Protestant Readers Research Articles

Passions and the Passion: Robert Southwell's Mary Magdalene

Abstract: While still a fugitive at large, the Jesuit poet Robert Southwell published his best-selling prose masterpiece, Mary Magdalens Funerall Teares , which deftly combines the English literary vogue of complaint with Ignatian meditation in an eloquent grand style. While scholarship has mostly treated this work as a meditation for recusant Catholics separated from Christ's body in the Eucharist, as Mary was separated from Christ on Easter morning, this article argues that its widespread popularity and literary influence was a strategic success in large part owing to its bold and timely approach to human passions directed to its Protestant readers. In an era in which England's "finest wits are now given to write passionat discourses," Southwell suggested an alternative both to Neostoic curbing of passion and even to Augustinian moderation, presenting the Magdalen as a figure of godly vehemence in whom reason itself is ruled by a love in which "the excesse cannot be faultie."

Iconic, Aniconic Expressions and the Hebrew Bible

This paper presents a critical evaluation of the assumption in Brazilian Protestant reading about issues involving iconic versus aniconic debate in the Hebrew Bible grounded on an external and internal evidence to trace the development towards formless Yahwism. It is argued that the understanding of this process contributes to a better understanding of the Christian reception of this literary corpus and the formulation of incarnation theology.

Ambiguity in John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 13”

Taking William Empson’s remarks on John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet 13” as its starting point, the article explores the superstructure of ambiguity at work in the poem, going beyond Empson’s derogatory comments voiced in his Seven Types of Ambiguity in order to pursue a structure of oscillation, which, as the argument shows, underlies the entirety of the sonnet and recurs throughout it in a number of guises. Through an overview of different Catholic and Protestant readings of “What if this present”, the article investigates how the interpretation of the text shifts with changes in understanding the sonnet’s final line, highlighting its potential for self-referentiality and the latter’s interpretive consequences. The close reading offered in the process locates itself half-way between the search for a resolution of opposites characteristic of the New Critical tradition and a deconstructionist reading which denies the existence of a thematic centre in Donne’s poem. Reflecting on its own logic and the argument it proffers, the article inquires into the difference between these two kinds of close reading, suggesting that it may be more illusory than it seems.

A New Jerusalem: Flavius Josephus in Early America

This article argues that the first-century Jewish historian, Titus Flavius Josephus, was of central importance to early American Protestants as they wrestled with how to construct a divinely upheld polity and with who would be included within it. By tracing the prefaces to the many editions of Josephus that were published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it becomes clear that many Protestant readers in America felt torn between two competing identities: Rome and Israel. Scholars of early America are familiar with both labels. But as many early Americans knew from Josephus, those images were not always complementary. In fact, as they pondered over the account of the decimation of the first Jerusalem at the hands of Rome, it became clear that there might be something antithetical in those ancient models. This article argues that Josephus's histories enabled Americans to hold together the tensions in their national identity and ancient imagination that envisioned the United States as both a new Rome and a New Jerusalem. As a foundation, Josephus breathed life and legitimacy into the developing American culture. By neglecting to account for Josephus in this era, scholars have overlooked one of the most pervasive stories that formed the character and understanding of American Protestantism.

Ovid and the Liberty of Speech in Shakespeare’s England

Ovid and the Liberty of Speech in Shakespeare’s England

Edwin C. van Driel. Rethinking Paul: Protestant Theology and Pauline Exegesis

Edwin C. van Driel. <i>Rethinking Paul: Protestant Theology and Pauline Exegesis</i>

Georgette de Montenay, Emblemes, ou devises chrestiennes (1567). Édition d’Alison Adams

