Church History articles from September 2000

Church History archives from September 2000

Remembering Poemen Remembering: The Desert Fathers and the Spirituality of Memory.
September 1, 2000... I. INTRODUCTION In 407, a tribe of barbarian raiders known as Mazices came sweeping off the Libyan desert and devastated one of the first great centers of Christian monasticism, the settlement of Scetis.(1) Scetis was located in a remote...

Marking Religious and Ethnic Boundaries: Cases from the Ancient Golan Heights.
September 1, 2000... In the aftermath of the 1967 "Six Days' War," 254 ancient inscribed stones were found in forty-four towns and villages of the Golan Heights--241 in Greek, 12 in Hebrew or Aramaic, and 1 in Latin. These stones, along with numerous...

Rerooting the Faith: The Reformation as Re-Christianization.
September 1, 2000... I. REFORMATION OR REFORMATIONS? Over the last twenty-five years it has become common to speak of reformation in the plural instead of the singular. Historians isolate and write about the communal reformation, the urban reformation, the...

Methodists, Politics, and the Coming of the American Civil War.
September 1, 2000... In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant remarked that there were three great parties in the United States: the Republican, the Democratic, and the Methodist Church. This was an understandable tribute, given the active role of leading Methodists in his...

Icons, Miracles, and the Ecclesial Identity of Laity in Late Imperial Russian Orthodoxy.
September 1, 2000... During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, clergy and professional theologians in the Orthodox Church in Russia found themselves engrossed in debates over the theological nature and "proper" institutional fashioning of the sacred...

Gender and Christian Religion.
September 1, 2000... Gender and Christian Religion. Edited By R. N. Swanson. Studies in Church History 34. Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 1998. xxii + 546 pp. $90.00 cloth. The study of gender is, in many ways, the logical next step for women's history. The...

The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: Harvard Divinity School Studies.
September 1, 2000... The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: Harvard Divinity School Studies. Edited by Francois Bovon, Ann Graham Brock, and Christopher R. Matthews. Religions of the World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. xxx + 394 pp. $24.95 paper....

The Impact of Scripture in Early Christianity.
September 1, 2000... The Impact of Scripture in Early Christianity. Edited by J. den Boeft and M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonk. Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language 44. Leiden: Brill, 1999. xv + 278 pp. $91.50 cloth. The fourteen essays in this...

Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity.
September 1, 2000... Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity. By Elizabeth A. Clark. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. xvi + 420 pp. $65.00 cloth; $21.95 paper. How did Christians devoted to ascetic lives in late...

Jews and Christians in Contact and Controversy.
September 1, 2000... Jews and Christians in Contact and Controversy. By William Horbury. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1998. viii + 344 pp. $54.95 cloth. The twelve previously published essays gathered here exhibit Horbury's competence in the literature of early...

Early Christians and Animals.
September 1, 2000... Early Christians and Animals. By Robert M. Grant. New York: Routledge, 1999. x + 214 pp. $75.00 cloth. This book is vintage Grant: a comprehensive knowledge of Christian literature, thorough use of its Greco-Roman and Jewish environment, a...

Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance.
September 1, 2000... Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance. By David Frankfurter. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. xvi + 314 pp. $49.50 cloth. Frankfurter challenges the scholarly tendency to describe religion in Roman Egypt from the...

Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire, AD 100-450.
September 1, 2000... Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire, AD 100-450. By Jas Elsner. Oxford History of Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. xvii + 297 pp. $39.05 cloth; $16.95 paper. It is Elsner's thesis in this deeply...

Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia.
September 1, 2000... Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia. Edited by Allan D. Fitzgerald. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999.1 + 902 pp. $75.00 cloth. In only a couple of months, I have already had occasion repeatedly to resort to this laudable work....

Nordic Religions in the Viking Age.
September 1, 2000... Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. By Thomas A. DuBois. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. x + 271 pp. $45.00 cloth; $19.95 paper. It is the contention of the author, who is trained as a folklorist with...

AElfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham.
September 1, 2000... AElfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham. By Christopher A. Jones. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. x + 255 pp. $69.95. Around 1005, AElfric, a monk well known for his homilies and...

The Tongue of the Fathers: Gender and Ideology in Twelfth-Century Latin.
September 1, 2000... The Tongue of the Fathers: Gender and Ideology in Twelfth-Century Latin. Ed. by David Townsend and Andrew Taylor. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. vi + 218 pp. $37.50 cloth. In comparison with its vernacular cousins,...

The Kingdom of Leon-Castilla under King Alfonso VII, 1126-1157.
September 1, 2000... The Kingdom of Leon-Castilla under King Alfonso VII, 1126-1157. By Bernard F. Reilly. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. xvi + 431 pp. $65.00 cloth. Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile has suffered in his...

