Major Churches Research Articles

“Russia's Most Effective Fifth Column”: Cold War Perceptions of Un-Americanism in US Churches

From the very beginning of the Cold War, fundamentalist Christian organizations in the United States were engaged in a strident polemical campaign against the modern ecumenical movement and its American supporters in the major mainline churches. Consistently, this movement and its Social Gospel supporters were perceived as allies or tools of the Soviet Union, or at the very least as unwitting co-conspirators in world revolutionary projects that posed a direct threat to US national security. In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the American Council of Christian Churches and other key fundamentalist organizations of the era developed a set of key theological arguments about the perceived un-Americanism of said churches and their clergy. Later in the 1950s, the fundamentalists allied with others on the religious and political right to push for a series of Congressional and FBI investigations into perceived subversion as practised by these churches. While ultimately unsuccessful in terms of their originally stated goals, these prolonged fundamentalist campaigns became a crucial site for disseminating the faith-based conceptions of Americanism and un-Americanism that eventually cohered in the contemporary religious right. This paper will investigate the Cold War fundamentalist discourse on un-Americanism and subversion in an effort to illumine the contours of perceived religious otherness in this exceptionally religious nation.

Reimagining Judaism

Reimagining Judaism

Intimations of a Massacre: Thessalonica, Theodosius I and Self-Ironization in Socrates Scholasticus’sHistoria Ecclesiastica

From the vantage point of Constantinople in AD 440, under the rule of the orthodox Theodosian dynasty, Nicene Christianity may have appeared unassailable. Many of the most challenging of the heresies that had emerged in the century since Constantine’s conversion seemed to be receding. Even the devastating Christological controversies that had erupted in the early 430s may (understandably, if wrongly) have looked, with Nestorius’s deposition and the Formula of Reunion (433), to be under control. And yet Constantinople retained its confessional diversity, with members of numerous Christian sects – penalized by law theoretically, but often still visible and vocal in practice – living alongside members of the mainstream Nicene church.The reimposition of a Nicene hierarchy over the major churches of Constantinople had happened only from the 380s onwards. It had been a process fraught with difficulties – not least the survival in large numbers of groups polemically labelled as Arian, and the persistence of their intellectual, theological and historical traditions, even as their hopes of political or theological hegemony faded. From this milieu had come the Eunomian Philostorgius (c.368–439), and his highly sectarian – and anti-Nicene –Church Historyof the fourth and fifth centuries.

Mobilizing Christianity in the Antivivisection Movement in Victorian Britain

Abstract This article offers a historical perspective on the bearing of the Christian tradition on humans’ ethical relations with other animals. Instead of focusing on major theologians and canonical texts, this article turns to the initiatives taken by laity and clergy in the mobilization of their antivivisection cause in the last quarter of the 19th century. It reveals that despite the lack of institutional support from major Churches, many reformers sympathetic to Christian ideals relied on Christianity as their moral foundation, utilizing various recourses associated with it in their fight against animal experimentation. These reformers appropriated the concepts of sin and self-sacrifice and the notion of the incarnate Christ, as well as critiques against scientific knowledge and materialism permeating the wider conflict between religion and science at the time. In this wideranging mobilization of resources associated with the Christian religious tradition, they sustained a generation of activism against animal experimentation while, at the same time, recreating a positive Christian subtradition in animal ethics.

Touloutoutou and Tet Mare Churches: Language, Class and Protestantism in the Haitian Diaspora of the Bahamas

