffin road through Morvern to Keil Church, Lochaline - among the best defined and most evocative coffin roads today. The Green Isle, Loch Shiel, Ardnamurchan - the oldest continuously used burial place anywhere in Europe. The coffin road on Eigg - with its distinctive 'piper's cairn' where the coffin of Donald MacQuarrie, the 'Great Piper of Eigg', was rested. The coffin road from Traigh Losgaintir to Loch Stocinis on Harris - popular with walkers and taken as the title for a best-selling thriller by Peter May. The coffin road on Barra - A detailed study of burial practices on Barra in the early 1950s provides a fascinating record of Hebridean attitudes to dying, death and mourning.
God is Green examines what the Bible has to say about humanity's relationship with and responsibility for the environment, and how Church traditions over the centuries have interpreted this. Ian Bradley argues that Christianity at its essence is a 'green faith' which has been distorted over the years. First published in 1990, this new edition of the book is revised for the contemporary state of our climate, and includes a chapter-by-chapter study guide for individuals and small groups.
The Call to Seriousness examines the nature and the extent of the impact which the Evangelicals made on English life in the first half of the 19th century. Two men dominated the Evangelical world during this period: William Wilberforce, who was the central figure in that celebrated group of Evangelicals, the Clapham Sect; and Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, remembered mainly for championing the cause of factory workers. The author argues that the influence of the Evangelicals was, on the whole, a positive one. The Evangelicals alone did not make the Victorians what they were. They did, however, play a considerable part in helping to establish the peculiar temper of the age. Above all, Evangelicalism was responsible for giving the Victorians their famous seriousness and high-mindedness.
Ian Bradley's "The Optimists "was first published in 1980, when the values of Victorian Liberalism were enjoying something of a renaissance - as they are today. Politicians of different parties were once again expounding the Gladstonian principles of public economy, self-help, European unity and home rule for the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. This book examines the nature and development of these ideas. It traces their origins in the Romantic movement, the industrial revolution and the general European Liberal awakening of the mid-nineteenth century and charts their collapse in the face of the predominance of class attitudes and the increasingly bitter clash of capital and labour at the end of the century. During its heyday, from the mid-1850s to the mid-1880s, Liberalism attracted many eminent Victorians, including leading literary figures like Anthony Trollope, George Meredith and William Makepeace Thackeray, as well as philosophers like John Stuart Mill, Lord Acton, Richard Cobden, John Bright, T. H. Green, and, of course, W. E. Gladstone. Using a mass of evidence, from novels, unpublished letters and autobiographical writings as well as from contemporary speeches and biographies, Ian Bradley has built up a picture of the complex and often conflicting forces which made men espouse the Gladstonian creed. He isolates the different strands in the Victorian Liberal Movement, the thrust and competitiveness of up-and-coming merchants and manufacturers, the love of liberty felt by rationalists and romantics alike, and the stern imperatives of the Nonconformist Conscience. He concludes that for all their differences and inconsistencies, Victorian Liberals were bound together by an all-pervasive sense of optimism and a fundamental faith in the goodness of man and the reality of progress.
'Abide with me', 'The day thou gavest Lord is ended', 'All things bright and beautiful': a century and more after they were written Victorian hymns like these have an enduring popularity. This book examines the Victorian hymn from a literary, theological and cultural point of view. It traces its contemporary impact and its continuing influence in churches, public popularity, parody and literary references. In a way that has not been done before, Ian Bradley traces the importance of hymns in Victorian novels, explores the extraordinary political and social ramifications of Victorian hymnody, and assesses the literary and musical importance of the genre. Written in a lively and anecdotal style, this book punctures some of the myths about Victorian hymns, showing that the themes of doubt, humility and political and social radicalism surface just as much as those of triumphalism, imperialism and conservatism. 'Ian Bradley tells his story lucidly, from the disappearance of the chaotic and cheerful gallery musicians so beloved of Thomas Hardy, to the gospel songs of Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey. He moves easily between the novelist, the theologian and the musician. He introduces the story with a striking analogy: hymns played much the same role in Victorian culture that soap operas do among us today . . . it is a good curtain-raiser for a serious, indeed learned, but never humourless book.' Lord Runcie, "Daily Telegraph" "" 'I was so gripped by this book that I could not put it down. Here is invaluable resource material dealing with a period of hymnody which has never before been researched in such depth. In this eminently readable survey, we are left in no doubt as to the merits or otherwise of nineteenth-century hymnody.' Dr Lionel Dakers, formerly Director of the Royal School of Music.