Papacy and Law in the Gregorian Revolution: The Canonistic Work of Anselm of Lucca.
September 1, 2000... Papacy and Law in the Gregorian Revolution: The Canonistic Work of Anselm of Lucca. By Kathleen G. Cushing. Oxford Historical Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998. xii + 246 pp. $74.00 cloth. Born ca. 1040 and dying in 1086, Bishop Anselm of...

Angels and Angelology in the Middle Ages.
September 1, 2000... Angels and Angelology in the Middle Ages. By David Keck. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. x + 262 pp. $45.00 cloth. Angels have fallen on hard times in theology. Despite their resurgent popularity in the mass media, few contemporary...

Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity.
September 1, 2000... Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity. By Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. x + 451 pp. $60.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. In 1983, Jeremy Cohen published a path-breaking study of medieval...

Preaching, Politics, and Poetry in Late Medieval England.
September 1, 2000... Preaching, Politics, and Poetry in Late Medieval England. By A. J. Fletcher. Medieval Studies. Dublin: Four Courts, 1998. 320 pp. $55.00 cloth. A. J. Fletcher is one of the most assiduous of the literary historians now focusing on the...

Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ.
September 1, 2000... Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ. By Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt. Studies in Spirituality and Theology 5. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999. xii + 290 pp. n.p. The phrase "Mystical Body...

Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg.
September 1, 2000... Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg. Edited By Karen Maag. Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1999. 191 pp. $17.99 paper. This collection of eight essays,...

Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition.
September 1, 2000... Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition. Edited by Paul Corby Finney. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. xviii + 540 pp. $65.00. In 1995 the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton University hosted a four-day...

Reformed Confessions: Theology from Zurich to Barmen.
September 1, 2000... Reformed Confessions: Theology from Zurich to Barmen. By Jan Rohls. Translated by John Hoffmeyer. Introduction by Jack L. Stotts. Columbia Series in Reformed Theology. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1998. xxiv + 311 pp. $35.00 cloth....

Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture.
September 1, 2000... Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture. Edited by Max Reinhart. Early Modern German Studies 1; Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies 40. Kirksville, Mo.: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1998. xiv +...

Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night.
September 1, 2000... Shaman of Oberstdorf: Chonrad Stoeckhlin and the Phantoms of the Night. By Wolfgang Behringer. Translated by H. C. Erik Midelfort. Studies in Early Modern German History. Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1998. xvi + 203 pp....

Building Codes: The Aesthetics of Calvinism in Early Modern Europe.
September 1, 2000... Building Codes: The Aesthetics of Calvinism in Early Modern Europe. By Catharine Randall. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. xii + 288 pp. $36.50 cloth. This is a fascinating study of the subversive nature of...

Controlling Misbehavior in England, 1370-1600.
September 1, 2000... Controlling Misbehavior in England, 1370-1600. By Marjorie Keniston McIntosh. Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time 34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. xviii + 294 pp. $59.95 cloth. Marjorie...

Judaism in the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton.
September 1, 2000... Judaism in the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton. By Matt Goldish. International Archives of the History of Ideas 157. Dordrecht: Klewer Academic Publishers, 1998. xii + 239 pages. $110.00 cloth. Sir Isaac Newton was surely one of the most...

Propagating the Word of Irish Dissent, 1650-1800.
September 1, 2000... Propagating the Word of Irish Dissent, 1650-1800. Edited by Kevin Herlihy. Dublin: Four Courts, 1998. 137 pp. $20.00 paper. Herlihy's fourth collection on the history of Irish dissent turns from straightforward issues of organization and...

The Unknown Pope: Benedict XV (1914-1922) and the Pursuit of Peace.
September 1, 2000... The Unknown Pope: Benedict XV (1914-1922) and the Pursuit of Peace. By John F. Pollard. New York: Geoffrey Chapman, 1999. xvi + 240 pp. $29.95. Elected pope on 3 September 1914, with exactly two-thirds of the votes on the tenth ballot of a...

Die verlassenen Kinder der Kirche: Der Umgang mit Christen judischer Herkunft im "Dritten Reich".
September 1, 2000... Die verlassenen Kinder der Kirche: Der Umgang mit Christen judischer Herkunft im "Dritten Reich." By Ursula Buttner and Martin Greschat. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1998. 151 pp. DM 28.00 paper. Published in the year of the...

Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England.
September 1, 2000... Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England. By Timothy Larsen. Studies in Modern British Religious History 1. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell, 1999. ix + 300 pp. $60.00 cloth; $35.00 paper. A prominent thesis...

Methodism and Education, 1849-1902: J. H. Rigg, Romanism, and Wesleyan Schools.
September 1, 2000... Methodism and Education, 1849-1902: J. H. Rigg, Romanism, and Wesleyan Schools. By John T. Smith. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998. xii + 258 pp. $75.00 cloth. This monograph is tightly focused on debates over the nature and support of schools...

