Church History articles from September 2003

Church History archives from September 2003

Religious poverty, mendicancy, and reform in the late Middle Ages.
September 1, 2003... The idea and the ideal of religious poverty exerted a powerful force throughout the Middle Ages. "Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff," Christ had commanded his...

Trinitarian love mysticism: Ruusbroec, Hadewijch, and the gendered experience of the divine (1).
September 1, 2003... In the early part of the fourteenth century, a parish priest in Brussels came into the possession of a manuscript containing the vernacular letters, visions, and poetry of a woman known only as "beata Hadewijch." The priest prized the...

Melanchthonian method as a guide to reading confessions of faith: the index of the Book of Concord and Late Reformation learning.
September 1, 2003... Horst Kunze, the contemporary German authority on indexing, writes, "An index is not a tool that has its own independent existence. It is an aid for the use of another literary object. It is like a signpost. Like a signpost it has no other...

Was there a Reformation in the sixteenth century?
September 1, 2003... Reflections on historiographical developments in the history of Christianity tend to be a rather dry matter. Though dry, however, such reflections are important, since historiographical emphases not only tell us where scholarship has been in...

The colonization of British North America as an episode in the history of Christianity.
September 1, 2003... The proposition that, to paraphrase Carl Degler, Christianity came to British North America in the first ships, has long enjoyed popular and scholarly currency. The popular account, sometimes found today in evangelical Christian circles, holds...

The "African enslavement of Anglo-Saxon minds": the Beechers as critics of Augustine.
September 1, 2003... Harriet Beecher Stowe, who achieved international fame for her 1852 antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is best known to historians of American religious thought as a critic of New England Calvinism and its leading light, Jonathan Edwards....

Conservative American Protestantism in the League of Nations controversy.
September 1, 2003... The emerging fundamentalist movement made its first foray into extra-ecclesiastical politics during the League of Nations controversy of 1919-20. Both of the two main wings of fundamentalism--dispensational premillennialists and conservative...

Mark A. Knoll, America's God: from Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln.
September 1, 2003... The publication of Mark Noll's America's God (Oxford, 2002) marks a major moment in the historical study of religion in the United States. The annual meeting of the American Society of Church History in Chicago, January 2003, featured a panel...

How America's God became, well, America's God.(Mark A. Noll, America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln)
September 1, 2003... Several years ago Mark Noll wrote a review of Don Mathews's book Religion in the Old South. He said that Mathews's volume was so good it would be hard to know how it could have been better. One might say much the same about Noll's America's...

Republican Dialect or European Accents? The Sound of American Theology.(Mark A. Noll, America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln )
September 1, 2003... America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln promises to become and long remain a classic in American religious history. In this remarkable book, Mark Noll provides an acute and extensive survey of theological trends between the mid...

Response to Critiques of America's God: from Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln.
September 1, 2003... It is a great honor to have a book receive the kind of thoughtful criticism provided here by Christine Heyrman, Brooks Holifield, and Grant Wacker. The compliments seem excessive but I do not want to send them back. Because I found so much...

In Search of American Catholicism: a History of Religion and Culture in Tension & America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... In Search of American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension. By Jay P. Dolan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. viii + 312 pp. $27.00 cloth. America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. By Mark A....

First Converts: Rich Pagan Women and the Rhetoric of Mission in Early Judaism and Christianity.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... First Converts: Rich Pagan Women and the Rhetoric of Mission in Early Judaism and Christianity. By Shelly Matthews. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2001. xiv + 164 pp. $49.50 cloth. The most recent addition to the...

The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation. By Margaret M. Mitchell. Hermeneutische Untersuchungen zur Theologie 40. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000. xxxiv + 564 pp. DM 198 cloth; $44.95 paper. With the...

Eusebius of Caesarea against Paganism.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Eusebius of Caesarea against Paganism. By Aryeh Kofsky. Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series 3. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000. xiv + 337 pp. $119.00 cloth; $34.95 paper. The apologetic-polemical volumes of Eusebius have often not received...

The Life of Polycarp. An anonymous vita from third-century Smyrna.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Life of Polycarp. An anonymous vita from third-century Smyrna. Translated and edited by Alistair Stewart-Sykes. Early Christian Studies 4. Sydney, Australia: St. Paul's, 2002. xii + 168 pp. The text examined here raises especially...

The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran. By Elizabeth Key Fowden. Transformation of the Classical Heritage, 28. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xix + 227 pp., Figures, Illustrations, Maps. $55.00 cloth. ...

