Oxford Studies In Historical Theology Research Articles

Kevin G. Grove, "Augustine on Memory, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology", Oxford University Press, New York 2021, pp. 266

Review of the book Kevin G. Grove, "Augustine on Memory, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology", New York 2021.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer Was Translated into Italian. By Stefano Villani. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. xiv + 292 pp. $99.00 cloth.

Making Italy Anglican: Why the Book of Common Prayer Was Translated into Italian. By Stefano Villani. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. xiv + 292 pp. $99.00 cloth. - Volume 91 Issue 4

Grace and Conformity: The Reformed Conformist Tradition and the Early Stuart Church of England by Stephen Hampton

Reviewed by: Grace and Conformity: The Reformed Conformist Tradition and the Early Stuart Church of England by Stephen Hampton Leif Dixon Grace and Conformity: The Reformed Conformist Tradition and the Early Stuart Church of England. By Stephen Hampton. [Oxford Studies in Historical Theology.] (New York: Oxford University Press. 2021. Pp. 424. $99.00. ISBN 9780190084332.) In his Grace and Conformity, Stephen Hampton rightly identifies an important lacuna in scholarship of the early Stuart Church of England. Where a great deal of [End Page 812] energy has been devoted to more-and-less conformist puritans and to the rise of Laudianism, much less focus has been given to those Calvinists who sought actively to promote the Church as both an episcopal and reformed institution. The impression—at least tacitly—has often been that such ‘moderates’ (a word carefully avoided by Hampton) were lukewarm careerists. On the contrary, Hampton argues, the reformed conformist tradition (RCT) was a “distinct religious identity” and its members were ‘conscious’ that they were neither puritan nor Laudian, and “were, in significant respects, opposed to both groups” (p. 24). Indeed, for Hampton, they were a combative bunch, defending their vision of a reformed Church of England against opponents to the left and right, at home and abroad, and dead as well as alive. The strengths of the book are conspicuous. There can be little question that the ‘reformed conformists’ are an under-studied milieu, and that their marginalisation has leant an air of unreality to previous analyses of the early Stuart Church. Hampton’s theological grasp is excellent, and I am entirely convinced by his central argument, that the RCT was characterised by great “intellectual liveliness” and “inventiveness”, as well as internal “diversity” (p. 176). In tacit contrast to the arid, managerial approach of Elizabethan equivalents like Whitgift, Hampton paints a picture of an uncompromising, self-confident network of authors, as keen to evangelise and to shape pastoral strategies as they were to uphold abstract reformed orthodoxies. At times, the evidence that he provides is truly striking. For instance, when I read that Daniel Featley defended Christmas day commemorations (against puritans) on the grounds (against Laudians) that they contributed to a believer’s sense of assurance and understanding of perseverance, I felt that a strongly distinctive viewpoint was being communicated (p. 282). In some respects, though, Hampton’s study leaves key questions not only unanswered but also, at times, unasked. Hampton’s focus is on ten individuals, who he tells us are “representative” of the RCT. However, most of these—Joseph Hall, Thomas Morton, Samuel Ward, George Downame, John Davenant, George Carleton, John Williams—were bishops, while two others—John Prideaux and Richard Holdsworth—were eminent academics. But this is, to say the least, a top-slice even of the university-educated elites who necessarily populate studies of early modern historical theology. So concerned is Hampton to establish the internal coherences and dynamics of his RCT sample that he draws almost no links between them and other contemporary/historiographical groupings. Throughout the book I was left wondering whether particular RCT positions were distinctive to them, or something that we might not have found in almost identical form among the community of largely conforming puritans. It would also have been interesting to see Hampton discussing how far his account of reformed conformists connects with Judith Maltby’s analysis of a more broad-based “prayer book protestant” movement. While Hampton’s close reading of theological meanings is exemplary, it can result in a narrow, dense feel at times, and I would have liked to see him stepping back to create links to and comparisons with other tendencies within the contemporary spectrum of theological beliefs and identities. [End Page 813] My most consistent nagging doubt, though, revolves around Hampton’s handling of the concept of “conformity.” He tells us that his subjects were “confident that the Reformed theology that they were defending was the official orthodoxy of the English Church” (p. 110). But what precisely were they conforming to here? To the interpretation of the king, reflecting the Church’s Erastian structure; or to the doctrinal architecture of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement (ERS) itself? It would seem that Hampton means the...

