English Presbyterians Research Articles

The English Presbyterian Conundrum of 1660-1

ABSTRACT This article aims to explain the failure of the English presbyterian programme to reform the church at the Restoration. Specifically, it analyses the period between March 1660, when the Long Parliament reaffirmed the Solemn League and Covenant, and May 1661, when the Cavalier Parliament ordered that document to be burned by the common hangman. This striking transformation is what we refer to as the ‘presbyterian conundrum’. Focusing primarily on the ‘presbyterians’ and their opponents, the ‘episcopalians’, who were court politicians, MPs and London clergy, we argue that the weakness of the presbyterian cause was apparent even before the return of the king in May 1660. While the episcopalians possessed strong and determined leadership with a clear vision for the reconstruction of the church, the presbyterians lacked the same unity, both at home and with their co-religionists in Scotland. Even in the spring of 1660, many presbyterians had demonstrated, in their negotiations with Charles and his advisers, that they were prepared to accept both modified episcopacy and a revised Prayer Book as the basis for the religious settlement. The presbyterian position was further weakened by Charles’s own clear preference for strong episcopal government, the Book of Common Prayer and a rich ceremonialism in worship. The unconditional restoration of the king cut the ground from beneath the presbyterians, and through the summer and autumn of 1660 they were left trying to negotiate on the basis of an agenda set by the episcopalians and the court. Their failed attempt to assert themselves by securing statutory status for the Worcester House declaration in November 1660 greatly offended the king, paving the way for the imposition of a narrow episcopalian settlement by the Cavalier Parliament.

The Church of England and her Presbyterian Curates, 1662–1672

After their ejection from the Church of England, it is said that the English Presbyterians split into two factions. The ‘Dons’, led by Richard Baxter, pursued comprehension and reunion with the national Church, whilst the ‘Ducklings’ petitioned for an indulgence of their separation. In this article, it is argued that this twofold distinction is largely false. Rather, all English Presbyterians sought unity; their divergence in terms of practical policy stemmed from subtly different conceptions of catholicity. Thus, paradoxically, indulgence came to be seen as a pathway towards comprehension. Conventicle preaching, meanwhile, became a curious form of curacy, operating in tandem with the parish ministry.

Zendingsarchitect Pieter Simon Dijkstra en zijn Nederlandse werken

Pieter Simon Dijkstra (1884-1968) is regarded as a noted Protestant church designer in South Africa, but his contribution to the built environment in the Netherlands is much less well known. His life and career in the country of his birth are of interest because they are closely aligned with the religious turbulence of the period, in which the anti-revolutionary clergyman-politician Abraham Kuyper played a prominent role. The building of new Reformed churches and schools was a direct expression of the zealous determination to spread the ‘true faith’. The architecture of the new Reformed churches was often modest and restrained, influenced by Kuyper’s view that the church space should serve the ‘gathering of the faithful’ and be arranged in such a way that congregants could see and hear one other and the minister. Dijkstra, born to a clergyman father with a missionary zeal, delivered various designs in this Reformed context.
 Although Dijkstra grew up and trained in the northern Netherlands, Zeeland became his main area of operation. In 1908, after time spent working in Groningen (Spijk) and Germany, Dijkstra settled in Vlissingen (Flushing) where he set up his own architectural practice. At the time Vlissingen was an internationally oriented city undergoing a radical transformation under the direction of the liberal alderman of public works, J.G. van Niftrik jr. (1889-1924). Dijkstra designed two new hall-type Reformed churches: one in Geersdijk (1910) and the Eben Haëzer church in Vlissingen (1910). There followed a remarkable inter-denominational collaboration after the English Presbyterian community’s place of worship in the St Jacob’s Church was destroyed by fire in 1911. After Dijkstra’s initial design for a simple hall church was rejected, the authoritative Catholic architect Pierre Cuypers (1827-1921) was commissioned to provide a sketch design for a small yet monumental building. Cuypers’ design for a neogothic church based on an octagonal plan was further elaborated by Dijkstra. The church was inaugurated in 1914.
 This unique project was followed by the Vlaswiek Reformed Church in Bovensmilde (Drenthe, 1915) and the Reformed Church in Kamperland (Noord-Beveland, 1923). The design for this robust church with corner tower and amphitheatre arrangement is in line with Kuyper’s views and foreshadows Dijkstra’s later church designs in South Africa.
 Dijkstra designed school buildings for the various Reformed communities in and around Vlissingen (in Koudekerke and Arnemuiden) and social housing estates, including three for the Protestant-Christian housing association Gemeenschappelijk Belang (Common Interest), partly in collaboration with P.J. Hamers (1882-1966). Among his commissions for retail spaces is the striking expressionist radio shop he designed for H.J. van der Meer en Zonen (1923 and 1926), still extant. In 1927, all out of the blue, Dijkstra decided to emigrate with his family to South Africa, where he continued to develop as a Reformed church architect. This article not only provides an assessment of his Dutch oeuvre as a prefiguration of his South African work, but it also positions him as an interesting architect within the Dutch context of his day, characterized as it was by verzuiling (lit. ‘pillarization’, a form of compartmentalization along socio-political or religious lines).