Within Haiti’s growing transnational Protestant community, there are different types of churches and adherents that practice traditional forms of Protestant Christianity (such as the Adventist, Methodist and Baptist faiths) and Pentecostal/Charismatic forms of Protestant Christianity. Using Michèle Lamont’s work on symbolic boundaries, I explore how Haitian Protestants living in New Providence, Bahamas, differentiate these two major Haitian Protestant church cultures through the use of denigrating terms about differing religious traditions. Churches which practice traditional forms of Haitian Protestantism, for example, are sometimes called touloutoutou churches. Churches where Pentecostal/Charismatic forms of Haitian Protestantism are practiced are sometimes referred to as tet mare churches by some Haitian Protestants. In addition, practitioners’ descriptions reflect issues of social class and contested notions of Christian authenticity among Haitian Protestants in the Bahamas. Dans la communauté haïtienne protestante transnationale, il existe différents types d’églises et de fidèles qui forment une pratique traditionnelle du christianisme protestant (comme les adventistes, méthodistes et les religions Baptiste) et pentecôtiste / charismatique qui forment le christianisme protestant. Avec l’utilisation du travail de Michèle Lamont sur les frontières symboliques, j’explore comment les protestants haïtiens vivant à New Providence, Bahamas, peuvent faire la différence entre ces deux grandes cultures haïtiennes grâce à l’utilisation des termes dénigrants au sujet de traditions religieuses différentes. Les églises haïtiennes qui pratiquent les formes traditionnelles du protestantisme, par exemple, sont parfois appelées « églises touloutoutou ». D’autre part, les églises où les formes pentecôtiste / charismatique du protestantisme haïtien sont pratiquées sont parfois dénommés « églises tèt mare » pour certains protestants haïtiens. En outre, les descriptions des praticiens reflètent les questions de classe sociale et les notions d’authenticité chrétienne attaquée chez les protestants haïtiens aux Bahamas.

Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Christians Came Together to Rescue Their Holiest Shrine (review)

Saving the Holy Sepulchre: How Rival Christians Came Together to Rescue Their Holiest Shrine. By Raymond Cohen. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2008. Pp. xvi, 308. $27.95. ISBN 978-0-195-18966-7.) The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the holiest worldwide Christian shrine, has been the topic of much research focusing on the struggles between the churches over strongholds within and surrounding the church. This book, written by Raymond Cohen, professor emeritus of international affairs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focuses on a different perspective - attempts at coordination and cooperation between rival churches for the restoration and maintenance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The book covers the periods of the British occupation and Mandate (1917-48), Jordanian rule (1948-67), and oversight by the Israeli government (since 1967). Focusing on the human perspectives behind the scenes, it opens with the 1927 earthquake and the damage it caused to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the lives of the monks who served there. The book flashes back to the history of the basilica and the rivalries between the major churches in Jerusalem since the fourth century. A major landmark was the arrangements at the Holy Places - designed in 1853 by the weakened Muslim Ottoman Sultan Abd al-Majid - that Cohen considers as an informal system for coexistence among the three major churches in Jerusalem and a way to alleviate international pressures and conflicts such as preceded the Crimean War. The British government of Palestine was concerned that the rivalries among the churches in the Holy Places as backed by European powers ultimately would undermine its rule over Palestine. It set up a commission headed by Lionel George Archer Cust that presented its memorandum in September 1929. It became the British Mandate's manual on the status quo and has been respected by the rival churches in Jerusalem until the present day. Cohen vividly describes how the British administration managed repairs of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, overcoming conflicts within as well as between the churches through personal contacts behind the scenes. A serious fire occurred at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1949 as the Jordanians were repairing damage from the 1948 war. Because of the fire, the dome was in imminent danger of collapse. King Abdullah of Jordan took personal responsibility for repairing the church. Cohen sees the king's incentive as the desire to reject the initiatives to internationalize Jerusalem and to prove to the United Nations and worldwide Christianity that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan would be a capable caretaker of the Christian holy places. The Jordanian view was that it was the government's responsibility to restore the church, which it would accomplish with or without the cooperation of the local churches. Cohen gives major credit to the Jordanian governors of Jerusalem, especially Hasan al-Khatib, in moving forward with the process of repair. An impressive, honest civil servant educated in Ottomanera Muslim law, Khatib treated the church heads with courtesy and firmness as backed by Amman. He induced the churches to sign an agreement of cooperation in 1952 so that the restoration could commence. …

Some Parochial Libraries in the East Midlands

A number of parochial libraries survive from the counties of the East Midlands: Derbyshire (two), Leicestershire (five), Lincolnshire (six), Nottinghamshire (two), and Rutland (one). Among them are some of the most important in the country, such as the chained library at Grantham and the libraries housed in major churches at Boston and Newark. Three libraries are deposited at the University of Nottingham and are examined in detail. Oakham was founded by Lady Anne Harington in 1616 (a few volumes post-date this) and came to Nottingham in 1980; it consists mostly of theology, mostly in large folio volumes and including much early printing, with four incunabula. Elston is probably only a fragment of the library left by the Revd John Smith in 1732; only twenty-eight titles remain, the majority of them sixteenth–seventeenth-century continental theology. Coleorton is a recent deposit and has not yet been fully studied; it dates from a bequest of 1736 by the Revd William Hunt but had a number of later additions. Its seven hundred volumes range more widely than those of the other two libraries, though the majority are in English with a preponderance of theology but a good number of historical and political works. The location of such libraries in academic libraries offers opportunities for their better conservation and their availability for study, and can also lead to their being recorded in bibliographic resources, so contributing to scholarship both nationally and internationally.