Kathryn Dickason. Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 392. $99.00 (cloth).

Kathryn Dickason. Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 392. $99.00 (cloth). - Volume 61 Issue 3

Refusing to Kiss the Slipper: Opposition to Calvinism in the Francophone Reformation. By Michael W. Bruening . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford University Press, 2021. xv + 361 pp. $99.99 hardcover.

Refusing to Kiss the Slipper: Opposition to Calvinism in the Francophone Reformation. By Michael W. Bruening . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford University Press, 2021. xv + 361 pp. $99.99 hardcover. - Volume 91 Issue 2

AUGUSTINE ON MEMORY. By Kevin G.Grove. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp iii + 265. $99.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 48, Issue 1 p. 109-109 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Theology AUGUSTINE ON MEMORY. By Grove, Kevin G.. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp iii + 265. $99.00. First published: 28 April 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.15754Read 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 onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume48, Issue1Georges Bataille and the SacredMarch 2022Pages 109-109 RelatedInformation

The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II: Jansenism and the Struggle for Catholic Reform by Shaun Blanchard

Reviewed by: The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II: Jansenism and the Struggle for Catholic Reform by Shaun Blanchard Kenneth L. Parker The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II: Jansenism and the Struggle for Catholic Reform BY SHAUN BLANCHARD Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020. 346 pages. Hardcover: $99.00. ISBN: 9780190947798. This book takes as its point of departure Pope Benedict XVI's articulation of the "hermeneutic of reform," found in that pope's 2005 Christmas speech to the Roman Curia. Shaun Blanchard seriously engages Benedict's point that "reform" must be understood to include "continuity and discontinuity on different levels."1 The twinning, in a single study, of the Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II at first glance might appear to be a work motivated by harsh reactions to the post-Vatican II era, or an enthusiastic embrace of changes that have occurred, particularly in the era of Pope Francis. However, true to Dr. Blanchard's stated intentions in the introduction, he takes the historical theological project seriously, and teases out the historical threads that demonstrate decisively the important connections between the teachings of Vatican II and the contested legacy of the Synod of Pistoia. This volume is a striking contribution to the field of historical theology, an important contextual study for a wide range of subdisciplines in Catholic theology, and a reminder that responsible historical research is an enterprise that Roman Catholics need not fear.2 The Synod of Pistoia (1786) is remembered, if remembered at all, as a routed effort by leaders of the Catholic Enlightenment in Italy to introduce significant reforms through synodal deliberations. The list of reforms Blanchard provides is long: "ecclesiology, grace and predestination, theologies of the seven sacraments, the place of religious orders, relations between church and state, Bible reading, the veneration of Mary and the saints, and the celebration of the liturgy" (5). Resolutions included regulation of processions, indulgences, images, relics, feast days, devotional [End Page 173] life, and stipulations regarding marriage. The bishop of Pistoia-Prato, Scipione de' Ricci (1741–1810, bishop from 1780–1791), hoped to provide a model for a "national council" of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (5–6). Instead, he experienced rejection at an episcopal assembly in Florence (1787), and by the people of Pistoia and Prato, in the form of two riots against his liturgical and devotional changes. By the time Ricci resigned his bishopric in 1791, the Pistoian reform was decisively in retreat (7–8). Pope Pius VI condemned many propositions of Pistoia in 1794 (11–12). Yet, if the Synod of Pistoia and its reform agenda receded to the margins of historical consciousness, the parallels between what was attempted in the 1780s and what was accomplished in the 1960s were not lost on advocates and critics of Vatican II, as attested by Jose Maria Fuentes (12) and leaders of the Society of St. Pius X (8–9). The former conciliar paritus, Joseph Ratzinger, found the parallels between Pistoia and the early years of the post-conciliar era "eerily familiar" (11). A Butterfieldian critique of this book might be that it is whiggish—a study of the past for the sake of the present. However, this is not a "subordination of the past to the present," but rather "making the past our present and attempting to see life with the eyes of another century than our own."3 While one might hesitate to apply twentieth and twenty-first century terms retrospectively to eighteenth-century developments, like ressourcement and aggiornamento, Blanchard has the skill to use them in ways that does not suggest an anachronistic imposition of a "presentist" agenda. Much of the reason for this is that the author patiently guides the reader through the tangle of words that have taken on a myriad of meanings—Gallicanism, Richerism, Febronianism, Josephinism, and the varied mutations of Jansenism—reviewing the literature on these subjects in multiple languages, which enables one to move clear-eyed into his account of the eighteenth century events he explores, and how they came to impact the developments leading up to, and during, the Second Vatican Council. I found his reading of Lodovico Muratori particularly helpful...