From Romans to royalty and hypochondriacs to holiday-makers, natural water spas have been a common feature in society since the first century. Even today, we periodically abandon the cities to 'take the waters'. In their heyday, Europe's spas were the main meeting places for aristocracy, politicians and cultural elites. They were the centres of political and diplomatic intrigue, and were fertile sources of artistic, literary and musical inspiration. The spas epitomised style and were renowned for their cosmopolitan atmosphere in a glittering whirl of balls, gambling and affairs, as much as for their healing waters. Health, Hedonism & Hypochondria reveals the hidden histories of traditional spas of Europe, including such well-known resorts as the original Spa in Belgium; Bath, Buxton & Harrogate in Britain; Baden-Baden & Bad Ems in Germany; Vichy & Aix-les-Bains in France; Bad Ragaz in Switzerland; Bad Ischl & Baden bei Wien in Austria and Karlovy Vary & Marianske Lazne? in the Czech Republic. At once luxurious sanctuaries of relaxation and resorts of the upper classes, they were also the haunts of melancholics, scoundrels and those seeking escape and excitement.
Packed with over almost 100 images and countless stories, it brings to life the fascinating communities and the characters along the route in whose footsteps modern pilgrims are treading. Setting off with Celtic saints from Culross and North Queensferry, marching with miners through the West Fife coalfields, continuing on with Covenanters and Communists and ending among the martyrs, relics and ghosts of the haunted city of St Andrews, this gripping narrative presents a journey through Scottish history, ancient and modern, with spiritual reflections along the way.
Explores how distinctive themes in the early Christianity of the British Isles might be applied in practical terms to Christian life today.
This book charts the life of Arthur Sullivan-the best loved and most widely performed British composer in history. While he is best known for his comic opera collaborations with W. S. Gilbert, it was his substantial corpus of sacred music which meant most to him and for which he wanted to be remembered. His upbringing and training in church music, and his own religious beliefs, substantially affected both his compositions for the theatre and his more serious work, which included oratorios, cantatas, sacred ballads, liturgical pieces, and hymns. Focusing on the spiritual aspects of Sullivan's life-which included several years as a church organist, involvement in Freemasonry, and an undying attachment to Anglican church music-Ian Bradley uses hitherto undiscovered letters, diary entries, and other sources to reveal the important influences on his faith and his work. No saint and certainly no ascetic, he was a lover of life and enjoyed its pleasures to the full. At the same time, he had a rare spiritual sensitivity, a sincere Christian faith, and a unique ability to uplift through both his character and his music that can best be described as a quality of divine emollient.
All model engineers are occasionally faced with an operation which lies outside of their usual experience, particularly for those whose normal occupation is unrelated to engineering. This book provides all the answers. With over 430 line drawings and photographs, plus over 250 pages of detailed instruction, this is a comprehensive reference book for all model engineers. The author covers all matters ranging from setting up a workshop and the use of various machines and tools to processes such as knurling, reaming, milling in the lathe, screw threads, soldering and brazing, dividing as well as regular and more specialised workshop techniques.
Matrices offer some of the most powerful techniques in modem mathematics. In the social sciences they provide fresh insights into an astonishing variety of topics. Dominance matrices can show how power struggles in offices or committees develop; Markov chains predict how fast news or gossip will spread in a village; permutation matrices illuminate kinship structures in tribal societies. All these invaluable techniques and many more are explained clearly and simply in this wide-ranging book. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Matrices offer some of the most powerful techniques in modem mathematics. In the social sciences they provide fresh insights into an astonishing variety of topics. Dominance matrices can show how power struggles in offices or committees develop; Markov chains predict how fast news or gossip will spread in a village; permutation matrices illuminate kinship structures in tribal societies. All these invaluable techniques and many more are explained clearly and simply in this wide-ranging book. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Argyll is the beautiful, wild and inspirational home of Celtic Christianity. It is the spiritual heartland of Scotland and, some would say, of the whole United Kingdom. Until now, no-one has sought to uncover the reasons why the spiritual landscape of Argyll is so distinctively unique, rich and varied. Why is it characterised by a more gentle, liberal, mystical and liturgical Christian culture than the harsher Calvinist evangelism of the neighbouring Highlands and the Western Isles? Why has it produced such a disproportionately large amount of beautiful devotional material? This joyful book, with a cover image by popular artist JoLoMo, is impressionistic and accessible but always of the highest scholarly standards. It reveals the dominant themes and figures in Argyll's spiritual landscape. Ian Bradley's love of Argyll shines through as he takes both a geographical and biographical approach and looks at the interplay of landscape and Christian belief through such figures as Columba, Carswell, sundry Campbells, George Matheson, George MacLeod and others. Drawing on extensive original research and interviews with a wide variety of people, including many Church of Scotland ministers and lay people, this is an enthralling and fascinating read for all who are interested in Scottish history and identity, Celtic Christianity and Scotland's spiritual heritage.