Teaching for Racial Justice: A Participative Approach

AbstractThis article outlines an ongoing method the author developed for seeking to enable predominantly White students in theological education (those training for authorized public ordained ministry) to engage with the central tenets of racial justice. The quest for racial justice has been an important part of the mission of the major church denominations in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years, as they have declared that “Racism is a sin.” Ordained ministers are now charged with the task of seeking to lead church congregations into faithful, anti‐racist forms of practice – namely, the quest for racial justice. This paper outlines the working method the author has developed in order to conscientize ministers in training for this significant task.

Law, Liberty and Church: Authority and Justice in the Major Churches in England

Law, Liberty and Church: Authority and Justice in the Major Churches in England

IS DOOYEWEERD A PANENTHEIST? — COMMENTS ON FRIESEN’S ‘95 THESES ON HERMAN DOOYEWEERD’

What is the purpose of Friesen’s 95 theses and what is the audience he has in mind? The title refers to a major church historical event and suggests that — like in 1517 — we are dealing with a concise statement of a new and radical doctrine that is unfolded in opposition to an established canon. But who is the opponent in this case? What is the established canon that is rejected? And what is new or radical in the summary? Dooyeweerd’s philosophy was definitely new and radical at the time of its conception. It still has an enormous potential for the special sciences. It offers important resources for any (transcendental) critique of ‘immanence’ philosophies. However, on first reading and without knowledge of the context, Friesen does not seem to aim at offering a new or radical interpretation of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy. I read the 95 theses as an attempt to wipe off the dust, to provide the overall picture, doing justice to aspects that (maybe) were neglected or (maybe) were wrongly understood in the reformational tradition. However, the audience he has in mind seems to be one that is already familiar with the basic concepts and the thrust of Dooyeweerdian thinking; not an audience that is opposed to reformational philosophical thinking, but one that might be helped by a succinct summary in order to encourage further study and discussion.

Anglo-Saxon Warwick

Warwick was one of a number of thriving Domesday boroughs which were urban by 1086 or not long afterwards, but for which there is very little earlier evidence. The only well established fact of its Anglo-Saxon history is that Æthelflæd built a burh there in 914, an event which is still often seen — despite Slater's attempt (1983) to give the place a pre-tenth-century role — as marking the origins of Warwick's undoubted later importance as an administrative, commercial and ecclesiastical centre. An examination of the albeit fragmentary evidence for Warwick's defences shows that although the course of the Æthelflædan circuit remains elusive, the most credible theory is that it was the one subsequently taken by the town's later medieval defences. A discussion of the main roads which cross Warwick's site and, secondly, of the origins of its several major later medieval churches prompts a new model for the place's pre-tenth-century importance, portraying it as an increasingly successful commercial settlement focused on a major minster of possibly seventh-century foundation. Accordingly, Æthelflæd's involvement is envisaged as the fortifying of an established minster-centred settlement at a location of regionally strategic importance which may already have been showing proto-urban characteristics by 914.

Looking the Wrong Way: Authenticity and Proof of Religious Vision

Two 2006 vision events in southern California serve as case studies for investigation by a historian and a photographer of the current surge in reported religious visions: a well‐publicized visit by world famous visionary Ivan Dragicevic (b. 1965) to a major Los Angeles area church and a vision by the relatively obscure Maria Paula Acuña (b. ca. 1952) in the Mojave Desert. Although both events included apparitions of the Virgin Mary, interactions between visionary and witnesses at each event revealed different religious purposes and meanings. The efforts of witnesses to prove and commemorate their experiences help explain why the personal religious vision has remained both crucial and problematic for Christians over two millennia.

