iInternationally recognised for his scholarship in the philosophy of religion and Christian Doctrine, and for his ecclesiastical connections as former Theological Secretary of the Geneva-based World ...Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Reformed theologian Alan Sell has an established reputation amongst theologians, church and intellectual historians, ecumenists, and ministers of religion.
This collection of Alan Sell’s work on the Reformed and Dissenting traditions spans key doctrinal, philosophical, ethical, historical and ecumenical topics. The author illuminates central themes with the history and thought of the Reformed and Dissenting traditions including: the catholicity of the Church and danger of sectarianism, the importance of Church Meeting, the centrality of the Cross in Christian thought, the need for a viable Christian apologetic. Alan Sell also includes the only modern study of Henry Grove and papers on Andrew Fuller and P. T. Forsyth, in whose work there is currently a revival of interest. With growing interest world wide in the Reformed family, which is the third largest Christian world communion, this book offers an invaluable resource.
In the early twentieth century, Swedish priests went to England for pastoral studies. There they met the influential leaders of the Oxford Movement and were inspired by them. They discovered a ...Catholic, but not Roman Catholic, worship and High Church spirituality. They read Charles Gore, E.B. Pusey and others. Their great discovery was the eucharistic worship and its sacramentally orientated liturgy and the world-wide Catholic Church, a catholicity they recognised in the Church of Sweden. However, when they wanted to use their experience and visions in Sweden, they were accused of being 'English importations' of something strange and un-Swedish. This essay shows not only that this was not the case, but how they rejected such nationalist criticism. The Oxford Movement inspired them to dig in the Swedish field and there they found the Church's common treasures − the Catholicity they had, which gave a concrete form to worship and parish life. For Gunnar Rosendal, the influential High Church pioneer in Sweden from the 1930s, this was absolutely fundamental.
Being Yourself Zackariasson, Maria
Young (Stockholm, Sweden),
05/2014, Letnik:
22, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A person’s identity, both social and personal, can be said to be constituted by several different aspects, such as gender, age, ethnicity, class and also religious affiliation. In a country like ...Sweden, where only a small number of youths are involved in religious organizations, it is, however, not necessarily uncontroversial for youths to present themselves as religiously active. To openly declare your religious commitment, places you in particular collective identities associated with certain beliefs or stereotypes that may challenge norms surrounding how Swedish youths are expected to think, behave and act. This article examines how a number of youths, active in the Christian youth organization of one of the Swedish free churches, present themselves and their religious involvement to friends at school. The results show different strategies used for handling experienced or anticipated reactions to their involvement in a religious organization and the collective identities they may be ascribed because of it.
This article deals with the relationship between form and content in the context of a church service by observing and comparing church services and forms of worship in free churches in comparison to ...liturgical churches. Special emphasis has been put on the reflection about the ≫liturgy≪ among free churches, on the detection of possible wrong practices and on offering solutions in light of the New Testament. Furthermore, the ≫liturgy≪ among free churches is compared to churches with a strict liturgical structure, aiming to conclude what liturgical churches can offer to non-liturgical or free churches in terms of worship through a comparative overview of the two worship traditions. In the first part of the article, the sources and basic characteristics of worship in both free churches and in liturgical churches are presented and compared. In the second part of the article, an overview is given of the mutual misconceptions between the free and liturgical churches. Arguments for the criticism of liturgical worship services as well as free church worship services are presented. In the third and concluding part of the article, special focus is put on the existent issues in free church worship services, while offering viable solutions on how to potentially correct problematic areas of worship services in free churches based on the New Testament and on certain aspects present in liturgical churches that are also in harmony with the New Testament.
This paper challenges the idea of a distinctly rural mission as helpful to thinking. Fresh Expressions are critiqued, along with the concept of a 'mixed economy', as the way forward for mission in ...rural areas. The complexities of contemporary rural life are addressed. The weakness of much of the rural Church, especially the Free Churches, is considered. Appropriate missional practices, including church planting, are pointed to as part of the future for the Church in rural areas.