This is a fine edition of a monumental work from the early French emblem canon. It contains an Introduction, notes on the current edition including explanation of some textual choices, a facsimile copy of Georgette de Montenay’s work, an annotated transcription of the facsimile, an extensive bibliography, an index of motifs and main ideas, a table of mottoes, and a table of contents. Alison Adams guides the reader between the book’s constituent parts, as well as through the dense forest of references and allusions found in the original work. Every page of the facsimile indicates the corresponding page in the annotated transcription, and vice versa. The table of mottoes is cross-referenced for both the facsimile and the transcription. Image reproduction quality is high, although the greyscale print will not make it seem that way to anyone accustomed to using Glasgow’s digitized copy online, from which these page reproductions are taken. This is an inevitable aspect of medium, however, rather than a failing of the volume in question. In the transcription, Adams’s explanatory notes on the motto, pictura, and eight-syllable verse subscriptio of each emblem are highly detailed, indicating where elements of an image appeared in other emblem books, what they symbolized there, then what they symbolize in Montenay; the ways the texts of each emblem interplay with the image and how that alters our understanding of the emblem overall; the specifically Protestant reading of motto, image, and verse, with their biblical allusions; and other secondary scholarship discussing the emblem. Montenay’s other poems, a part of this work that generally receives little critical attention, are extensively footnoted. Adams’s Introduction is an excellent account of the genesis of Montenay’s work and its subsequent publishing history. She discusses the dating of the first known edition (the 1567 ‘Copenhagen’ copy), making sense of the 1566 privilege and putting to rest any speculation over what was previously presumed to be a five-year delay between privilege and first edition, between 1566 and 1571. Adams also explores how this first printing alters any presumption of the date of composition of the texts themselves, and shows the implications for interpreting the work, especially when comparing it with contemporaneous events linked to the Wars of Religion. Of interest too are questions concerning how far Montenay was involved in the development of the emblem images, her known and possible travel, her marriage date, and her conversion to Calvinism as they relate to the writing of the verses. Adams elaborates on reprints and later editions, including the multilingual versions printed in Protestant strongholds. Where she excels is in her careful treatment of the data available, making clear what is established fact, what is the most likely scenario given what can be known, and what is currently unknowable. She avoids unfounded speculation that could serve any wished-for historical narrative, and as such provides a template for any scholar faced with historical records that are patchy at best. Adams has given us a model for how to produce a critical edition, accessible for both the new student and the established scholar.

The Fourfold Gospel: A Formational Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, volume 1: From the Beginning to the Baptist

