In a period of which so much is known, and of which the materials for additional knowledge are so abundant, as is the case with the eighteenth century, the writer of a handbook sees from the first that a very great deal, of even important matters, will have to be omitted: and one of his chief difficulties will be to decide which topics must be selected in order to give the reader an intelligible and coherent picture – faithful, as far as it goes – of the period as a whole.
This innovative book challenges many of the widely held assumptions about the impact of ritualism on the Victorian church. Through a detailed analysis of the geographical spread of ritualist churches in the British Isles, Yates shows that the impact of ritualism was as strong, if not stronger, in middle-class and rural parishes as in working-class and urban areas. He gives a detailed reassessment of the debates and controversies surrounding the attitudes of the Anglican bishops towards ritualism, the impact of public opinion on discussions in parliament, and the implementation of the Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874. The book examines the wider historical implications by not simply focusing on ritualism during the Victorian period but extrapolating this to show the impact that ritualism has had on the longer-term development of Anglicanism in the twentieth century.
A wide ranging new history of a key period in the history of the church in England, from the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688-89 to the Great Reform Act of 1832. This was a tumultuous time for both church and state, when the relationship between religion and politics was at its most fraught. This book presents evidence of the widespread Anglican commitment to harmony between those of differing religious views and suggests that High and Low Churchmanship was less divergent than usually assumed.
Interpreting the Great Awakening of the 18th century was in large part the work of Jonathan Edwards, whose writings on the subject defined the revival tradition in America. This text demonstrates how Edwards defended the evangelical experience against overheated zealous and rationalistic critics.
The extremes of eighteenth-century debauchery and vice depicted by the artist Hogarth were not confined to the poor; the English Prime Minister, Walpole, led the way by his openly immoral life, and his principle of let sleeping dogs lie allowed every kind of public and private corruption to flourish unchecked.Yet side by side with these poisonous weeds there grew the good seed that was to produce the Evangelical Revival--Daniel Rowland and Howell Harris in Wales, Jonathan Edwards in New England, the golden-tongued Whitefield in England and Scotland, and the two Wesleys, who took the world for their parish. While these and others helped to save Britain from the horrors of such a Reign of Terror as engulfed her nearest neighbor, they lit a blaze that the darkness could not put out. With an enthusiasm informed and controlled by diligent scholarship and up-to-date research, Skevington Wood here tells the gripping story of those momentous days, and shows how the candle of men like Master Ridley and Latimer, that had become the refining fires of Puritan times, had now turned into an inextinguishable blaze that would, in the century to follow, carry the Light of the World to the ends of the earth.