Imperial Medicine and Proselytization in Robert Kerr’s “Salvific” Activities in Morocco, 1886–1915

This essay reveals the intersection of medicine and proselytization as “salvific” activities and “tools of empire” in the missionary account of the Scottish physician, missionary, judge, and emissary of the Jewish Committee of the English Presbyterian Church, Robert Kerr. In the latter’s account, Pioneering in Morocco: A Record of Seven Years’ Medical Mission Work in the Palace and the Hut (1894), Kerr positions himself as a philanthropist who saves Moroccans from diseases and barbarity through medicine and the Gospel – two efficient colonial instruments. Kerr treated a significant number of patients, particularly in the region of Rabat and Salé, diagnosing their illnesses and checking their bodies for the sources of their ailments. As a practice, this colonial medicine is a form of epistemological colonization of the body, through the assertion of “western” medicine’s superiority over indigenous healing. By checking Moroccan bodies, a peculiar, colonial vision, which is hinged on hegemonic surveillance, is transposed onto them. Kerr’s emphasis on knowledge as the sole key to improvement and transformation as well as on his colonially informed ideas posit a shift from primitivism, decadence, and superstition to modernity, progress, and rationality through his western medical practice. The essay therefore tackles the relational thread and interplay between medicine, religion, and imperialism in precolonial Morocco.

The Salters’ Hall Controversy: Heresy, Subscription, or Both?

Abstract The Salters’ Hall controversy (1719) was a watershed event in the history of English Dissent. Some historians have interpreted the controversy as an early sign of the theological demise of the English General Baptists and the English Presbyterians. Conversely, the controversy has also been used to demonstrate the theological steadfastness of the English Particular Baptists and Congregationalist in the eighteenth century. Yet some of the earliest accounts of the Salters’ Hall controversy maintain that the controversy was not about the doctrine of the Trinity, but rather the requirement of subscription to extrabiblical words and phrases. This was the view of the revered divine Edmund Calamy, who refused to be involved in the controversy, even at the potential expense of his reputation. Edward Wallin, a Particular Baptist subscriber at Salters’ Hall, held a similar view of the controversy. While some historians acknowledge these accounts, they seem to ultimately doubt their truthfulness. This hesitancy is likely due, in part, to the fact that there were a few anti-Trinitarians among the nonsubscribers at Salters’ Hall. Furthermore, the English General Baptists and the English Presbyterians did deviate from theological orthodoxy later in the century. However, those who question the motives of the Non-subscribers at Salters’ Hall fail to take into account a theologically orthodox, nonsubscribing tradition among the English General Baptists and the English Presbyterians found in the writings of Thomas Grantham and Richard Baxter. In sum, one’s orthodoxy at Salters’ Hall cannot be determined solely on the basis of one’s view of subscription.