Arthur Sullivan is best known as W. S. Gilbert's collaborator in the Savoy Operas, However, Sullivan was far from being simply a composer of light operettas. At the height of his fame and popularity in late Victorian Britain, Sullivan was regarded as the nation's leading composer of sacred oratorios on a par with Mendelssohn and Brahms. Yet despite his contemporary popularity and enduring legacy, little attention has been given to Sullivan's sacred work. The last twenty years have seen a considerable revival of interest in and critical appreciation for this aspect of Sullivan's work. Lost Chords and Christian Soldiers provides the first detailed, comprehensive, critical study and review of Sullivan's church and sacred music. As well as exploring issues of repertoire and ecclesiology involved in these and other formative influences and experiences, consideration will be given to how far Sullivan's own personal beliefs and faith influenced his settings of sacred texts and the extent to which his own spiritual and theological leaning are expressed in his choice of material and style of setting. Sullivan's motivation in setting religious texts will be probed and comparison will be made with the motivation, output and approach of his closest contemporaries in this field, most notably Stainer.
This title presents a powerful re-statement of Liberal Protestantism for the twenty first century, especially alive to the imperative of inter faith dialogue and understanding. In this highly accessible, passionately argued and scholarly book, Ian Bradley presents fundamentalism, born a hundred years ago in the United States of America, as the great twentieth century heresy and aberration. He identifies and seeks to reclaim for the twenty first century a liberal theological tradition existing in Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the other major world faiths. This liberal heart is found in their scriptures and was often to the fore in their foundational stages but has more recently been overlaid with conservative reaction, fundamentalism and fear. He defines this liberal theology in terms of the four values of grace, order, openness and diversity which he suggests can be read by Christians as key attributes of the three persons of the Trinity and of God in Trinity as a whole. This book counters the growing influence of narrow, exclusive judgemental religious conservatism with a powerful reassertion of the liberal gospel of grace, goodness and generosity grounded in the being of God.
This unique anthology of biblical and other sacred religious texts, sermons, essays, poems and hymns offers a rich collection of perspectives and beliefs on what lies beyond death, and is designed to bring encouragement, comfort and reassurance as well as prompting spiritual reflection and intellectual curiosity. Ian Bradley is a much-respected writer, broadcaster and academic, and a former Church of Scotland minister, and offers a short commentary on the facing page of each reading, providing context and helpful information and observations. This book will be a valuable resource for all who seek to understand death personally or professionally.
The Victorian values of Liberalism and nonconformity permeated all aspects of society, not excluding industry and business. This insightful study follows 10 remarkable Victorian industrialists who came from relatively humble origins and rose through hard work, inventiveness, and application to become among the richest and most influential men of their generation. Each revolutionary showed an active and practical concern for his community and employees, providing them with housing, health care, education, recreation, and entertainment. For all their good deeds, these companies were also hugely profitable in the marketplace and include such household names as Cadburys, Colmans, Boots, and Unilever. This is the story of the rise of compassionate industry and the men who rode a wave of philanthropy to financial success.
Here are the full original texts of 150 of the best-loved hymns in the English language, from the time of the Early Church to the late 20th century. Each is accompanied by a fascinating commentary, giving biographical details of the author, such as the Calvinist creator of Rock of Ages who once calculated that the average human sins 2,522,880,000 times; notes on the circumstances in which the hymn was written and how it has been used; and variant versions including the parodies of 'The Church's One Foundation' and 'What a friend we have in Jesus' sung by British soldiers in the trenches of Flanders in the First World War. This book should greatly assist all those responsible for choosing hymns in churches and places of worship, provide rich resources for bedside reading and meditation and provide useful background material for the millions who watch Songs of Praise on television every Sunday evening. Ian Bradley's commentaries combine wit, elegance and charm with a scholar's erudition and expert knowledge. He has enjoyed singing hymns and playing them on the piano for as long as he can remember.He attributes the origin of this enthusiasm to his father's enthusiasm for revivalist hymns and choruses and his own exposure as a boy to thundering hymns in the chapel of Tonbridge School. Among his other enthusiasms are Gilbert and Sullivan, European spas, hill walking and tennis. |
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