This volume, and the one to follow, are the product of 20 years of research and devotion from the author (p. xi). DelHousaye’s Fourfold Gospel seeks to walk the line of biblical commentary and devotional, utilizing the medieval Quadriga. This interpretive methodology, drawn from the Latin word for a chariot drawn by four horses, embraces four levels of scriptural interpretation: the literal, anagogical, typological, and tropological. The commentary itself is structured along the parallel rabbinic structure of PaRDeS (פַּרְדֵּס), wherein the “P” stands for peshat (פְּשָׁט)—the plain sense of the words; the “R” for remez (רֶמֵז)—the allegorical sense; the “D” for derash (דֵּרַשׁ)—the homiletical sense; and the “S” for sod (סוֹד)—the intent of the divine author (p. 30). The biblical text is then arranged in the form of a fourfold Gospel reminiscent of Tatian’s Diatessaron, with the commentary categorized by the letters explained above.Before arriving at the commentary proper, DelHousaye spends the first 126 pages explaining the methodology of the book, the historical development of its devotional approach, and a summarized history of the Gospels—including their reception in history, alternative arrangements, and competing Gospel texts within the first 300 years of the church. This introduction is a vital part of this commentary, as most Western readers will be wholly unfamiliar with the approach utilized or how to appropriate it. The author should be commended for his desire to reintroduce popular medieval concepts such as lectio divina into the Protestant reading of Scripture and present a work that is both academically challenging and spiritually enriching. For the reader interested in medieval spirituality, the bibliography contained within this introduction alone will be an invaluable resource for further study. While this work does not rest comfortably in the genre of biblical commentary that most are accustomed, DelHousaye encourages the reader to approach the text with spiritual preparation in order to allow the devotional content to permeate. Though this methodology may be uncomfortable for scholastics as well as lay Protestants, the author should again be commended for making the purpose of the text absolutely clear at the outset.Where this book succeeds is in its valiant attempt to summarize an often-overlooked era of Christian spirituality and synthesize it with modern academic Gospel studies. Its acknowledgment of the status quaestionis of the Synoptic Problem, as well as the historical-critical breakthroughs in Gospel research, open the door for the academic discussion without taking the forefront. Alternatively, this commentary seeks to demonstrate that modern academic discourse and medieval mystagogy can cohabitate. While not all commentary sections incorporate every aspect of the PaRDeS approach illustrated in the introduction, most attempt to close on a devotional thought designed for later reflection, and while this may be out of place for its peers, the devotional approach of this work presents the academic reader with something often overlooked: opportunity for introspection and internalization of the biblical text.While there is much to be lauded over an intrepid endeavour such as this, there are also infelicities that distract from the overall book. The introduction itself not without purpose, yet one wonders if it is necessary to include in a commentary on the canonical Gospels a lengthy discussion of apocryphal and heretical Gospels and Muslim literature. While worthy subjects of study in their own right, this diverts from the text in hand. Additionally, the author has chosen to include his own English interpretations of the Greek text—a common approach in most academic commentaries—resulting in several awkward readings of familiar texts and the adjusting of the Greek in uncommon ways.1 Last, the authors insistence that the Gospel of John was composed prior to Luke is at odds with most contemporary scholarship and is reasserted throughout the text without suitable substantiation.In spite of these minor disputations, it can be said that this work will stand out among its peers, given its unparalleled approach within the Protestant tradition. DelHousaye should be commended for his tireless efforts to gather such an immense collection of resources and his willingness to relate a work that is a deeply personal expression of his own spiritual formation. There is certainly a need in the academy for more of this within contexts dominated by intellectualism.

Pricked Hearts and Penitent Tears: Embodying Protestant Repentance in Robert Southwell's Saint Peter's Complaint (1595)

Among Protestant readers, Jesuit Robert Southwell's Saint Peter's Complaint was a surprise best seller. First published in 1595, one month after his martyrdom, South-well's poem underwent thirteen editions by 1634. This essay examines the grounds of that popularity by exploring how Southwell's portrayal of Peter's repentance might have appealed to readers across confessional boundaries. It contends that Southwell's familiarity with the landscape of affective piety in post-Reformation England allowed him to make a self-conscious entreaty to Elizabethan readers caught in the crossfire of reform. It first examines the affective contours of repentance depicted in Protestant devotional works, many of which were rooted in Calvinist movements of sorrowfulness, mortification of the flesh, and vivification of the spirit. Southwell, it argues, distends these movements in Saint Peter's Complaint in a way that echoes not only Protestant conceptions of penitent weeping but also Protestant pastoral practices. This cross-confessional deployment of religious affects highlights the overlapping practices of piety within Protestant and Catholic devotion. It also intimates the methods by which South-well might have utilized devotional poetry in service to evangelism.

Is There a Kenosis in This Text? Rereading Philippians 3:2–11 in the Light of the Christ Hymn

Does Paul recount his own kenosis in Phil 3:2–11? This proposal has been affirmed and refined by quite a few scholarly voices in recent decades. Paul, it is argued, willingly and humbly gives up his Jewish privileges and embraces suffering and death in conformity to Christ; in the same way, Christ willingly “emptied himself” of his divine privileges and obediently embraced suffering and death. Paul puts himself forward as a model to be emulated by the Philippians, embodying the prototype of an ethos that is pleasing to God and that was revealed and established in Christ. This reading offers an alternative to the traditional Protestant reading that sees Phil 3:2–11 as Paul’s rejection of Jewish work-righteousness. In this article I will first briefly sketch out the proposed parallels between the Christ hymn in Phil 2 and Paul’s autobiographical account in chapter 3. I will then argue that, despite its attractive aspects, the kenosis reading of chapter 3 is resisted by the flow of the text itself. I will then suggest that there is both a gesture of violent renunciation and a gesture of willing conformity in the passage. These aspects are closely connected but must not be read along a seamless trajectory. Together they describe the destructive and constructive moment of Christian identity in the perspective of soteriology. I argue for a reading that leads beyond equally problematic notions of Jewish work-righteousness and kenotic notions of Jewish national pride.

