Church History articles from March 2009

Church History archives from March 2009

Trent and the clergy in late eighteenth-century Malta.(Essay)
March 1, 2009... THE Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia, read to Paul III on March 9, 1537, identified the ordination of unsatisfactory priests as the primary cause of the ills of the Church. (2) The Council of Trent took up this suggestion almost thirty years...

Joseph (Smith) in Egypt: Babel, hieroglyphs, and the pure language of Eden.(Essay)
March 1, 2009... IN June 1835, Michael Chandler, an Irish-American entrepreneur, arrived in the Mormon capital of Kirtland, Ohio, to meet Joseph Smith, the Latter-day Saint founder and, according to an 1830 revelation, "a seer, a translator, a prophet, an...

What should Christians do about a shaman-progenitor?: evangelicals and ethnic nationalism in South Korea.(Essay)
March 1, 2009... IN the past fifteen years, global evangelicalism has emerged as an important field of study. A key contributor to this study has been Paul Freston, who authored Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, a book Harvey Cox of...

The Great War, religious authority, and the American fighting man.(Essay)
March 1, 2009... BETWEEN April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, the United States called into service a military force four million strong. Members of the comparatively minuscule professional military trained the citizen-soldiers. The U.S. government, helped...

Japan's Modern Prophet: Uchimura Kanzo 1861-1930.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Japan's Modern Prophet: Uchimura Kanzo 1861-1930. By John F. Howes. Vancouver: UBC, 2005. xviii + 446 pp. $43.95 paper. WHAT MAKES A PROPHET: THE CASE FOR UCHIMURA KANZ0 "Japanese Christianity had its origins in the upheavals of the...

The limitations of the genre of the heroic individual biography.(Japan's Modern Prophet)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Howes's Japan's Modern Prophet is the most detailed study of Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930) in a Western language. Uchimura, a Christian convert, is best known in the West for three things: 1) his refusal as a young high school teacher to bow...

An impression of J. F. Howes's Japan's Modern Prophet.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The theme of Howes's book is the psychological observation of Uchimura as a teacher and writer, not as an evangelist. Professor Howes says that "one sees in Uchimura's life a classic study of the psychological implications that attend...

Response to comments on Japan's Modern Prophet.(Essay)
March 1, 2009... Thanks to the editors of Church History for what amounts to a panel discussion of my book. What a humbling idea for an author. With the rapid development of the Christian faith outside what used to be called "Christendom," its readers...

Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St. AEthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615.('Late Medieval Monasteries and Their Patrons: England and Wales, c. 1300-1540', 'St. David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation')(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Signs of Devotion: The Cult of St. AEthelthryth in Medieval England, 695-1615. By Virginia Blanton. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2007. xviii+350 pp. $65.00 cloth. Late Medieval Monasteries and their Patrons: England and...

Millennial Dreams and Apocalyptic Nightmares: The Cold War Origins of Political Evangelicalism.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Millennial Dreams and Apocalyptic Nightmares: The Cold War Origins of Political Evangelicalism. By Angela M. Lahr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. xii+284 pp. $49.95 cloth. Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. By Michael...

Origen and the History of Justification: The Legacy of Origen's Commentary on Romans.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Origen and the History of Justification: The Legacy of Origen's Commentary on Romans. By Thomas P. Scheck. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008. xii + 300 pp. $60.00 cloth. Origen has often served as a protean figure in...

The Power of Sacrifice: Roman and Christian Discourses in Conflict.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Power of Sacrifice: Roman and Christian Discourses in Conflict. By George Heyman. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2007. xxv + 256 pp. $69.95 cloth. Early Christian martyrdom is a crowded field, so that it is a...

The Roman Revolution of Constantine.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Roman Revolution of Constantine. By Raymond Van Dam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xvi + 446 pp. $85.00 cloth. Raymond Van Dam's latest monograph is an important contribution to recent research on Constantine and early...

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. By Judith Herrin. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. xxiv + 393 pp. $29.95 cloth. Inspired by the questions of curious construction workers, Judith Herrin, professor of...

The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West. By Gary Macy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. xiv + 264 pp. $25.00 cloth. Although the title of Gary Macy's study is strictly accurate, it may put off...

Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition, c. 900-1200.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition, c. 900-1200. By Scott G. Bruce. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought 4th Series 68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xiv + 216 pp. $95.00 cloth. ...

The Children's Crusade: Medieval History, Modern Mythistory.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Children's Crusade: Medieval History, Modern Mythistory. By Gary Dickson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. xviii + 247 pp. $35.00 cloth. Gary Dickson asks how a minor thirteenth-century event, which left no institutional legacy, was...

So Great a Light, So Great a Smoke: The Beguin Heretics of Languedoc.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... So Great a Light, So Great a Smoke: The Beguin Heretics of Languedoc. By Louisa A. Burnham. Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2008. xvi + 222 pp. $39.95 cloth. To use a word...

Picturing the Celestial City: The Medieval Stained Glass of Beauvais Cathedral.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Picturing the Celestial City: The Medieval Stained Glass of Beauvais Cathedral. By Michael Cothren. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006. xiv + 280 pp. $95.00 cloth. As Michael Cothren writes in Picturing the Celestial City,...

The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500-1648.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500-1648. By Bridget Heal. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xvi + 344 pp. $99.00 cloth. In this erudite and...

Orientalism, Aramaic and Kabbalah in the Catholic Reformation: The First Printing of the Syriac New Testament.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Orientalism, Aramaic and Kabbalah in the Catholic Reformation: The First Printing of the Syriac New Testament. By Robert J. Wilkinson. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 137. Leiden: Brill, 2007. xvi + 225 pp. $129.00 cloth. ...

Divided By Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Divided By Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe. By Benjamin J. Kaplan. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007. xiv + 418 pp. $29.95 cloth. The image of early modern...

Law and Conscience: Catholicism in Early Modern England, 1570-1625.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Law and Conscience: Catholicism in Early Modern England, 1570-1625. By Stefania Tutino. Catholic Christendom, 1300-1700. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2007. viii + 258 pp. $99.95 cloth. To the ever-growing number of publications on the history...

Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and Its Reformation Opponents.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and Its Reformation Opponents. By James Simpson. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007. xiv + 349 pp. $27.95 cloth. James Simpson has an ax to grind. His ax is sharp and...

English Hypothetical Universalism: John Preston and the Softening of Reformed Theology.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... English Hypothetical Universalism: John Preston and the Softening of Reformed Theology. By Jonathan D. Moore. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2007. xx + 306 pp. $36.00 paper. John Preston was a person of influence at the court of James I as...

The Reconstruction of the Church of Ireland: Bishop Bramhall and the Laudian Reforms, 1633-1641.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Reconstruction of the Church of Ireland: Bishop Bramhall and the Laudian Reforms, 1633-1641. By John McCafferty. Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xiv + 275 pp. $99.00 cloth. ...

Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. By Nam-lin Hur. Harvard East Asian Monographs 282. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007. xvi + 566 pp. $55.00 cloth. In Tokugawa...

Last Witnesses: The Muggletonian History, 1652-1979.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Last Witnesses: The Muggletonian History, 1652-1979. By William Lamont. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2006. xvi + 271 pp. $99.95 cloth. In this handsomely published (though pricey to North American readers) and richly illustrated volume, the...

The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1680-1840.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Clerical Profession in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1680-1840. By W. M. Jacob. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. viii + 360 pp. $99.00 cloth. It was once customary to describe the Church of England in the eighteenth century as a...

Anglicanism and the British Empire, c. 1700-1850.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Anglicanism and the British Empire, c. 1700-1850. By Rowan Strong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. xii + 325 pp. $110.00 cloth. This book provides an analysis of Anglican attitudes toward empire, based centrally on printed sources...

The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America. By Thomas S. Kidd. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. xx + 394 pp. $35.00 cloth. Was there a Great Awakening? Historians of colonial American...

Virginians Reborn: Anglican Monopoly, Evangelical Dissent, and the Rise of the Baptists in the Late Eighteenth Century.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Virginians Reborn: Anglican Monopoly, Evangelical Dissent, and the Rise of the Baptists in the Late Eighteenth Century. By Jewel L. Spangler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 2008. x + 293 pp. $45.00 cloth. Did "evangelical...

