Originally published in 1988, this was the first full and scholarly account of the formal Elizabethan and Jacobean debates between Presbyterians and conformists concerning the government of the church. This book shed new light on the crucial disagreements between puritans and conformists and the importance of these divisions for political processes within both the church and wider society. The originality and complexity of Richard Hooker’s thought is discussed and the extent to which Hooker redefined the essence of English Protestantism. The book will be of interest to historians of the late 16th and 17th Centuries and to those interested in church history and the development of Protestantism.
Historical and Theological Reflections on the Anglican Church from J. I. Packer The Anglican Church has a rich theological heritage filled with a diversity of views and practices. Like a river with a main current and several offshoot streams, Anglicanism has a main body with many distinct, smaller communities. So what constitutes mainstream Anglicanism? Influential Anglican theologian J. I. Packer makes the case that "authentic Anglicanism" is biblical, liturgical, evangelical, pastoral, episcopal (ordaining bishops), national (engaging with the culture), and ecumenical (eager to learn from other Christians). As he surveys the history and tensions within the Anglican Church, Packer casts a vision for the future that is grounded in the Scriptures, fueled by missions, guided by historical creeds and practices, and resolved to enrich its people.
A major contribution to Puritan scholarship, 'Puritans and Predestination' presents the first consistent and thorough historical analysis of a key Puritan theological concept - predestination. For almost two centuries prior to 1695, English religious and cultural life endured a period of great upheaval. Dewey Wallace illuminates this complex era by tracing patterns of religious thought that took root in early English Protestantism and by explaining their social, cultural, and ecclesiastical implications. 'Puritans and Predestination' concludes that the differences between Puritan and Anglican theology were often subtle and sometimes nonexistent. Central to Protestant theology was the doctrine of grace - the notion that salvation was a divine gift, a free gift to those who believed. Among the many elements that constituted the doctrine of grace, predestination was the foremost. Wallace believes that shifting attitudes toward and emphases on predestination serve as both a measure of the extent of theological unity and an index of theological change. Among the significant conclusions documented in the course of this study are the importance of the Bucerian order of salvation in the early English Reformation, the anachronistic character of reading sharp differences in outlook between Puritan and Anglican, and the centrality of the piety and theology of grace in Puritanism. Wallace also explores the radically innovative character of the Laudian and Arminian theology, the inroads of rationalistic moralism into theology by the middle of the seventeenth century, and the emergence among later Stuart Dissenters of an evangelical pietism prefiguring the religion of the awakenings. This book will be indispensable to those interested in Puritanism and the theology of the Church of England.
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...spiritually alive, and eager for things of the mind, was Milton's aspiration and his ideal. He was a prophet of the movement for free national education, and, holding that a collection of books is the true university, a prophet of the movement for free libraries of public endowment. The writer of a good book, the teacher of youth, the guardian of a library, he viewed as members of the true clerisy of a nation, more diligent for the general welfare than the hired parson, pledged to a particular set of opinions and droning out his dole on one day in seven to earn his state wages. " So all the land would be soon better civilised," and those who receive the free gift of education might reasonably be required not " to gad far out of their own country," but continue there, thankful for what they had received, bestowing it on others as need arose, without soaring above the rank in which they were born. Education, as Milton conceived it, should be not merely literary; it should be also technical; every boy should be taught an honest trade. And why should not worthy teachers of religion arise from among such cultivated craftsmen? Let Christians but know their own dignity, their liberty, their adoption, their spiritual priesthood, "whereby they have all equally access to any ministerial function, whenever called by their own abilities and the Church, though they never came near commencement or university," let them but know their true prerogatives, and with liberty a new and noble vigour will be infused throughout the whole spiritual life of the country. If Milton's ideal was half a dream, it was also half a prophecy. Schools and libraries at the close of the nineteenth century in some measure realise what he anticipated in his vision. And of the...
"Shedding critical new light on the diverse forms of Puritan belief and practice in England, Scotland, and New England, Hall provides a multifaceted account of a cultural movement that judged the Protestant reforms of Elizabeth's reign to be unfinished"--Provided by publisher.