Is There a Kenosis in This Text?: Rereading Philippians 3:2–11 in the Light of the Christ Hymn

Does Paul recount his own kenosis in Phil 3:2–11? This proposal has been affirmed and refined by quite a few scholarly voices in recent decades. Paul, it is argued, willingly and humbly gives up his Jewish privileges and embraces suffering and death in conformity to Christ; in the same way, Christ willingly "emptied himself" of his divine privileges and obediently embraced suffering and death. Paul puts himself forward as a model to be emulated by the Philippians, embodying the prototype of an ethos that is pleasing to God and that was revealed and established in Christ. This reading offers an alternative to the traditional Protestant reading that sees Phil 3:2–11 as Paul's rejection of Jewish work-righteousness. In this article I will first briefly sketch out the proposed parallels between the Christ hymn in Phil 2 and Paul's autobiographical account in chapter 3. I will then argue that, despite its attractive aspects, the kenosis reading of chapter 3 is resisted by the flow of the text itself. I will then suggest that there is both a gesture of violent renunciation and a gesture of willing conformity in the passage. These aspects are closely connected but must not be read along a seamless trajectory. Together they describe the destructive and constructive moment of Christian identity in the perspective of soteriology. I argue for a reading that leads beyond equally problematic notions of Jewish workrighteousness and kenotic notions of Jewish national pride.

“In Ten Years There Is an Increase of 450 Priests of Antichrist”: Quantification, Anti-Catholicism, and theBulwark

AbstractThe Scottish Reformation Society'sThe Bulwark(1851–present) was the Victorian era's most influential anti-Catholic periodical, a reputation based on its self-proclaimed devotion to “facts.” Attempting to counter a unified Catholic Church in a period of pronounced intra-Protestant conflict, theBulwarksought to root religious controversy in the increasingly popular phenomenon of statistical inquiry. TheBulwark’s obsession with collating and interpreting religion-based numbers was unique not for its existence, but for its sheer extent. It thus exemplifies how “official” statistical documents, methods, and conclusions were translated into the concerns of popular religious culture. In particular, theBulwark’s ongoing surveys of Catholicism's “progress,” intended to frighten Protestants into action, weaponized statistical discourses that were used in more measured fashion elsewhere. To that end, theBulwarkargued that only Protestants had the right mindset to put religious statistics into a proper explanatory framework, whereas Catholics manipulated their own data for dishonest rhetorical purposes that theBulwarkdisclaimed. TheBulwark’s statistical turn, which bypassed the sectarianism of its theological articles, positioned it as a voice uniting the interests of all Protestant readers against Parliament's dangerously tolerant brand of liberalism.

The Victorian Novel of Adulthood: Plot and Purgatory in Fictions of Maturity by Rebecca Rainof