Religions in Conflict: Ideological, Cultural Contact and Conversion in Late-Colonial India.
September 1, 2000... Religions in Conflict: Ideological, Cultural Contact and Conversion in Late-Colonial India. By Antony Copley. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997. xviii + 279 pp. $32.00 cloth. Antony Copley's study of nineteenth-century Christian mission...

Women and Religion in Early America 1600-1850: The Puritan and Evangelical Traditions.
September 1, 2000... Women and Religion in Early America 1600-1850: The Puritan and Evangelical Traditions. By Marilyn J. Westerkamp. Christianity and Society in the Modern World. New York: Routledge, 1999. x + 219 pp. $85.00 cloth; $22.99 paper. In this...

The Gospel Working Up: Progress and the Pulpit in Nineteenth-Century Virginia.
September 1, 2000... The Gospel Working Up: Progress and the Pulpit in Nineteenth-Century Virginia. By Beth Barton Schweiger. Religion in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. xii + 267 pp. $49.95 cloth. "Working up," as the title indicates, is a...

Theodore Parker: Orator of Superior Ideas.
September 1, 2000... Theodore Parker: Orator of Superior Ideas. By David B. Chesebrough. Great American Orators 29. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. xxii + 138 pp. $65.00 cloth. This overview of Theodore Parker's oratory focuses on the "superior ideas"...

Mary Baker Eddy.
September 1, 2000... Mary Baker Eddy. By Gillian Gill. Radcliffe Biography Series. Reading, Mass.: Perseus, 1998. xxxvi + 713 pp. $35.00 cloth. Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), the founder of Christian Science, continues to attract biographers of all outlooks, from...

Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's "Triumph of Religion" at the Boston Public Library.
September 1, 2000... Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's "Triumph of Religion" at the Boston Public Library. By Sally M. Promey. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. x + 365 pp. $45.00 cloth. Scholarship in the history of art has...

The Quest For Utopia in Twentieth Century America: Volume I: 1900-1960.
September 1, 2000... The Quest For Utopia in Twentieth Century America: Volume I: 1900-1960. By Timothy Miller. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1998. xxvi + 254 pp. $34.95 cloth. The Quest For Utopia takes as its point of departure the year 1900 and...

The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America.
September 1, 2000... The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America. By Doug Rossinow. Columbia Studies in Contemporary American History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. x + 500 pp. $34.50 cloth; $18.50 paper. ...

In the Name of the Father: The Rhetoric of the New Southern Baptist Convention.
September 1, 2000... In the Name of the Father: The Rhetoric of the New Southern Baptist Convention. By Carl L. Kell and L. Raymond Camp. Foreword by Kenneth Chafin. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999. xviii + 176 pp. $34.95 cloth. The...

Pilgrims through the Years: A Bicentennial History of First Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia.
September 1, 2000... Pilgrims through the Years: A Bicentennial History of First Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia. By George H. Shriver. Franklin, Tenn: Providence House Publishers, 1999. xiv + 242 pp. $39.95 cloth. This is local history at its best. It moves...

Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed.
September 1, 2000... Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed. By Gerald Gamm. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999. xii + 384 pp. $39.95 cloth. Following scholars in urban studies such as John McGreevy (Parish Boundaries...

Roman Catholicism in America.
September 1, 2000... Roman Catholicism in America. By Chester Gillis. Columbia Contemporary American Religion Series. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xii + 365 pp. $35.00 cloth. It takes a brave scholar to tackle so broad and diverse a subject as...

New Spiritual Homes: Religion and Asian Americans.
September 1, 2000... New Spiritual Homes: Religion and Asian Americans. Edited by David K. Yoo. Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999. x + 323 pp. $22.00 paper. Asian Americans are among...

Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru.
September 1, 2000... Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru. By Kathryn Bums. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999. xii + 307 pp. $49.95 cloth; $17.95 paper. Colonial religious life, and especially female religious life, has...

Mennonite and Nazi?: Attitudes Among Mennonite Colonists in Latin America, 1933-1945.
September 1, 2000... Mennonite and Nazi?: Attitudes Among Mennonite Colonists in Latin America, 1933-1945. By John D. Thiesen. Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History 37. Kitchener, Ont.: Pandora, 1999. 329 pp. $25.00 paper. This reviewer, for many years a...

The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706.
September 1, 2000... The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706. By John K. Thornton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. viii + 228 pp. $49.95 cloth; $15.95 paper. John Thornton is an established...

Historical Dictionary of the Baptists.
September 1, 2000... Historical Dictionary of the Baptists. By William H. Brackney. Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements 25. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 1999. xxxii + 494 pp. $69.50 cloth. William H. Brackney brings thirty years of...

MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CHURCH HISTORY.
September 1, 2000... 27 April 2000 The Council of the American Society of Church History convened at 7:00 p.m., on 27 April 2000, in tee Kiva Room A in the Hotel Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, called to order by President Hans J. Hillerbrand. Council...