Frontiers of Faith: Bringing Catholicism to the West in the Early Republic.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Frontiers of Faith: Bringing Catholicism to the West in the Early Republic. By John R. Dichtl. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. x + 241 pp. $50.00 cloth. The history of Catholicism in the early American Republic is a history...

Piety and Dissent: Race, Gender, and Biblical Rhetoric in Early American Autobiography.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Piety and Dissent: Race, Gender, and Biblical Rhetoric in Early American Autobiography. By Eileen Razzari Elrod. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. xiv + 233 pp. $80.00 cloth; $24.95 paper. The perceptive student of American...

Opening China: Karl F. A. Gutzlaff and Sino-Western Relations, 1827-1852.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Opening China: Karl F. A. Gutzlaff and Sino-Western Relations, 1827-1852. By Jessie Gregory Lutz. Studies in the History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2008. xx + 364 pages. $45.00 paper. In the mid-nineteenth...

"Ethos" and the Oxford Movement: At the Heart of Tractarianism.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... "Ethos" and the Oxford Movement: At the Heart of Tractarianism. By James Pereiro. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. xxx + 324 pp. $150.00 cloth. This is probably the most important book on the history of the Oxford Movement to be...

Holy Fathers, Secular Sons: Clergy, Intelligentsia, and the Modern Self in Revolutionary Russia.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Holy Fathers, Secular Sons: Clergy, Intelligentsia, and the Modern Self in Revolutionary Russia. By Laurie Manchester. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2008. xiv + 290 pp. $43.00 cloth. Laurie Manchester opens her innovative and...

Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Groups Came Together to Rescue their Holiest Shrine.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Groups Came Together to Rescue their Holiest Shrine. By Raymond Cohen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. xxvi + 315 pp. $29.99 cloth. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is an extraordinary building....

Hitler's Priests: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Hitler's Priests: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism. By Kevin P. Spicer. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2008. xvi + 374 pp. $34.95 cloth. There is an interesting and instructive parallel to be drawn between Germany's...

Religion, Identity, and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of Belonging and Belief.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Religion, Identity, and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of Belonging and Belief. By Claire Mitchell. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2006. xii + 179 pp. $29.95 paper. In Religion, Identity, and Politics, Claire Mitchell argues, quite...

It's a New Day: Race and Gender in the Modern Charismatic Movement.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... It's a New Day: Race and Gender in the Modern Charismatic Movement. By Scott Billingsley. Religion and American Culture. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2008. xii + 204 pp. $34.50 cloth. Commentators, historians, and sociologists...

From Pews to Polling Places: Faith and Politics in the American Religious Mosaic.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... From Pews to Polling Places: Faith and Politics in the American Religious Mosaic. Edited by J. Matthew Wilson. Religion and Politics. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2007. xii + 325 pp. $49.95 cloth; $26.95 paper. Faith...

Religious Liberty in America: the First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Religious Liberty in America: The First Amendment in Historical and Contemporary Perspective. By Bruce T. Murray. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. xviii + 214 pp. $80.00 cloth; $19.95 paper. Murray has set out to provide...

Supernaturalism in Christianity: Its Growth and Cure.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Supernaturalism in Christianity: Its Growth and Cure. By William E. Phipps. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2008. xviii + 373 pp. $23.00 paper. Phipps, a Pauline scholar by training, finds the near obsession with supernaturalism in...

Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism; An Historical Analysis of the Theology of Holiness in the Quaker Tradition.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism; An Historical Analysis of the Theology of Holiness in the Quaker Tradition. By Carole Dale Spencer. Studies in Christian History and Thought. Milton Keynes, U.K.: Patemoster, 2007. xvi + 319 pp. $41.00 paper....

Wales and the Word: Historical Perspectives on Religion and Welsh Identity.(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Wales and the Word: Historical Perspectives on Religion and Welsh Identity. By D. Densil Morgan. Cardiff, U.K.: University of Wales Press, 2008. xii + 266 pp. $85.00 cloth. When I served as director of the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at...

Books received.
March 1, 2009... Barbosa, Jose Carlos, Slavery and Protestant Missions in Imperial Brazil. Trans. Fraser G. MacHaffie and Richard K. Danford. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2008. Bauman, Chad M., Christian Identity and Dalit Religion in Hindu...