Ecclesiastical Tradition Research Articles

Inscribing Memory: Elegies to the Rev. Joseph Foord

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1Names that occur in the volume include Alexander Lauder, the author of “The Lovers Case” (1717), John Harvey, the author of “To / Sir Richard Steele / A Poem,” and William Preston (c. 1680–1752), probably the author, among other works, of On the Death of the Reverend Mr Patrick Wotherspoon, Minister of the West-Kirk; a poem (1732). It is likely that Lauder was Sir Alexander Lauder of Fountainhill, fourth baronet (November 6, 1698–May 17, 1730), and that he was the center of a club that was linked to the writing activities of the Edinburgh-based Athenian Society. Lauder, at times writing under the pseudonym of “Adonis,” engaged in verse exchanges with Orestes, alias Joseph Compton, as in “A Poem addrest to my very ingenius Friend Mr Compton, 1719.” Lauder also contributed “On our Saviours coming to ye World” and “To my Ingenius Friend Mr Lawson on his Translation of Horaces Odes, 1715” to the volume. Harvey (fl. 1702–29) was a popular Edinburgh author in the early decades of the century and produced elegies such as To the Memory of the Right Honourable, late Earl of Kintore (1719), A Collection of Miscellany Poems and Letters (1726), and a life of Robert Bruce (1729). The manuscript album contains a production by Harvey, “To/Sir Richard Steele/A Poem.” This poem probably antedates Harvey's “To the Much Honoured Sir Richard Steele. A Poem,” published in A Collection of Miscellany Poems and Letters. 2Rhetorical and oratorical training in both Humanity and Theology at Edinburgh, stressing the production of paraphrases of religious texts and sermons, accounts for the large number of elegies printed singly and included in collections that were published in the first half of the eighteenth century in Scotland. The Scottish ecclesiastical tradition with its teaching emphasis on composition contrasted with the burgeoning literary scene of London where rigid Church practice was less prominent and a wider variety of poetry and genres could be deployed than in Edinburgh. The hitherto unrecognized importance of Scottish elegiac verse for the development of (English) graveyard poetry should, therefore, be seen as rooted in the different contexts of the Church's influence on its ministers and students at the College of Edinburgh. Thomas Parnell and Edward Young, highly appreciated as poets in early eighteenth-century Scotland, used elegy in a way that was conducive to the Church's ideological favoring of didactic over dramatic writing. 3 In all Conditions hearty, and sincere, Pow'rful in Preaching, and intense in Prayer: Graceful without, and Orthodox within, A good Companion, and a sound Divine! All Autumn's Ripeness, in his Spring was found, And blooming Youth, with hoary Wisdom, crown'd. He show'd Religion does not damp the Mind, And make its Vot'rys wretch'd and unrefin'd: That Clergy too, fine Gentlemen may be, And Grace, with Breeding, cannot disagree. (12) 4See National Archives of Scotland, GD 1815325: Letter from Mitchell to Sir John Clerk, 1722.

Religious history as religious studies

What is the relationship between religious studies and religious history? Academic historical thinking emerged in part to repudiate ecclesiastical traditions of history, making the difference between religious history and histories of religion a question of denominational rivalry more than a difference in sect. Scholars working in the academic study of religion and the academic study of history have increased self-consciousness of this contingency but have not developed an account for the consequence of history as the primary mode for our thinking. As a result, scholars of religion frequently fall silent in the wake of postcolonial critiques of religious subjects, believing their work is adequately buttressed when this history (the history of the relationship between colonial oppression and religious classification) is acknowledged. Yet this is only the beginning of our work. Religious history cannot evade the methodological challenges of religious studies precisely because to identify an object as religious is to begin an inquiry into the subject of religion itself. Using the example of the year 1893, the author seeks to demonstrate how scholars of history might justify their subjects as religious, and how scholars of religion might consider their concept of history.