“To Omit the Precise Rule and Strayt Observacion”: The 1572 “Bill Concerning Rites and Ceremonies” and the Campaign for Liturgical Diversity in the Elizabethan Church

AbstractThe focus on the rise and stall of English Presbyterianism has obscured other attempts by politically active puritans to address the problems that bedeviled the Elizabethan church—in particular, how to reconcile a promiscuously international reform movement with the reality of a national church, and the desire for parish-level autonomy with royal supremacy and statutorily mandated uniformity of practice. This article takes as its subject one such attempt, the remarkable “Bill Concerning Rites and Ceremonies” introduced in the 1572 Parliament, which leveraged the episcopal structure of the church to the advantage of the godly, empowering bishops to grant individual priests the right to diverge from the Book of Common Prayer liturgy and to adopt elements of the rituals used by the French and Dutch “stranger churches” then worshipping in London. The bill's emergence at a very specific juncture, after the statutory confirmation of the Thirty-Nine Articles in 1571, illustrates how godly Protestants sought to use newly ratified regulatory powers to their advantage and to establish that only theological, not liturgical, uniformity mattered for a functional and true national church. Moreover, the bill was legally innovative, proposing to use episcopal power in disaggregated ways, thus institutionalizing the exceptions in worship that individual bishops had informally granted to the ministers under their supervision. It offered a remarkable vision of a national church that contained within it ad hoc and multinational liturgies and that was defined not by its adherence to one form of worship but by the supervision of an enlightened bishopric.

Swift as Priest and Satirist ed. by Todd C. Parker

Reviewed by: Swift as Priest and Satirist ed. by Todd C. Parker Nathalie Zimpfer Swift as Priest and Satirist, ed. Todd C. Parker. Newark: Delaware, 2009. Pp. 231. $51.50. A single premise underlies the nine essays (two of which are unacknowledged reprints) in Swift as Priest and Satirist, namely that the link between “Swift the priest” and “Swift the satirist” should be taken seriously, a key to what makes Swift “problematic and compelling.” Mr. Parker’s Introduction, an overview of the debate pertaining to Swift’s religious positions and a “practice reading” of two sermons, is followed by essays that can be grouped into three broad categories: essays on the Church of England and theology; essays on religious figures and controversies in his work; and essays that link Swift’s sermons and his satirical texts, notably A Tale of a Tub. In the first category are essays by Brian A. Connery and Christopher Fox. Examining the reasons for Swift’s opposition to freedom of opinion, via an engaging reading of Swift’s answer to Collins’s Discourse, Mr. Connery shows Swift’s “absolute and fundamental belief” that words and ideas have real consequences and that society cannot survive without enforcing a distinction between freedom of conscience and freedom of opinion. Mr. Fox convincingly demonstrates that, contrary to the claims of mainstream critical discourse, it is not only the crisis created for the Church by English Presbyterianism that matters for a proper understanding of Swift’s Tale, but Scottish and Irish Presbyterianism as well. In the next section, Anne B. Gardiner [End Page 245] presents Swift in the Tale alarmed against Cartesianism and Calvinism—forms of madness induced by the rampant materialism and irreligion Swift felt were beginning to dominate his age. She reads the Tale as a satire from a High-Church viewpoint, since it points to “a cryptic confession of Laudian High-Church belief.” Five essayists link Swift’s religious and nonreligious works; two, John Shanahan and Daniel Lupton, offer readings of Gulliver’s Travels. Mr. Shanahan analyzes the “Georgic impulse” in Part III as a particularly significant example of the linkage between “priest” and “satirist,” a synecdoche of Swift’s worldview. Mr. Lupton thought-provokingly discusses Part IV in terms of Swift’s ecclesiastical writings, concentrating on how Swift’s Christianity informed Gulliver’s perception of the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos and, thus, his decision to choose the Houyhnhnm community over the Yahoo. In an innovative essay on Swift’s poetry, James Ward argues that the “pastor,” understood both in its religious sense and as the figure of the shepherd in pastoral poetry, embodies a symbolic relation between Swift’s literary and clerical careers: pastor “connects Swift the priest’s social mission to Swift the political writer’s sense of ideological commitment.” Robert Mahony convincingly reads priest and satirist vis-à-vis the notion of indeterminacy; his conclusion, with its apt reminder of the unfortunate human tendency to prefer narratives to facts, goes a long way toward explaining why, despite many efforts to define Swift’s faith, most readers still prefer to see Swift as an unbeliever rather than a convinced Christian: “Swift the believer is more difficult by far to fathom than Swift the ecclesiastical dignitary or politician or, indeed, moralist.” Finally, Mr. Parker’s own contribution tries to answer the question of why Swift famously deemed his sermons “the idlest trifling stuff that ever was writ.” His premise, that the satirist is incomplete without an understanding of the effect the divine had on Swift’s authorial persona as a whole, is soundly argued; he shrewdly notes that “it is not the content of his sermons that Swift belittles as trifling, but rather their position and context within the totality of his writings.” Other statements, however, are more debatable, such as his claim that Swift’s “dilemma” lay in the fact that the authority of the author of satiric texts “must somehow reconcile with the authority of an Anglican dean” (emphasis added), or that Swift had to reject his sermons because they could be so easily parodied. Hence, Mr. Parker argues, Swift could safeguard his identity as a priest only by rejecting the sermons, thus separating them...