Learning Theology with the Church Fathers.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Learning Theology with the Church Fathers. By Christopher A. Hall. Downers Grove, III.: InterVarsity Press, 2002. 307 pp. $15.00 paper. Learning Theology is the second in Christopher Hall's three-volume introduction to patristic theology....

Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium. By Judith Herrin. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001. xxi + 304 pp. $29.95 cloth. Among professional historians, Byzantium is often viewed as a field of study for the...

From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages. By John Aberth. New York: Routledge, 2001. xvi + 304 pp. $26.00 cloth; $16.95 paper. The author aims to illuminate the fourteenth and...

Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief. By Walter Stephens. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. xvi + 451 pp. $35.00 cloth. Stephens revisits the thorny question of witch persecution with a new question: cui bono?...

The Anointment of Dionisio. Prophecy and Politics in Renaissance Italy.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Anointment of Dionisio. Prophecy and Politics in Renaissance Italy. By Marion Leathers Kuntz. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001 [but 2002]. xviii + 446 pp. $55.00 cloth. The importance of prophecy in late...

Europe's Reformations: 1450-1650.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Europe's Reformations: 1450-1650. By James D. Tracy. Lantham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. xx + 387 pp. $29.95 cloth. In the last decade, teachers of the Reformation in Europe have been blessed with the publication of a number of...

The Bible as Book: the Reformation.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Bible as Book: The Reformation. Edited by Orlaith O'Sullivan. London: The British Library and Oak Knoll, 2000. x + 182 pp. [pounds sterling]40.00. A discipline reflects its current state of method and operation also in the genre it...

The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, 4. The Age of the Reformation.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, 4. The Age of the Reformation. By Hughes Oliphant Old. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002. xix + 556 pp. $45.00 paper. In this, the fourth of his planned...

The Beginnings of English Protestantism.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Beginnings of English Protestantism. Edited by Peter Marshall and Alec Ryrie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xii + 242 pp. $55.00 cloth; $20.00 paper. Since the 1970's the traditional picture of the rise and progress of...

Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy. By Jay P. Corrin. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002. x + 571 pp. $49.95 cloth. Most Catholic leaders looked with dismay at the industrial revolution and the social...

Contemplatives in Action: the Jesuit Way.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Contemplatives in Action: The Jesuit Way. By William A. Barry, S.J. and Robert G. Doherty, S.J. New York: Paulist, 2002. vi + 84 pp. $11.95 paper. A great deal has been written in recent decades on the Jesuits and on spirituality,...

Women in a Celtic Church: Ireland 450-1150.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Women in a Celtic Church: Ireland 450-1150. By Christina Harrington. New York: Oxford University Press, 200. x + 329 pp. $65.00 cloth. Traditionally scholars viewed Irish Christianity as idiosyncratic and often characterized by an openness...

The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village. By Eamon Duffy. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. xvi + 232 pp. $22.50 cloth. While working on his magnum opus, The Stripping of the Altars (Yale, 1992),...

Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Female Monastic Life in Early Tudor England. With an Edition of Richard Fox's Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women, 1517. Edited by Barry Collett. The Early Modern Englishwoman 1500-1750: Contemporary Editions. Series editors, Betty S....

Sacraments, Ceremonies and the Stuart Divines: Sacramental Theology and Liturgy in England and Scotland 1603-1662.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Sacraments, Ceremonies and the Stuart Divines: Sacramental Theology and Liturgy in England and Scotland 1603-1662. By Bryan D. Spinks. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002. xiv + 240 pp. $79.95 cloth. Bryan Spinks has done a great service to the...

The English Sermon Revised: Religion, Literature and History 1600-1750.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... The English Sermon Revised: Religion, Literature and History 1600-1750. Edited by Lori Anne Ferrell and Peter McCullough. Politics, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 2000. x + 270 pp....

Conscience and Community: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Conscience and Community: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America. By Andrew R. Murphy. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. xxii + 337 pp. $45.00 cloth. The history of the...

Anglican Evangelicals: Protestant Secession from the Via Media, c.1800-1850.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Anglican Evangelicals: Protestant Secession from the Via Media, c.18001850. By Grayson Carter. Oxford Theological Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. xv + 470 pp. $85.00 cloth. This book examines the situation of evangelical...

Anglican Resurgence under W. F. Hook in Early Victorian Leeds: Church Life in a Nonconformist Town, 1836-1851.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Anglican Resurgence under W. F. Hook in Early Victorian Leeds: Church Life in a Nonconformist Town, 1836-1851. By Harry W. Dalton. Leeds, U.K.: The Thoresby Society, 2002. xiv + 158 pp. 015.00 paper. This "rewritten and condensed" (xi)...