A autoridade, o desejo e a alquimia da política: linguagem e poder na constituição do papado medieval (1060-1120)

O tema deste artigo é a compreensão política propagada entre as décadas de 1060 e 1120 por eminentes eclesiásticos engajados na legitimação e no exercício do poder papal. O exame de epístolas, crônicas e de outros registros escritos do período revela que os assim chamados "papistas" freqüentemente operavam uma transfiguração da política ao envolvê-la em ancestrais tramas de sentido colhidas junto à tradição letrada eclesiástica. Aspecto exemplificado pela idéia de "desejo", que desponta na documentação quando o historiador volta suas atenções para a investigação dos fundamentos do poder político na civilização medieval. Ela permeia as experiências de autoridade e legitimidade, os posicionamentos acerca do recurso à violência; a crença na hierarquização de poderes. Este breve estudo se detém, portanto, nas imbricadas relações existentes entre a prática do poder, o pensamento político e a linguagem.

Thirtieth Annual Erasmus Birthday Lecture: Erasmus, the Church Fathers and the Ideological Implications of Philology

AbstractThis article explores the ideological impact of humanist philology in the age of the European Reformation. It focuses in particular on Erasmus' significance for the textual transmission of early Christian authors. An analysis of Erasmus' editions of the church fathers reveals that the editor did not just restore ancient texts but, by means of textual criticism, also sought to emancipate patristic authority from its traditional ecclesiastical keepers. In doing so he helped to transform their intellectual status from pillars of the institutionalized church into more flexible examples of spiritual virtues. In addition, it shows how Erasmus used his explanatory material to guide the interpretation of specific texts. Finally, by rigorously assessing the authenticity of received works and thus reorganizing the patristic canon, Erasmus promoted a critical attitude to the ecclesiastical tradition. The results of this exploration suggest that the notions of emancipation, interpretative guidance, and canonization can serve as helpful criteria for gauging the ideological impact of textual criticism in other areas as well.

’n Beoordeling van die vernaamste kerklike en teologiese tradisies se bydrae tot die etiek van sosio-ekonomiese regte

An adjudication of the most prominent ecclesiastical and theological traditions to the ethics of socio-economical rights In this article the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church and that of the main protestant churches to the ethics of socio- economical rights is investigated and adjudicated. The Roman Catholic Church stresses the importance of socio-economic rights, but socio-economic rights are founded in natural law and not in Biblical principles. In the Lutheran tradition socio- economic rights are ascribed to the domain of the world, and no proper Biblical foundation is given. The World Alliance of Re- formed Churches gives a Biblical foundation to socio-economic rigths, but unfortunately it is influenced by political theology. The Testimony on Human Rights of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod is a comprehensive study on human rights in the re- formed tradition, and proper Biblical foundation is given to socio-economic rights.

Constructing Protestant and Catholic Peters: A comparative study in the literary use of the New Testament and ecclesiastical tradition

Just as literary authors have long taken liberties with the biblical accounts of Jesus Christ and shaped Him to fit their own agendas, they have also appropriated considerable artistic licence in enhancing the meagre information about Peter in the New Testament when constructing fictional narratives about him. A comparison of The Big Fisherman by the theologically liberal American Congregationalist Lloyd C Douglas and Simon Peter the Fisherman by the Austrian Catholic Kurt Frieberger illustrates how two accomplished novelists, drawing in part on similar sources, created markedly different and to some extent predictable images of this apostle. Neither novel is fully faithful to the New Testament evidence; both evince the influence of extrabiblical sources.

‘A Peril to the Bench of Bishops’: Sisterhoods and Episcopal Authority in the Church of England, 1845–1908

This paper reflects on the uncomfortable relationship between gender, religion, authority and influence in the Victorian Church of England, using the example of the ecclesiastical response to the rise of Anglican religious communities for women in the second half of the nineteenth century. Anglican sisterhoods occupied equivocal and disputed space within the Victorian Church of England, proclaiming their loyalty to the Church but unfettered by any ecclesiastical legislation or tradition that would have compelled them to obey the bishops. In a society that assumed that obedience to lawful authority was a natural attribute of godly women, their ambiguous and improvised relationship with the church hierarchy created enormous tension as well as considerable hostility.