English Presbyterianism, 1590–1640

This book offers an alternative interpretation of pre-Civil War England, challenging the standard narrative that English presbyterianism was successfully extinguished from the late sixteenth century until its prominent public resurgence during the English Civil War. From their emergence in the 1570s, English presbyterians posed a threat to the Church of England, and, in 1592, the English crown arrested the leaders of the presbyterian movement. Ha shows that, during the ensuing half century of apparent silence, English presbyterians remained continually active. They made a concerted effort, for example, to build an alliance with common lawyers against episcopal authority. Yet they also sought to prove the compatibility of their church government with royal supremacy. They agitated for further reformation of the Church of England, but by the early seventeenth century they had contributed to the birth of 'independency' and to puritan appeals to neo-Roman views of liberty.

English Presbyterianism, 1590–1640, by Polly Ha

English Presbyterianism, 1590–1640, by Polly Ha

English Presbyterianism, 1590‐1640 – By Polly Ha

English Presbyterianism, 1590‐1640 – By Polly Ha

The 'Court', the 'Country' and the Northamptonshire Connection: Watching the 'Puritan Opposition' Think (Historically) about Politics on the Eve of the English Civil War

This article is about how the puritan opposition thought about politics. It reads Thomas Ball's Life of John Preston not merely as a godly life but as a politick history — a political tract which uses an account of Preston's conduct during the late teens and twenties as a guide to how the puritan opposition should behave in the late 1630s. The local (Northamptonshire) milieu in which the life was both produced and read is reconstructed and the immediate political and polemical questions to which the life was addressed are delineated. The article addresses the use of history (here of the very recent past) to think about the present and immediate future; the connection between religion and politics, and in particular between politique and providential modes of political analysis in puritan political thinking; the valence of 'court' and 'country' as immediately contemporary categories of analysis; and the origins of English Presbyterianism as a 'moderate puritan' reaction against the populist (indeed republican) tendencies of the New England way, a sort of puritanvia media between separatism and Laudian prelacy.

“By force or fraud / Weening to prosper”: Milton's Satanic and Messianic Modes of Heroism

“By force or fraud / Weening to prosper”: Milton's Satanic and Messianic Modes of Heroism

:Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: State Oaths, Protestantism and the Political Nation, 1553-1682

This book studies the oaths and covenants taken during the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, a time of great religious and political upheaval, assessing their effect and importance. From the reign of Mary I to the Exclusion crisis, Protestant writers argued that England was a nation in covenant with God and urged that the country should renew its contract with the Lord through taking solemn oaths. In so doing, they radically modified understandings of monarchy, political allegiance and the royal succession. During the civil war, the tendering of oaths of allegiance, the Protestation of 1641 and the Vow and Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 (all described as embodiments of England's national covenant) also extended the boundaries of the political nation. The poor and illiterate, women as well as men, all subscribed to these tests of loyalty, which were presented as social contracts between the Parliament and the people. The Solemn League and Covenant in particular continued to provoke political controversy after 1649 and even into the 1690s many English Presbyterians still viewed themselves as bound by its terms; the author argues that these covenants had a significant, and until now unrecognised, influence on 'politics-out-of-doors' in the eighteenth century. Edward Vallance is Lecturer in Early Modern British History, University of Liverpool.