Politicians in the Pulpit: Christian Radicalism in Britain from the Fall of the Bastille to the Disintegration of Chartism.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Politicians in the Pulpit: Christian Radicalism in Britain from the Fall of the Bastille to the Disintegration of Chartism. By Eileen Groth Lyon. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 1999. x + 280 pp. $78.95 cloth. From Martin Luther to Martin Luther...

Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain. By Michael Bentley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. viii + 334 pp. $45.00 cloth. The third Marquis of Salisbury (1830-1903), three times Conservative...

Ernst Troeltsch and Liberal Theology: Religion and Cultural Synthesis in Wilhelmine Germany.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Ernst Troeltsch and Liberal Theology: Religion and Cultural Synthesis in Wilhelmine Germany. By Mark D. Chapman. Christian Theology in Context Series. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. xii + 217 pp. $19.95 paper. Mark Chapman joins...

Thomas Chalmers: Enthusiast for Mission. the Christian Good of Scotland and the Rise of the Missionary Movement.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Thomas Chalmers: Enthusiast for Mission. The Christian Good of Scotland and the Rise of the Missionary Movement. By John Roxborogh. Rutherford Studies in Historical Theology. Carlisle, U.K.: Paternoster, 1999. xvi + 271 pp. $42.95 cloth. ...

The Irish Protestant Churches in the Twentieth Century.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Irish Protestant Churches in the Twentieth Century. By Alan Megahey. New York: St Martin's, 2000. x + 239 pp. $65.00 cloth. Historians have neglected the Irish Protestant churches as distinct from Northern Irish Protestants. More...

The Church Mission Society and World Christianity, 1799-1999.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Church Mission Society and World Christianity, 1799-1999. Edited by Kevin Ward and Brian Stanley. Studies in the History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Erdmans, 2000. xviii + 382 pp. $45.00 cloth. The thirteen authors of...

Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America. By Russell Bourne. New York: Harcourt, 2002. xv + 425 pp. $28.00 cloth. For most readers of this journal, Russell Bourne's thesis will come...

Exodus!: Religion, Race and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Exodus!: Religion, Race and Nation in Early Nineteenth Century Black America. By Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. x + 216 pp. $42.00 cloth; $16.00 paper. In Exodus, Eddie Glaude shows how the story of the...

The Premillennial Faith of James Brookes: Reexamining the Roots of American Dispensationalism.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Premillennial Faith of James Brookes: Reexamining the Roots of American Dispensationalism. By Carl E. Sanders II. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2001. x + 201 pp. $37.00 cloth. James Brookes was a leading nineteenth-century...

The United Inheritance: the Shaker Adventure in Communal Life.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The United Inheritance: The Shaker Adventure in Communal Life. By John H. Morgan. Bristol, Ind.: Quill Books, 2002. iv + 169 pp. $28.00 paper. Morgan has published twenty-two books on ecclesiastical sociology, theology, and the social...

Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America, 1880-2000.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America, 1880-2000. By Yaakov Ariel. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. xii + 367 pp. $49.95 cloth; $19.95 paper. Observing that most previous works on missions...

Bridging the Atlantic: the Question of American Exceptionalism in Perspective.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Bridging the Atlantic: The Question of American Exceptionalism in Perspective. Edited by Elizabeth Glaser and Hermann Wellenreuther. German Historical Institute. Washington, D.C.: Cambridge University Press, 2002. x + 310 pp. $50.00 cloth. ...

Contending for the Faith: Southern Baptists in New Mexico, 1935-1995.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Contending for the Faith: Southern Baptists in New Mexico, 1935-1995. By Daniel R. Carnett. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000. x + 230 pp. $29.95 cloth. The author provides a solid survey of the Southern Baptist...

The Social Gospel Today.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The Social Gospel Today. Edited by Christopher H. Evans. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2001. xiv + 213 pp. $22.95 paper. The conversion of a group of conference papers into a durable, coherent volume is a formidable task. In The...

Religion, Education, and the American Experience: Reflections on Religion and American Public Life.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... Religion, Education, and the American Experience: Reflections on Religion and American Public Life. Edited by Edith L. Blumhofer, Introduction by Martin E. Marty. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002. x + 246 pp. $34.95. Religion,...

Christians in Asia Before 1500.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Christians in Asia Before 1500. By Ian Gillman and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999. xiv + 391 pp. $55.00 cloth. Books on this topic have appeared as one of a series of volumes on the general topic from...

Minutes of the Council of the American Society of Church History.
September 1, 2003... 8 May 2003 The Council of the American Society of Church History convened at 3:00 p.m., on 8 May 2003, in the Conrad Room of Laws Lodge at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, called to order by President...