Kirchen im Krieg. Europa 1939–1945 (review)

Reviewed by: Kirchen im Krieg. Europa 1939–1945 John Conway Kirchen im Krieg. Europa 1939–1945. Edited by Karl-Joseph Hummel and Christoph Kösters. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 2007. Pp. 614. €48,00. ISBN 978-3-506-75688-6.) These collected essays, edited by two notable German Catholic scholars, are the product of a 2004 conference and complement the 2005 volume Kirchliches Leben im Zweiten Weltkrieg, edited by two Protestant scholars. While the latter's compass is restricted to Germany, the book under review has a more ambitious goal of covering Europe as a whole. It also contains contributions with a wider, ecumenical, and international perspective. Both volumes are indications of a new interest in the affairs of Europe's churches during the traumatic years of World War II. Such collections are helpful in providing up-to-date summaries of previous detailed research (valuably listed in the numerous footnotes), as is the case with the initial and interesting essays on the position of the Vatican and of the Protestant World Council of Churches. On the other hand, some of [End Page 844] these contributions are rather too narrowly focused. But that is par for the course. Part 1 surveys aspects of church life in different European regions, such as excellent accounts of the Protestant churches in Scandinavia or the Catholic churches in France and the Low Countries. Most interesting, because less well known, is the survey of Catholic life in east-central Europe from Czechia and Slovakia—where the pro-Nazi state president was a Catholic priest—to Hungary and Poland. The fate of the Church in this last country, as described by Emilia Hrabovec, was particularly grim. Nazi occupation policy was implemented by the most radical anticlerical and antisemitic SS troops, determined to destroy Poland's national identity. Hundreds of clergy were murdered or sent to concentration camps. The result was that Polish Catholic life was driven to depend on the laity and to attempt to uphold the ideal of Polish nationalism at the local popular level. These essays give an excellent picture of the diversity of wartime church circumstances. The Nazi occupation and control was exercised in markedly different ways in different countries. The churches' reactions also differed widely, due to their own varieties of theological and historical traditions, varying from open resistance to accommodating compromise. But there was rarely any common Christian stance, or indeed even ecumenical collaboration among the major churches. Parts 2 and 3 return to Germany and provide detailed essays on various aspects of the churches' experience under the Nazi dictatorship. When war broke out, the leaders of both major churches adhered to traditional Christian views on the issue of war and military engagement, and justified their participation in defense of their people and nation. Despite the evidence of the Nazis' increasing radicalization and brutalization in the conduct of the war, especially in the east, the majority of churchmen, even after their defeat, still refused to admit that their theology was irrelevant and their guilt pervasive. Instead, churchmen concentrated on survival and emphasized their own sufferings rather than those of the Nazis' victims. Overall, the German churches put up no resistance to Nazi crimes, since loyalty to nation prevailed. Similarly, the evidence is clear that only a tiny handful of compassionate church people were prepared to take the risks of assisting the Jewish victims, while the prevalent antisemitism was shared by both Catholics and Protestants without demur. On the other hand, the Nazi attempts to achieve totalitarian control and influence over the churches failed, prevented by the strongly conservative theological views held by both Protestants and Catholics. These ambivalences and tensions between the churches and the regime can best be described as "antagonistic cooperation," which may serve as a comprehensive verdict on this tortuous relationship. [End Page 845] The essays in part 4 concern the role of the few churchmen in the resistance movement. Were they Christian martyrs or political traitors? Were they motivated more by religious or political factors? And what is to be said about those who had earlier supported Nazism? Such questions are examined here with skepticism and placed in their historiographical context. In fact, the debates still continue. This...

Law, Liberty and Church: Authority and Justice in the Major Churches in England – By Gordon Arthur

International Journal of Systematic TheologyVolume 10, Issue 2 p. 227-228 Law, Liberty and Church: Authority and Justice in the Major Churches in England – By Gordon Arthur Mark D. Chapman, Mark D. Chapman Ripon College Cuddesdon, OxfordSearch for more papers by this author Mark D. Chapman, Mark D. Chapman Ripon College Cuddesdon, OxfordSearch for more papers by this author First published: 31 March 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2400.2008.00323.xRead the full textAboutPDF 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 onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume10, Issue2April 2008Pages 227-228 RelatedInformation

Law, Liberty and Church: Authority and Justice in the Major Churches in England Gordon Arthur Ashgate, Aldershot, 2006, 222 pp (hardback £50.00) ISBN: 978-0-7546-5437-7

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Hybrid evangelische Großkirche vor einem Schub an Organisationswerdung

The (German) Protestant Major Church as a Hybrid Facing a Push Towards Organisation Structure: Remarks on the Impulse Paper "Church of Freedom" of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and on the Future of the Protestant Church Between Congregationalism, Local Branch Standardisation and the Strengthening of the Lower Regional Level. The change in mentality advocated by the paper as well as its other proposals are to be understood as a push towards organisation logics. Its relation to the opposing institution logics and three future scenarios are discussed.