Paul Best and the Limits of Toleration in Civil War England

The attempt during the English Civil War to execute Paul Best for denying in private correspondence the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity fuelled the debate on religious freedom begun by John Milton and Roger Williams in 1644. The Best case was more pragmatically concerned with the question of whether a godly society should tolerate a degree of religious dissent in order to maintain political unity. Best's status as a scholar and gentleman challenged the theocratic intolerance of the English Presbyterians who failed either to secure Best's death or to reverse the longer term trend to secularize blasphemy as an aspect of popular disorder.

Articles and Publications

Articles and Publications by Christopher Densmore and Barbara Addison Two articles in Quaker Studies reflect on the career of James Nayler: David Neelon, "James Nayler in the English Civil Wars," 6: 1 (Sept. 2001), p. 8-36, and Carole Spencer, "JamesNayler: Antinomian orPerfectionist?," 6:1 (Sept. 2001) 106-117. An essay by C. John Somerville, "Interpreting Seventeenth-Century English Religion as Movements," Church History 69:4 (2000), 749-769, argues for an expansion ofthe church-sect typology when considering Quakers and other dissenting religions of the English Civil War period. Larry Gragg, "A Heavenly Visitation," History Today 52:2 (February 2002), 46-5 1 , briefly recounts George Fox's visit to Barbados in 1671, the toleration of Quakers on Barbados and the attitude of Quakers toward slaves. Richard L. Greaves, "Seditious Sectaries or 'Sober and Useful Inhabitants'?: Changing Conceptions of the Quakers in Early Modern Britain," Albion 33:1 (2001), 24-50, examines the change in the public perception of Quakers in Britain during the reign of Charles II. Flavel, the Quaker and the Crown: John Flavel, Clement Lake, and Religious Liberty in 17th Century England (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rhwymbooks, 2000), includes a modernized transcription oíSomethingBy Way ofTestimony Concerning ClementLake. . . . (1 692) that includes a 1 687 exchange ofviews between English Presbyterian John Flavel (16307—1 691) and Quaker Clement Lake (d. 1689). Jon Parmenter, "Rethinking William Penn 's Treaty with the Indians: Benjamin West, Thomas Penn, and the Legacy of Native-Newcomer Relations in Colonial Pennsylvania," Proteus: A Journal ofIdeas, 19:1 (Spring 2002), 38-44, considers landpurchases fromthe Delaware (Lenape) by William Penn and his son Thomas. Whose Land? An Introduction to the Iroquois Land Claims in New York State written by Phillip Harnden (Syracuse: American Friends Service Committee, Upper New York State Area Office, 2000), provides background on land tenure issues dating from the 1700s to the present. The experience ofQuaker women, particularly acknowledged ministers, in the colonial period continues to draw scholarly attention. Two ofthe most recent contributions are Michele Lise Tarter, "Quaking in the Light: The Politics of Quaker Women's Corporeal Prophecy in the SeventeenthCentury Transatlantic World," in Janet Moore Lindman and Michele Lise Tarter, eds., A Centre of Wonders: the Body in Early America (Cornell University Press, 2001) and "Voices Within and Voices Without: Quaker Women's Autobiography" by Barbara BoIz, in Strangers at Home: Amish and Mennonite Women in History, edited by Kimberly D. Schmidt, Diane Articles and Publications43 Zimmerman Umble and Stephen D. Reschly (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 283-311, which considers the journals of eighteenth century women Friends and draws distinctions between the public ministry ofQuaker women and the silence in religious affairs ofMennonite women. "The World ofElizabeth Drinker" is the theme ofa special issue of Pennsylvania History 68:4 (Autumn 2001), with articles by Sarah Blank Dine, "Diaries and Doctors: Elizabeth Drinker and Philadelphia Medical Practice, 1760- 1 8 1 0", DebraM. O'Neal, "Elizabeth DrinkerandHer 'Lone' Women: Domestic Service, Debilities, and (In)Dependence through the Eyes ofa Philadelphia Gentlewoman," Susan Branson, "Elizabeth Drinker: Quaker Values and Federalist Support in the 1790s," and Alison Duncan Hirsch, "Uncovering 'the Hidden History ofMestizo America' inElizabeth Drinker'sDiary: InterracialRelationships inLateEighteenth-CenturyPhiladelphia ." The experience ofrural Quakers ofthe same period is the subject of Kenneth L. Cook, "Gaius & Mary Dickinson: a Quaker Couple in the AmericanRevolution," HistoricalReview ofBerks County [Pennsylvania], 67:1 (Winter 2001-2002), 35-38. Several recent articles examine Quakers in seventeenth century New England. Johan Winsser, "Ann Burden: From Dissenting Puritan to Quaker 'Troubler'" in the New EnglandHistorical and Genealogical Register 155 (January 2001), 91-104, concerns a former resident of Massachusetts who returned with Mary Dyer in 1657; the same journal also includes an article by Marya C. Myers and Donald W. James Jr., "William James of Scituate and Boston, Shipwright and Quaker" (p. 36-68). James E. McWilliams, "Work, Family, and Economic Improvement in Late-Seventeenth Century Massachusetts Bay: the Case ofJoshuaBuffum," inNewEnglandQuarterly 74:3 (2001), 355-384, examines the rise of a Friend from day laborer to entrepreneur. The study of the involvement of Quakers in reform, particularly antislavery and woman's rights will be aided by the publication ofTheSelected Letters ofLucretia Coffin Mott, edited by Beverly...