In pursuit of the Almighty's dollar: a history of money and American Protestantism

Every day of the week in contemporary America (and especially on Sundays) people raise money for their religious enterprises - for clergy, educators, buildings, charity, youth-oriented work, and more. In a fascinating look into the economics of American Protestantism, James Hudnut-Beumler examines how churches have raised and spent money from colonial times to the present and considers what these practices say about both religion and American culture. After the constitutional separation of church and state was put in force, Hudnut-Beumler explains, clergy salaries had to be collected exclusively from the congregation without recourse to public funds. In adapting to this change, Protestants forged a new model that came to be followed in one way or another by virtually all religious organizations in the country. Clergy repeatedly invoked God, ecclesiastical tradition, and scriptural evidence to promote giving to the churches they served. Hudnut-Beumler contends that paying for earthly good works done in the name of God has proved highly compatible with American ideas of enterprise, materialism, and individualism. The financial choices Protestants have made throughout history - how money was given, expended, or even withheld - have reflected changing conceptions of what the religious enterprise is all about. Hudnut-Beumler tells that story for the first time.

Spätantike Bildungstraditionen im Umkreis des Klosters von Lerinum. Die Kompendienwerke des Eucherius von Lyon

Abstract This article tries to contextualize the often neglected exegetical handbooks of Eucherius of Lyons in the late antique christian debates on pagan culture and education within a monastic context. It is intended to show that Eucherius and his short manuals represent the point of view of the famous aristocratic monastery of Lerinum in southern Gaul which was orientated towards the keeping of ecclesiastical tradition. Together with other writings they imparted to younger aristocrats the necessary knowledge to become a bishop or to take on an ecclesiastical function.

Salvatore Camporeale's Contribution to Theology and the History of the Church

Salvatore Camporeale's research, as rich and varied as it was, revolved around several primary axes and was inspired by several fundamental concerns.1 One of the objectives that certainly oriented his cultural effort was a serious, critical, and passionate desire to reform the church, to recuperate its radical and founding truths, to go beyond all superstructure and pseudo-truth. I believe that, for this very reason, Camporeale engaged with Valla (to whom he devoted most of his scholarly work): because the latter had, with extraordinary lucidity, raised issues and proposed solutions in perfect keeping with his own essential needs. Naturally, arriving at such a perception of the innovativevalue and ideological depth of Valla's thoughtinvolved far more than this. We are indebted to Camporeale for having developed the lesson of his mentor, Eugenio Garin: that is, the view that—against the interpretive limitations widely heldby other scholars and other schools—Lorenzo Valla was not onlythe excellentphilological emender of Livy's text, nor simply the "grammarian" restorer of the Latin language, but that such tangible gifts and capacities were sustained by more general philosophical motives and by an organic project of cultural refounding, that would challenge established categoriesin all fields, from language to history to theology. Camporeale was thus able to identify—beginning with his distinguished book published in 1972, Lorenzo Valla. Umanesimo e teologia—the foundations and ultimate scope of Valla's philosophy of language and, consequently, the unifying elements in his apparently heterogeneous works, which range from historiography to historical criticism, from ethics to linguistics, from [End Page 527] logic to rhetoric, from the philological study of classical works to that of the NewTestament. And he was able to see that, also for Valla, the critical revision of the ecclesiastical tradition, and of the "models" of theological discourse, had been a Leitmotiv or, better yet, an arrival point. It is within this specific, though not limited sphere of inquiry that I intend to situate my study, a personal, brief recollection of the friend we lost. Therefore, I will focus on two particular contributions, one from 1977, Lorenzo Valla tra Medioevo e Rinascimento. "Encomion s. Thomae". 1457, the other from 1988, Lorenzo Valla e il "De falso credita donatione". Retorica, libertà ed ecclesiologia nel '400. As their titles openly declare, they investigate two of Valla's works diverging not only in time but in content as well ("De falso credita donatione" dates from 1440, the "Encomion sancti Thomae" from 1457); the one is intended to denounce the so-called "Donation of Constantine" as a forgery, the other to commemorate Saint Thomas on the day of his liturgical anniversary. And yet, Camporeale correctly identifies a peculiar and intrinsic unity in these works, namely the effort to rediscover an authentic Christianity: an authentic "form" of the church on the one hand, and an authentic "form" of Christian theology on the other. I will start with, and devote special attention to, the Encomion sancti Thomae. Camporeale correctly recognized this short text as Valla's "spiritual testament," not only, or not so much because it is his last piece of writing (he died a few months after the Encomion), but because, in a few dense but clear pages, it sums up Valla's entire logico-linguistic program and, consequently, his stance on the expressive potentialities of human language, up to the highest levels of the expressible, those of metaphysics and of theology. The way Camporeale develops his considerations on the "panegyric" is admirable, as he supports it with the experienced philosophical and theological competence (in the history of theology, and especially Thomistic theology) that he, as a Dominican, mastered so well. (In passing, it is worth noting that such competence alone could allow for a thorough assessment of the historical significance of Valla's discourse, too frequently trivialized or misunderstood by readers lacking the necessary tools). The following...