Much of the discussion of rural Christianity focuses on the presence and the role of the Church of England. Less attention has been devoted to the historic significance and present activity of the ...Free Churches, especially in English market towns. This paper analyses two areas of rural England (Leicestershire and Rutland and Oxfordshire and the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire) and demonstrates a continuing and significant Free Church presence in the countryside. It reflects on some current models of ecclesiology and considers the possibilities for new models and fresh expressions of Church which draw on the shared heritage of English Christianity both Anglican and Dissenting.
<!CDATAErrands into the Metropolis offers a dramatic new interpretation of the texts and contexts of early New England literature. Jonathan Beecher Field inverts the familiar paradigm of colonization ...as an errand into the wilderness to demonstrate, instead, that New England was shaped and re-shaped by a series of return trips to a metropolitan London convulsed with political turmoil. In London, dissidents and their more orthodox antagonists contended for colonial power through competing narratives of their experiences in the New World. Dissidents showed a greater willingness to construct their narratives in terms that were legible to a metropolitan reader than did Massachusetts Bay's apologists. As a result, representatives of a variety of marginal religious groups were able to secure a remarkable level of political autonomy, visible in the survival of Rhode Island as an independent colony.
Through chapters focusing on John Cotton, Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, John Clarke, and the Quaker martyrs, Field traces an evolving discourse on the past, present, and future of colonial New England that revises the canon of colonial New England literature and the contours of New England history. In the broader field of early American studies, Field's work demonstrates the benefits of an Atlantic perspective on the material cultures of print. In the context of religious freedom, Errands into the Metropolis shows Rhode Island's famous culture of toleration emerging as a pragmatic response to the conditions of colonial life, rather than as an idealistic principle. Errands into the Metropolis offers new understanding of familiar texts and events from colonial New England, and reveals the significance of less familiar texts and events.>
This microanalysis of population levels among Protestant dissenters in England during an era of evangelical revival uses advanced statistical methodologies to examine the demographic effects of ...religious conversion experiences.
Women in New Religionsoffers an engaging look at women's evolving place in the birth and development of new religious movements. It focuses on four disparate new religions-Mormonism, Seventh-day ...Adventism, The Family International, and Wicca-to illuminate their implications for gender socialization, religious leadership and participation, sexuality, and family ideals.
Religious worldviews and gender roles interact with one another in complicated ways. This is especially true within new religions, which frequently set roles for women in ways that help the movements to define their boundaries in relation to the wider society. As new religious movements emerge, they often position themselves in opposition to dominant society and concomitantly assert alternative roles for women. But these religions are not monolithic: rather than defining gender in rigid and repressive terms, new religions sometimes offer possibilities to women that are not otherwise available. Vance traces expectations for women as the religions emerge, and transformation of possibilities and responsibilities for women as they mature.
Weaving theory with examination of each movement's origins, history, and beliefs and practices, this text contextualizes and situates ideals for women in new religions. The book offers an accessible analysis of the complex factors that influence gender ideology and its evolution in new religious movements, including the movements' origins, charismatic leadership and routinization, theology and doctrine, and socio-historical contexts. It shows how religions shape definitions of women's place in a way that is informed by response to social context, group boundaries, and identity.
Additional Resources
Questions surrounding the understanding of "communion" are a significant feature of much contemporary ecclesiology, but their prominence calls attention to wider questions regarding ecclesiological ...method. Brian Flanagan addresses the questions of how to characterize a systematic ecclesiology and the possibility of a systematic communion ecclesiology through an investigation of the concept of communion in the work of Jean-Marie Tillard, OP. Tillard's theology is noted as the most prominent Roman Catholic communion ecclesiology. Flanagan argues that Tillard contributes to systematic ecclesiology by defining the concept of communion in relation to Christology, soteriology, and theological anthropology, thereby framing an answer to the contemporary question of ecclesial unity and diversity. The book also assesses the danger of idealism in Tillard's thought, and suggests that further engagement with social scientific study of the church will help strengthen, nuance, and critique Tillard's idea of communion.
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