God's Other Children: Protestant Nonconformists and the Emergence of Denominational Churches in Ireland, 1660-1700 (review)

64Quaker History The issue of textual integrity is particularly significant for the speeches which have rarely been reprinted without abridgement. Finally, this collection is perhaps most noteworthy for Gordon's extensive array of supporting materials. The introductory notes on biography and editorial policy are extremely helpful without overwhelming the primary material. The index is very thorough and will make this volume particularly useful to those scholars interested in specific individuals or issues. However , the annotations to each entry are the most useful addition even for readers ofthe microfilm collection. Gordon and her editorial assistants have painstakingly researched all names and events in order to make these texts as clear as possible. Each annotation itself is carefully documented adding further to the heuristic value of this collection. The only limitation of this volume is its subtitle, "In the School of AntiSlavery ," which is needlessly misleading. Although both SBA and ECS did emerge from the context ofanti-slavery reform, SBA in particular was more influenced by temperance activity as these documents make clear. In addition, the subtitle overlooks three important aspects of Gordon's selection : 1) the wealth of family information provided, 2) the inclusion of documents accentuating SBA and ECS 's general concern for women exhibited throughout their other reform activities, and 3) the transformation of the women's rights movement during the Civil War. In sum, Volume I of the selected papers of SBA and ECS has been worth waiting for and readers interested in these two leaders specifically or the women's rights movement generally will find themselves eagerly awaiting the next installment. This collection is itself a major contribution to scholarship and will be a significant aid to scholars in the future. E. Claire IerryMacMurray College God's Other Children: Protestant Nonconformists and the Emergence ofDenominationalChurchesinlreland, 1660-1700. By Richard L. Greaves. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. xii + 472 pp. Appendix, notes, bibliography, and index. $55. Richard L. Greaves has written or edited more than twenty books on Elizabethan and Stuart religious and political history. It is thus especially gratifying that this eminently qualified scholar has ventured into the relatively underexplored field of Protestant Nonconformity in Ireland 1660-1700. His study focuses on structural and historical elements and the religious life that energized them. He contends that, whereas English Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists suffered near-catastrophic decline in this period, Scottish Presbyterians and Friends survived in Book Reviews65 appreciablenumberslargelybecausetheyevolvedinto"protodenominations" incorporating both an institutionalized authority and an agency structure. His argument complements the conclusion of H. Larry Ingle (FirstAmong Friends) that George Fox's major achievementlay in the circumscription of the movement's early individualism through the development ofan institutional structure that provided the discipline and unity required for survival in Restoration England. Greaves traces the fortunes of Nonconformity in general in this period but concentrates on the activities of the two protodenominations. In the chapters devoted solely to Quakers, the treatment is both sympathetic and detailed. Irish Friends are seen to espouse theirvalues steadfastly in spite of persecution, while developing structures to regulate the movement of individuals and families to new locations, to provide self-censorship in publication, to furnish appropriate education for their children, and to enforce standards of conduct in such varied activities as dress, house furnishing, attendance at meetings, marriage, and occupational choices. The author's observation of occasional failures in these matters adds a realistic dimension, as manufacturers and traders have to be regularly reminded not to engage in business transactions at national meetings, a Friend is admonished for contending for truth while drunk, some are disciplined for sexual offenses, and others are warned not to yoke themselves unequally in marriage in terms of age "and otherwise." At appropriatepoints , theEnglish and Irish experiences are compared: early Irish polity was not identical to that in England, and unlike their English counterparts Irish Quakers rarely provided charity to people of other faiths. This substantial volume, winner of the American Society of Church History's Outler Prize, occupies a significant place beside the earlier related works of Sean Connolly and Phil Kilroy. There is not much more one could hope for in Greaves' book, except perhaps maps, illustrations, and most importantly a bibliography. But cost-conscious...