New Wineskins for New Wine: Toward a Post-Christendom Ecclesiology

T stock of more than a millennium of history, systematic theologian Hendrikus Berkhof asserted, “For centuries a static conception of the church prevailed.”1 Historical Christendom emphasized the institutional and pastoral character of the church. Hierarchical leadership and ecclesiastical tradition reinforced the authority of the church over the members. Theology was preoccupied with the intellectual and pastoral concerns of the church, not its missionary engagement with the world. Mission as intentional witness to the world with a view to winning the allegiance of men and women to the kingdom of God played no direct role in the life of the church of Christendom. When missionary impulses did arise, these were channeled through monastic orders or missionary societies so that the traditional patterns and structures of the church were not disturbed, challenged, or changed. By isolating the question of mission, the church was effectively insulated from the adjustments that missionary engagement inevitably brings. Since the sixteenth century the missionary movement has contributed to the expansion of the church into the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, so that the Christian faith has put down roots in a wide variety of cultures and languages. By 1995 at least one book of the Bible had been translated into 2,092 languages, compared with only 60 languages in 1750. The scope and pace of Christian missions accelerated considerably after 1800, setting in motion forces that have reshaped the Christian movement worldwide. Defying powerful inherited habits of mind, this global development demands a rethinking of the nature of the church from every angle: biblical, theological, historical, sociological, and missiological.2 This work of revision is by no means finished, but significant contributions have already been made. In place of the static and insular model of historical Christendom, it is increasingly acknowledged that only a missional church will dynamically engage a changing cultural context effectively.3 The new ecclesial varieties of this century are emerging from a wide array of linguistic-cultural contexts.4 We are beginning to recognize that from this diversity of sources we are starting to reap a harvest of new insights and fresh perspectives on the meaning of the Gospel, the varied ways it is being experienced by believers across the world, and the implications this reformation holds for the mission of each church. Although it has become commonplace to say that there is no language into which the Bible cannot be translated, we need to recognize that to be credible, the form of the church must engage its cultural-linguistic context in the idiom of that culture. In this essay I argue that (1) the church was instituted by Jesus Christ for mission; but (2) with the rise of the Constantinian church in the fourth century, mission was eclipsed, and consequently the church became deformed. However, (3) the modern mission movement contributed to the undermining of this nonmissionary model of church by showing that, in the end, missionary action cannot be divorced from the church, for the fruit of authentic mission will be new members of the body of Christ. Finally, (4) the evidence that a church is missional will be the quality of its life.