The German Awakening: Protestant Renewal after the Enlightenment, 1815–1848. By Andrew Kloes. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. xv + 328 pp. $99.00 hardcover.

The German Awakening: Protestant Renewal after the Enlightenment, 1815–1848. By Andrew Kloes. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. xv + 328 pp. $99.00 hardcover. - Volume 89 Issue 3

Matthew C. Bingham. Orthodox Radicals: Baptist Identity in the English Revolution. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2019. Pp. 240. $99.00 (cloth).

Matthew C. Bingham. Orthodox Radicals: Baptist Identity in the English Revolution. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2019. Pp. 240. $99.00 (cloth). - Volume 59 Issue 2

The Reformation of Prophecy: Early Modern Interpretations of the Prophet and Old Testament Prophecy. By G. Sujin Pak. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. xii + 376 pp. $99.00 cloth.

The Reformation of Prophecy: Early Modern Interpretations of the Prophet and Old Testament Prophecy. By G. Sujin Pak. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. xii + 376 pp. $99.00 cloth. - Volume 88 Issue 1

Debating Perseverance: The Augustinian Heritage in Post-Reformation England. Jay T. Collier. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 230 pp. $99.

Debating Perseverance: The Augustinian Heritage in Post-Reformation England. Jay T. Collier. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 230 pp. $99.

Adam Ployd, Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church: A Reading of the Anti-Donatist Sermons. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. xii + 225. $74.00/£47.99.

Adam Ployd, Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church: A Reading of the Anti-Donatist Sermons. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. xii + 225. $74.00/£47.99.

Gerald P. Boersma , Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. xv + 318. $74.00/£47.99.

Gerald P. Boersma , Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. xv + 318. $74.00/£47.99. - Volume 70 Issue 4

Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church: A Reading of the Anti-Donatist Sermons. By Adam Ployd . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. xii + 225 pp. $74.00 cloth.

Augustine, the Trinity, and the Church: A Reading of the Anti-Donatist Sermons. By Adam Ployd . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. xii + 225 pp. $74.00 cloth. - Volume 86 Issue 3

Morality After Calvin: Theodore Beza's Christian Censor and Reformed Ethics. By Kirk M. Summers . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. ix + 412 pp. $99.00 cloth.

Morality After Calvin: Theodore Beza's Christian Censor and Reformed Ethics. By Kirk M. Summers . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. ix + 412 pp. $99.00 cloth.

John Owen and English Puritanism: Experiences of Defeat. By Crawford Gribben . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. xiv + 401 pp. $74.00 cloth.

John Owen and English Puritanism: Experiences of Defeat. By Crawford Gribben . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. xiv + 401 pp. $74.00 cloth. - Volume 86 Issue 2

Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology. By Gerald P. Boersma . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xi + 318 pp. $74.00 cloth.

Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology. By Gerald P. Boersma . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xi + 318 pp. $74.00 cloth.

Paul C. H. Lim . Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. xvi + 488. £53.00.

Paul C. H. Lim . Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. xvi + 488. £53.00.

Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology). By Paul C. H. Lim. Pp. 328, + notes, bibliography & index. Oxford University Press, 2012, £44.76.

Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology). By Paul C. H. Lim. Pp. 328, + notes, bibliography & index. Oxford University Press, 2012, £44.76.