God's Other Children: Protestant Nonconformists and the Emergence of Denominational Churches in Ireland, 1660-1700

Winner of the 1996 Albert C. Outler Prize in Ecumenical Church History of the American Society of Church History This is the first full-length work on the fate of the Protestant nonconformists in Ireland following the restoration of the monarchy and the Church of Ireland in 1660. Of the religious groups studied in this book-the Scottish and English Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, and the Friends-only the Scottish Presbyterians had established themselves prior to the revolutionary upheavals of the 1640's and 1650's. The Congregationalists and Baptists arrived in the train of the English armies dispatched to quell the Irish rebellion. Neither group established firm roots outside the military and civilian republicans, and survived only as shadows of their former selves after 1660. This was also the case for the English Presbyterians. In contrast, the Friends, whose work in Ireland began in 1654, crisscrossed the island in their search for converts, and thus established a much stronger foundation on which to build in the later decades of the century. In addition to examining the internal history of these groups from the restoration to the eve of the penal laws in the early eighteenth century, the author also explores the relationships between the civil authorities and the restored state church and the nonconformists. Only the Scottish Presbyterians and the Friends extended and solidified their bases, and by the end of the century had evolved from sects into denominational churches. Beginning around 1668, both groups underwent a rationalizing process that entailed the development of institutionalized authority, structured systems of discipline, multiregional networks of spiritual leaders, and means to raise funds, found schools, and, in the case of the Friends, establish agencies to censor, publish, and disseminate religious literature. The two groups-their organizations intact, their members yoked together in striking cohesiveness-were thus well positioned to withstand the penal laws in the eighteenth century.

Book Review: Mission Accomplished? The English Presbyterian Mission in Lingtung, South China: A Study of the Interplay between Mission Methods and Their Historical Context

Book Review: Mission Accomplished? The English Presbyterian Mission in Lingtung, South China: A Study of the Interplay between Mission Methods and Their Historical Context