Archives en sacristie. Le trésor est-il un bâtiment d'archives ? Le cas du «Trésor des chartes» des rois de France (XIIIe-XIXe siècle)

"Archives in the sacristy. The Treasure as a records building in the Middle Ages ? The case of the 'trésor des chartes' of the 'Sainte Chapelle' of Paris (Xlllth-XIXth century)", by Yann Potin The medieval legacy to contemporaries' records buildings seems to be limited to one word or one image : the "treasure" room" is frequently used as a metonymy of the entire depository or as the heart of the construction, for example in the French Public Record Office in Paris. If the expression appears to be a commonplace, it is nevertheless a witness of a very long spatial association between records and sacristy, between charter room and treasure room. The keeping of documents of the past in the outbuilding of a church or a chapel used to be the right and the main way of keeping records, especially for the institutions ; in France, only the alienation of the clerical property during the French Revolution broke off this practice. Is this very widespread tradition of keeping records can be explained with only security reasons ? Is the integration of records in the larger space of the treasure means that archives had not any form of architectural independence before the eighteenth century ? This contribution try to answer through the specific but much imitated case of the building of "trésor des chartes" - the other name for the sacristy of the "Sainte Chapelle du Palais of Paris" — both founded in the middle of the eighteenth century. Inheriting of a long previous ecclesiastical tradition of settlement, the main record office of the kings managed to stay inside the same building until 1783, before becoming the centre of the depositories of the "hotel Soubise" since 1808.

The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology (review)

Reviewed by: The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology Paul B. Harvey Jr. John Anthony McGuckin The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology The Westminster Handbooks to Christian Theology Louisville and London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004 Pp. xxiii + 367. $39.95. The publisher's aim for the series in which this volume appears is "to assist scholars and students find concise and accurate treatments of important theological terms." The sole author of this Handbook (and of another in the [End Page 548] same series, on Origen [2003]) has a more realistic vision of his audience, i.e., undergraduate and M.A.-level students as well as lay folk. That is, this Handbook (better: a patristics dictionary) is a reliable ready-reference for those lacking specialized knowledge and not well versed in the scholarly literature nor in foreign tongues ancient or modern. Coverage is broad: topics, terminology, and personalities from the late first through the sixth centuries (with a few relevant entries from later eras, e.g., Photius) significant for the study of early Christianity are listed alphabetically. As McGuckin disarmingly notes in his preface, which is an integral component of the volume, this alphabetical arrangement affords easy consultation-provided you know, first, exactly for what you are looking. Therefore, in lieu of an index, the author supplies prefatory thematic guides with entries grouped by century and by topic (e.g., "Eschatology," "Trinity") as well as a complete alphabetical list of the entries. Throughout the book cross-referencing is visually easy through bold-faced, italicized words directing the reader to other pertinent entries. This is a very user-friendly text. One of the author's expressed prefatory expectations is that his Handbook makes for an edifying, even enjoyable book in which to browse. A high-level of accuracy, a coherent, logical format, and a lucid style have, in this reader's opinion, achieved that end. What of the character and quality of the entries? McGuckin is not only an academic and well-published specialist in Early Church and Byzantine Studies; he is also an Orthodox priest. He thus brings a welcome Orthodox perspective to a variety of topics and thereby reminds Anglophone readers of a distinctive theological and ecclesiastical tradition. See, for example, his entries on "Enhypostasia," "Marriage," and "Purgatory." The author is particularly interested in theological topics and religious praxis as is evident in the fine discussions of "Monophysitism," "Prayer," "Soteriology," and "Soul." Several of the longer entries are jewels of carefully crafted and well balanced exposition. Notable here are the entries on "Persecution" (an admirably cautious, historically-nuanced account), "Patristics," "Patrology" (the latter two entries are significant for setting out what the author conceives his subject to be), "Revelation," and "Sexual ethics." Divergent voices in early Christianity are heard. Thus, concise, lucid entries on "Docetic," "Donatism" (where reference to M. A. Tilley's Donatist Martyr Stories, Translated Texts for Historians 24 [Liverpool, 1996] would have been appropriate), "Encratism," and "Montanism" (where we miss the name Tabbernee in the bibliography) make clear what was and was not distinctive in those espousing particular "heretical" views and practices. Major literary personalities receive the expected full treatment, but certain minor individuals are missing. Romanos the Melodist receives brief, authoritative treatment, but Victorinus of Pettau (and what Jerome did with his work) is absent. That particular omission is unfortunate because reference to Victorinus would have bolstered the short essay on eschatology. Each entry receives a concluding bibliography of varying substance; indeed, it is not entirely clear what were the guiding principles for bibliographic citations. Sometimes an entry lists accessible translations and recent, standard scholarship (Paulinus of Nola, for example); but often, as I have suggested above, standard [End Page 549] scholarship is missing. Where, for example, in the entry on John Cassian is Owen Chadwick's justly acclaimed study? Available translations are not consistently listed. These are not minor quibbles in view of the target audience, which will not always know where to find reliable discussion and translations. We would thus have expected to see reference to Michael W. Holmes' fine second edition (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002) of Lightfoot and Harmer's old standard, The Apostolic Fathers (1891). Bart D. Ehrman's new edition and...