Three major church music collections

Three major church music collections

The Competition for Saints in Medieval Zurich

The facts regarding the saints of the major churches of Zurich are easy to establish. A priory, later known as the Grossmünster, was erected on the east side of the Limmat over the supposed burial sites of the early Christian martyrs Felix and Regula. In 853 Louis the German founded an abbey of canonesses, dedicated to the same saints, on the west side of the river immediately opposite. In the mid-twelfth century, sculptured reliefs in the new buildings at both sites described episodes from the saints' legend. The Grossmünster acquired Charlemagne relics in 1233, about the same time that a new saint, Exuperantius, for whom there is no historical basis, mysteriously joined Felix and Regula as a companion martyr. Shortly before 1300 the Chronica universalis Turicensis likened Louis' daughters, the first abbesses of his church, now known as the Fraumünster, to saints, mentioning miracles at their tombs in the south transept. A fresco painted nearby about 1300 recorded the earlier translation of the relics of Felix and Regula from the Grossmünster to the Fraumünster in a way that played up the importance of this event. This paper examines these events as part of a competition between these two foundations in which works of art advertised the status and number of their saints, a one-upmanship in which each successive incident was intended to represent the greater prestige of one's own saints in contrast to those of the competing institution. The Grossmünster's interest in Charlemagne, for example, has little to do with any historical connection of the saint to either the foundation or the city, but more likely derives from the fact that Charlemagne was the more famous predecessor of Louis the German. Charlemagne's greater age, legendary status as the first Holy Roman emperor, and recent sainthood thus trump the Fraumünster's longer-standing connection to the Carolingians. The very name Exuperantius and the unusual terms of his "appearance" suggest similar competitive grounds as the basis for his invention. This "battle of the saints" can be seen as the outward expression of a struggle for spiritual and political power within the city. Images of the city's original martyrs and depictions of newly claimed saints defined institutional identity, but it was an identity in flux as these rival institutions sought to position themselves in relation to one another.

‘In-House’ Solutions for Major Ethical Breaches

Objective: To evaluate ‘in-house’ decisions made in respect of major ethical breaches, whether occurring in psychiatry or within the hierarchy of major churches. Conclusions: The closer professional bodies, churches and other related organizations that have high expectations of the duty of care of their professional members, get to practising democratic ideals and universal standards of human rights, the more such members become accountable, and the less there are special cases or exceptions to the law.

Sensuous worship: Jesuits and the art of the early Catholic Reformation in Germany

When the Jesuits entered Germany in the 1540s, the Protestant Reformation was on the verge of obliterating a Catholic Church already in tatters. Yet the seemingly imminent collapse never happened, and Catholicism recovered dramatically. This extensively illustrated book explores a key reason why German Catholicism survived and flourished. It provides the first comprehensive treatment of the Jesuits' poorly understood but remarkable revitalization of German religious art and culture--an accomplishment that would guide the direction of both religious life and subsequent German baroque art. Jeffrey Chipps Smith describes how the Jesuits, partly through their rich contributions to art, catalyzed the re-formation of German Catholic religious identities. Their diverse missions included the erection or renovation of over thirty major churches between 1570 and 1648. Aided by wealthy benefactors and bringing in artists from across Europe, the Jesuits built imposing and beautifully appointed churches, including St. Michael's in Munich and Mari Himmelfahrt's in Cologne. Designed to impress and to teach, these structures reflect Jesuit commitments to the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who emphasized individual responsibility for salvation. Jesuit churches triumphantly celebrated fundamental Catholic beliefs, while providing a setting for the worshipper's spiritual maturation. The Jesuits embraced the affective potential of art to transform the individual by stimulating the senses to promote memory, intellect, and will. Sensuous Worship shows how, by doing so, they revived German Catholicism and had lasting effects on German art.