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Kofi Appiah‐Kubi, Man Cures, God Heals. Religion and Medical Practice Among the Akans of GhanaArnold Bittlinger, Papst und Pfingstler. Der römisch katholisch — pfingstliche Dialog und seine ökumenische Relevanz.Arnold Bittlinger, The Church is Charismatic. The World Council of Churches and the Charismatic Movement.Arnold Bittlinger, “The Significance of Charismatic Experiences for the Mission of the Church,” in IRMDavid D. Bundy, “Johannes Rietdijk: Belgian Pentecostal Theologian,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Kortright Davis, Mission for Caribbean Change. Caribbean Development as Theological EnterpriseKwesi A. Dickson, Theology in AfricaRoger Edrington, Everyday Men: Living in a Climate of UnbeliefMadiba Essiben, Colonisation et évangélisation en Afrique. L'héritage scolaire du Cameroun (1885–1956).Roswith Gerloff, “The Development of Black Churches in Britain since 1952,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Peter Hocken, Streams of Renewal. The Origins and Early Development of the Charismatic Movement in Great BritainPeter Hocken, “Understanding the Charismatic Movement as Itself a Gift of the Holy Spirit,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Werner Hoerschelmann, Christliche Gurus. Darstellung von Selbstverständnis und Funktion indigenen Christseins durch unabhängige, charismatisch geführte Gruppen in SüdindienWalter J. Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe: Problems, Promises and People. Proceedings from the Pentecostal Research Conference at the University of Birmingham (England) April 26th to 29th, 1984George A. Hood, Mission Accomplished? The English Presbyterian Mission in Lingtung, South China. A Study of the Interplay between Mission Methods and their Historical ContextEmmanuel Y. Lartey, Pastoral Counselling in Inter‐Cultural Perspective. A Study of Some African (Ghanaian) and Anglo‐American Views on Human Existence and CounsellingEmmanuel Y. Lartey, “Healing: Tradition and Pentecostalism in Africa Today,” in IRMKingsley Lewis, The Moravian Mission in Barbados 1816–1886. A Study of the Historical Context and Theological Significance of a Minority Church Among an Oppressed People.Iain MacRobert, The Black Roots and White Racism of Early Pentecostalism in the USAIain MacRobert, “African and European Roots of Black and White Pentecostalism in Britain,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.L. Grant McClung, jr (ed.), Azusa Street and Beyond. Pentecostal Missions and Church Growth in the Twentieth Century.Gary B. McGee, This Gospel Shall Be Preached. A History and Theology of Assemblies of God Foreign Missions to 1959A. Bongani Mazibuko, Education in Mission — Mission in Education. A Critical Comparative Study of Selected Approaches.George M. Mulrain, Theology in Folk Culture. The Theological Significance of Haitian Folk Religion.Patrick J. O'Mahony, Swords and Ploughshares. Can Man Live and Progress with a Technology of Death?Jean‐Daniel Plüss, “Towards a Practical Hermeneutic of Testimony: Morphology, Meaning, Metamorphosis,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.P. Solomon Raj, A Christian Folk‐Religion in India. A Study of the Small Church Movements in Andhra Pradesh, with a special reference to the Bible Mission of M. Devadas.Shelagh Ranger, “The Good Samaritan. Healing in Manchester: Some Reflections on West Indian Pentecostalism,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Jerry Sandidge, Roman Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue (1977–1982). A Study in Developing Ecumenism.Jerry Sandidge, “A Pentecostal Response to Roman Catholic Teaching on Mary,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Jerry Sandidge, “Roman Catholic/Pentecostal Dialogue: Ten Years of Ecumenical Exchange, ibid.Jean‐J. S***uurmond, “A Charismatic Interpretation of the Triad Faith, Hope and Love,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Harold Tonks, Faith, Hope and Decision‐Making. The Kingdom of God and Social Policy‐Making. The Work of Arthur Rich of Zürich.Cornelis van der Laan, “Early Pentecostalism in Western Europe: Lessons for Today,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.Karl‐Wilhelm Westmeier, Reconciling Heaven and Earth. The Transcendental Enthusiasm and Growth of an Urban Protestant Community, Bogota, Colombia.Huibert H. Zegwaart, “The Concept of ‘Myth.’ An Attempt to Philosophically Clarify a Definition of ‘Myth’,” in Hollenweger (ed.), Pentecostal Research in Europe.

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:RECENT BOOKS ON ISLAM: The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines, by Cesar Adib Majul.RECENT BOOKS ON ISLAM: Der Islam in der Gegenwart, by Werner Ende and Udo Steinbach, eds.RECENT BOOKS ON ISLAM: The Islamic Impact, by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Byron Haines and Ellison Findley.RECENT BOOKS ON ISLAM: Beyond the Mosque, by Phil Parshall.RECENT BOOKS ON ISLAM: In Search of Meaning and Identity, Conversion to Christianity in Pakistani Muslim Culture, by Seppo Syrjänen.RECENT BOOKS ON ISLAM: The Call of the Minaret, by Kenneth Cragg.CHRISTIAN MISSION IN SOUTH CHINA: Mission Accomplished? The English Presbyterian Mission in Lingtung, South China. A Study of the Interplay between Mission Methods and the Historical Context, by George A. Hood.CHRISTIAN MISSION IN SOUTH CHINA: Jesuit Letters from China 1583–84, H. Howard Rienstra