Are There More Non-Western Missionaries Than Western Missionaries?

Michael Jaffarian and his wife, Dawna, have been missionaries with CBInternational since 1983. They served in India and then for six years in Singapore. Jaffarian was an associate research editor for the second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia and now serves as Coordinator of Research for CBInternational. F some years now, the idea that there are more FourFifths-World missionaries than Western missionaries has been showing up in various missions presentations and publications. Unfortunately, it is just not true.1 This idea stems from Larry Pate’s 1989 book From Every People, which makes a very important contribution to our understanding of the Four-Fifths-World missions movement. He projected, “If both the Western missionary force and the Two-Thirds World missionary force continue to grow at their current rates . . . [by 2000] the majority of Protestant missionaries will be from the non-Western world.” More specifically, “The number of Two-Thirds World missionaries holds the very real promise of surpassing the number of Western missionaries by the year 2000.” Though Pate warned that “a projection is not a prediction,” still the idea has been launched that this projection has become reality.2 It is one of the great items of missiometrical misinformation of our time.3 Note two important things about this assertion. First, for Four-Fifths-World missionaries, Pate counted both domestic and foreign missionaries, but for the Western world he counted only foreign missionaries. (Foreign missionaries leave their country of citizenship to serve God in another country; domestic missionaries serve cross-culturally within their own land, such as those from South India who serve among tribal peoples in central India, or Anglo-Americans who serve among Asians, Hispanics, or international students in America.) To arrive at a fair conclusion, Pate should have compared the same kind of missionaries—either foreign only or both foreign and domestic—for both regions of the world. He did not, however, and thus the size of the Four-Fifths-World missionary force is disproportionately large (or that of the Western world too small); the comparison is not valid. Second, Pate projected that the Four-Fifths-World missionary force would maintain a constant growth rate, with no slowing of the pace. Over time, however, new social or religious movements rarely show a consistent pattern of growth. There is almost always a significant slowing of the growth rate of such movements, and the growth rate of the Four-Fifths-World missions movement since 1989 has been no exception. Pate’s projection was thus built on the foundation of these two errors. Since 1989 both David Barrett in the World Christian Encyclopedia and the team of Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk in Operation World have done the actual counting, and both show that Pate’s projection failed to come true. The second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia (2001) shows the number of all Christian missionaries, from all ecclesiastical traditions. By the authors’ count, as shown in table 1, in the year 2000 there were more than four times as many Western missionaries as missionaries from the Four-Fifths World.

An Anglican Crisis of Comparison: Intersections of Race, Gender, and Religious Authority, with Particular Reference to the Church of Nigeria

The 1998 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion brought into striking relief the two major issues dividing this particular global church: homosexuality and the ordination of women. Debates over these questions tend to split the church into its "conservative" southern dioceses and more "liberal" northern dioceses. With bishops from Africa and Southeast Asia now outnumbering their British and American counterparts, however, this rift had a surprising consequence at "Lambeth '98": church leaders of the northern hemisphere found themselves having to accept the postcolonial South's interpretation of the very Scripture, ecclesiastical traditions, and sexual norms the North had imposed on the South in the first place. This article explores the Anglican Church's internal struggle over women's ordination and homosexuality as a site of internalized and redeployed colonial tactics-as a complex of racial, economic, and historical forces that far exceeds the logic of "reverse colonialism."

