History of religion Books

Book SynopsisIn colorful detail, Calvin Lane explores the dynamic intersection between reform movements and everyday Christian practice from ca. 1000 to ca. 1800. Lowering the artificial boundaries between “the Middle Ages,” “the Reformation,” and “the Enlightenment,” Lane brings to life a series of reform programs each of which developed new sensibilities about what it meant to live the Christian life. Along this tour, Lane discusses music, art, pilgrimage, relics, architecture, heresy, martyrdom, patterns of personal prayer, changes in marriage and family life, connections between church bodies and governing authorities, and certainly worship. The thread that he finds running from the Benedictine revival in the eleventh century to the pietistic movements of the eighteenth is a passionate desire to return to a primitive era of Christianity, a time of imagined apostolic authenticity, even purity. In accessible language, he introduces readers to Cistercians and Calvinists, Franciscans and Jesuits, Lutherans and Jansenists, Moravians and Methodists to name but a few of the many reform movements studied in this book. Although Lane highlights their diversity, he argues that each movement rooted its characteristic practice – their spirituality – in an imaginative recovery of the apostolic life.Trade ReviewA superb study of Christian devotion and spirituality in medieval, Reformation and early modern times. Breaking through the old periodization paradigm, this fresh narrative focuses on how people prayed, believed, worshiped, and practiced the faith in an age of change and reform. Highly recommended! -- Timothy George, Beeson Divinity School, Samford UniversityCalvin Lane’s Spirituality and Reformproposes an attractive alternative to traditional narratives and timelines of premodern Western Christian reform. . . . Spirituality and Reform is an appealing interpretation of premodern Western Christianity and a useful survey of recent topical literature. It continues and advances current scholarly trends with accessible and memorable structure and prose. It may not single-handedly bring about the deconstruction of tedious historiographical barriers, but it certainly makes a clear case for why such deconstruction is necessary. * Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture *A superb study of Christian devotion and spirituality in medieval, Reformation and early modern times. Breaking through the old periodization paradigm, this fresh narrative focuses on how people prayed, believed, worshiped, and practiced the faith in an age of change and reform. Highly recommended! -- Timothy George, Beeson Divinity School, Samford UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Spirituality & Reform1.The Spiritual Landscape: The Mass in the Middle Ages2.The Spiritual Landscape: Mediating the Holy in the Middle Ages3.The Spirituality of High Medieval Reform Movements: Popes & Monks4.Medieval Mysticism & Reform5.The Spirituality of Late Medieval Reform Movements: Pushing the Boundaries6.Sixteenth-Century Reformations: The Sacraments7.Sixteenth-Century Reformations: Preaching, Sacred Space, & Music8.Sixteenth-Century Reformations: Pastoral Care & the Life Cycle9.Sixteenth-Century Reformations: Early Modern Catholicism10.Spirituality & the Encounter: Opportunities for a Primitive Church11.Spirituality & the Bloody Theater: Martyrdom in the Middle Ages and Early Modernity12.Religions of the Heart: New Movements of the Seventeenth & Eighteenth CenturiesConclusion: Post Tenebras Lux?Appendix 1: TimelineAppendix 2: Shortlist of Primary Sources in English

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Book SynopsisJohn L. Kater has been teaching at Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong since 2007 and is professor emeritus of ministry development at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

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Book SynopsisA Theology of Power and Privilege makes the bold assumption that it is possible to develop an antiracist theology within a constructive evangelical theological method. It examines Black Liberation Theology's claims of embedded racism within White theological systems and then asks both if Reformed North American Evangelicalism evidences racism within its theology, and if so, how might that be addressed biblically and doctrinally while remaining true to the theological essence of evangelicalism. Along the way, the author engages critically with an evangelical tradition represented by John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hobbs, and Carl F. H. Henry and considers it in the light of the critique of James Cone. Having identified racism within the theological tradition the author then offers a constructive evangelical theology of power and privilege that he accesses as truly antiracist. In pursuit of this theological conclusion, the author explores biblical texts on liberation, subjection, and obedience and applies his conclusions to constructive work on the Doctrine of God. This is done within an evangelical hermeneutical methodology that privileges the biblical text. This book will be of interest to evangelicals who are engaged in debates around race, racism, and social justice either theologically or historically, and theologians generally interested in the application of hermeneutics to theological method. It will also be of interest to anyone regardless of tradition as a guide to how white theologians can take seriously the contributions and value of the Black intellectual tradition to their work.

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