Sacramental occasions, or "Holy Fairs," practiced by Scots-Irish Presbyterians in mid-nineteenth-century America were intended to bring conversion to nonbelievers and spiritual renewal to baptized Christians. Kimberly Bracken Long examines the chief texts of American revivalism--sermons, devotional writings, and catechetical materials--to gain insights into the sacramental theology at work in these events, as well as into the nature of revivalism in the American Presbyterian context. She also explores several implications for twenty-first-century Reformed and Presbyterian worship.
Leigh Schmidt explores the historical development of a particular Scottish religious festival, the communion season, from the Reformation to the nineteenth century, and documents its extension to colonial America and its important relationship to evangelical revivalism on both sides of the Atlantic. Held in summer or early fall and usually lasting for four days, communion occasions attracted thousands of people for a celebration of the Lord's Supper that was part holy day and part holiday. The festivals, long viewed with condescension, have been too easily ignored by scholars, but they were central to both popular Scottish Presbyterianism and early American revivalism, serving indeed as the primary basis of the camp meetings of the Great Revival. Schmidt fully interprets the rituals of these holy fairs, as Robert Burns called them, and reconstructs in detail the spirituality of the pastors and people who attended them. Finally, he suggests how they were "reformed" in the face of Enlightenment and then Victorian critiques. Schmidt brings the history of Christian worship and spirituality into conjunction with social and cultural history, anthropological approaches to ritual, histories of popular religion, and studies on ethnicity, gender issues, and material culture. This work will appeal not only to a wide range of scholars but also to general readers with an interest in the history of Christianity.
"Celebrating the Lord’s Supper,” says award-winning author and theologian J. Todd Billings, “can change lives.” In this book Billings shows how a renewed theology and practice of the Lord’s Supper can lead Christians to rediscover the full richness and depth of the gospel. With an eye for helping congregations move beyond common reductions of the gospel, he develops a vibrant, biblical, and distinctly Reformed sacramental theology and explores how it might apply within a variety of church contexts, from Baptist to Presbyterian, nondenominational to Anglican. At once strikingly new and deeply traditional, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope will surprise and challenge readers, inspiring them to a new understanding of—and appreciation for—the embodied, Christ-disclosing drama of the Lord’s Supper.
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Winner of the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History, Holy Fairs traces the roots of American camp-meeting revivalism to the communion festivals of early modern Scotland. This new paperback edition of Leigh Eric Schmidt's seminal work features updated material, a dozen illustrations, and a new preface by the author.
Why can't Christians agree about communion? Why is it that in some churches all worship services culminate in a holy meal whereas other churches celebrate this "holy supper" only once in a while? Theologian Gregory Soderberg has researched this question, excavating patterns of communion frequency within one of the bigger Christian families: the Reformed tradition. Despite being the sacrament of unity, the eucharist has often been a cause of strife in Christian churches. In his study, Gregory David Soderberg is the first to focus in depth on communion frequency in the Reformed tradition. He concludes that, although the 16th century Reformers desired more frequent communion, this was balanced by their desire to create mature Christian communities. So, preachers and church leaders stressed the priority of moral conduct and the importance of understanding what the eucharist meant for Protestants. The study analyses sources from the very beginnings of this tradition in 16th century Zürich and Geneva, and it follows its trajectories through England and Scotland all the way down to 19th century USA. Ultimately, it is hoped that understanding the polemics of the past will help churches today to celebrate the sacrament of unity more meaningfully.
Born of Water and the Spirit presents essays on the sacraments by the three major representatives of "Mercersburg Theology," John Nevin, Philip Schaff, and Emanuel Gerhart. It focuses on Mercersburg's doctrine of baptism and Christian nurture, attempts to correct putative deficiencies of the major Reformed trajectories (e.g., New England and Princeton), and vigorously critiques the anti-sacramental animus of revivalistic evangelicalism. Mercersburg understood baptism as initiating a person (adult or infant) into the sacramental life of the church. Baptism and Eucharist were objective, spiritually real actions that made (what Nevin called) the "mystical presence" of Jesus Christ present to Christians, bringing transformative power into their lives. The present critical edition carefully preserves the original texts, while providing extensive introductions, annotations, and bibliography to orient the modern reader and facilitate further scholarship. The Mercersburg Theology Study Series is an attempt to make available for the first time, in attractive, readable, and scholarly modern editions, the key writings of the nineteenth-century movement known as the Mercersburg Theology. An ambitious multiyear project, it aims to make an important contribution to the scholarly community and to the broader reading public, who can at last be properly introduced to this unique blend of American and European, Reformed and Catholic theology.
The Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology looks back to past resources that have informed Reformed theology and surveys present conversations among those engaged in Reformed theology today. First, the volume offers accounts of the major historical contexts of reformed theology, the various relationships (ancient and modern) which it maintains and from which it derives. Recent research has shown the intricate ties between the patristic and medieval heritage of the church and the work of the reformed movement in the sixteenth century. The past century has also witnessed an explosion of reformed theology outside the Western world, prompting a need for attention not only to these global voices but also to the unique (and contingent) history of reformed theology in the West (hence reflecting on its relationship to intellectual developments like scholastic method or the critical approaches of modern biblical studies). Second, the volume assesses some of the classic, representative texts of the reformed tradition, observing also their reception history. The reformed movement is not dominated by a single figure, but it does contain a host of paradigmatic texts that demonstrate the range and vitality of reformed thought on politics, piety, biblical commentary, dogmatic reflection, and social engagement. Third, the volume turns to key doctrines and topics that continue to receive attention by reformed theologians today. Contributors who are themselves making cutting edge contributions to constructive theology today reflect on the state of the question and offer their own proposals regarding a host of doctrinal topics and themes.
This research guide introduces scholars to the field of Reformed theology, focusing on works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the English language. Martha Moore-Keish explores twenty-one major theological themes, with attention to classical as well as current works.
Most Christians worship on a regular basis on the Lord's Day. They have done so from the beginning, and their worship has centered on the Eucharist, following Jesus's words, "Do this in remembrance of me." Over the two millennia of the Christian tradition there have been shifts of emphasis and understanding about the Eucharist. This book attempts to point out, by providing accessible accounts of both liturgies and liturgists across the centuries and traditions, just how much different Christians have in common and how they can benefit from attending to one another's worship. The author's ultimate hope is that in its small way, the book will contribute to Christians worshiping together.