In Quest of the Third Heaven: Paul & his Apocalyptic Imitators

AbstractIt is an irony of history that by late antiquity Paul had become the authority figure he never was during his lifetime. However, by the subapostolic and patristic periods Paul's apostolic authority was no longer considered quite so controversial. From 200 AD onwards Paul's letters were regularly cited alongside the Gospels and the Old Testament as 'Scripture'. It is therefore no surprise that the premier apocalyptic theologian of the New Testament would spawn several apocalyptic imitators. Two 'Apocalypses of Paul' have come down to us from antiquity, one gnostic, the other Christian. After discussing each work, the article asks to what extent the historical Paul would have agreed with these later works written in his name. The article will demonstrate how differing ecclesiastical traditions appropriated Paul for their own theological and social agendas instead of allowing the apostle to the Gentiles to speak to his first-century context

Infidels, Virgins, and the Black-Robed Priest: A Backwoods History of Ecuador's Montaña Region

In this article I compare the Quichua oral history of Oyacachi—one of the last autochthonous settlements of the cloud forest of Amazonian Ecuador—with written and iconographic ecclesiastical traditions regarding colonial-era events. This offers a unique opportunity to understand momentous political, economic, and religious change and how it is experienced locally. It also reveals the ways in which different histories are constructed out of shared memories, events, and spaces. Rather than viewing native histories as present-day constructions, I try to see how oral traditions make history meaningful in ways that do not necessarily obviate their fundamental connection to the past.

HOLISM AND POPULAR GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS

International Review of MissionVolume 91, Issue 362 p. 370-381 HOLISM AND POPULAR GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS Stephen Armet, Stephen Armet Stephen Armet is a professor and researcher of Intercultural Studies with the Universidad Evangélica de las Américas (UNELA) in Bogotá, Colombia.Search for more papers by this author Stephen Armet, Stephen Armet Stephen Armet is a professor and researcher of Intercultural Studies with the Universidad Evangélica de las Américas (UNELA) in Bogotá, Colombia.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.2002.tb00352.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume91, Issue362July 2002Pages 370-381 RelatedInformation

From a Society of the Enlightened to the Enlightenment of Society: The Russian Bible Society and Rosicrucianism in the Age of Alexander I

Rosicrucianism had a fundamental role in the Russian Enlightenment. It provided Russia with the means to liberate itself from the bonds of dominant ecclesiastical tradition. A close analysis of the history of the Novikov circle (1782-1792) and the Russian Bible Society (1812-1826), reveals concrete links and intellectual affinities which have hitherto been overlooked. They connect both organizations to the same sources and the same reformatory programme which has its roots in Rosicrucianism. Through the work of the Bible Society, the values of Rosicrucianism, formulated in eighteenth-century lodges, spread throughout Russian learned society, to influence not only religious reform but also political and social concerns.

Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible

The Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible gathers nearly 5,000 alphabetically ordered articles that thoroughly yet clearly explain all the books, persons, places, and significant terms found in the Bible. The Dictionary also explores the background of each biblical book and related writings and discusses cultural, natural, geographical, and literary phenomenae matters that Bible students at all levels may encounter in reading or discussion.Nearly 600 first-rate Bible authorities have contributed to the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Intended as a tool for practical Bible use, this illustrated dictionary reflects recent archaeological discoveries and the breadth of current biblical scholarship, including insights from critical analysis of literary, historical, sociological, and other methodological issues. The editorial team has also incorporated articles that explore and interpret important focuses of biblical theology, text and transmission, Near Eastern archaeology, extrabiblical writings, and pertinent ecclesiastical traditions - all of which help make the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible the most comprehensive and up-to-date one-volume Bible dictionary on the market today.