Reviewed by: The Victorian Novel of Adulthood: Plot and Purgatory in Fictions of Maturity by Rebecca Rainof David P. Deavel (bio) The Victorian Novel of Adulthood: Plot and Purgatory in Fictions of Maturity. By Rebecca Rainof. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2015. Pages xii + 252. Hardcover: $59.95. ISBN: 9780821421789. A common complaint of modern moviegoers is that the business is now oriented only to telling the stories of the young. It is useful to remember that this tendency is neither uniquely contemporary nor limited to the medium of film. With reference to Middlemarch, Virginia Woolf praised George Eliot as a writer of "English novels for grown-up people." The bildungsroman, or coming of age story, was prevalent—in Woolf's view, overly prevalent—in English novels in the nineteenth century. Literary critics have accordingly treated the English novel too exclusively through the lens of that genre of fiction, having difficulty accounting for the plots of those novels that dealt with what Henry James called "the country of the general lost freshness": middle age and beyond. Eliot herself said of such stories that she always put the plot "inside," leading many critics to judge that her stories' plots were "imponderable" or unable to be tracked. The Victorian Novel of Adulthood, Rebecca Rainof's study, part of Ohio University Press's new Series in Victorian Studies, aims at accounting for these stories in a way that makes sense of their plots as something other than simply coming-of-age stories set among the no longer young. However, her use of the term "novels of arrested development" might lead one to think that they are really a species of "belated bildungsroman" (as some critics described Henry James's The Ambassadors), rather than the accounts of adults who are still growing in an understandable pattern after having already "grown up." What Rainof argues is that the pattern of the plots follows the model of Newman's understanding of purgatory described in Tract 90 as "a time of maturing that fruit of grace, but partly formed in them in this life,—a schooltime of contemplation" and illustrated in "The Dream of Gerontius." Rainof's first chapter examines "Gerontius" in detail, showing how that work used interspersed lines from the Roman liturgy, and soliloquies by Gerontius broken by apostrophe ("Jesu, have mercy! Mary, pray for me!") to "provid[e] lyric suspension while still contributing to the overall narrative of a man journeying to the afterlife" (46). In other words, Newman's form and content brilliantly portrayed the process of purgation as somehow temporal but also disconnected from any measurable earthly time—a "seemingly timeless duration" (48). While many [End Page 85] Protestant readers, including Kingsley, thought they could detach the liturgical language and the Catholic doctrine from the story itself, Rainof argues that Newman's craft in the poem won over much of his Anglican audience in a way that Tract 90 never could, citing historical accounts of the gradual embrace of a doctrine of purgatory that grew as many Anglicans dealt with the widespread loss of young lives during World War I. But the main literary effect of Newman's vision of purgatory as an interior and somewhat placid development is that—in novels by Eliot (chapter 2), James (chapter 3), Virginia Woolf (chapter 4), and many other Victorian authors noted along the way—it provides the model for depiction of midlife development and revelation for the main characters. This would not have been possible, she thinks, based solely on the "Florentine poet's strenuous and clearly plotted trip up Mount Purgatory" (17). One of the difficulties in this broader argument of the book is that the author provides little historical evidence that the authors she chooses were actually reading "Gerontius." George Eliot, for instance, takes her key quotations from the Purgatorio itself, and the historical evidence is that this is what consciously was on her mind as she depicted the life journey of Gwendolen in Daniel Deronda. The same goes for Woolf's The Years where Eleanor's reading of the Purgatorio in the novel guides her much as Virgil guided Dante in the poem. The historical evidence is that Woolf was indeed...

Dante Politico: An Introduction

Dante Politico: An Introduction Dennis Looney Writing around 1436, Leonardo Bruni pointedly took Giovanni Boccaccio to task for his romanticized biography of Dante, the first substantial study of the poet’s life,1 composed sometime after 1351. In his Life of Dante (1436), Bruni criticized Boccaccio for writing a work of fiction instead of providing an accurate historical account of Dante’s life: Mi parve che il nostro Boccaccio…così scrivesse la vita e i costumi di tanto sublime poeta, come se a scrivere avesse il Filocolo, o il Filostrato, o la Fiammetta.… Io adunque mi posi in cuore, per mio spasso, scriver di nuovo la vita di Dante con maggior notizia delle cose estimabili. Né questo faccio per derogare al Boccaccio, ma perché lo scriver mio sia quasi in supplimento allo scriver di lui. [I thought that our Boccaccio…had nonetheless written the life and customs of the sublime poet as if he had been writing the Filocolo, or the Filostrato, or the Fiammetta.…I then proposed for my recreation to write the life of Dante anew, with greater notice given to more valuable things. I do not do this to detract from Boccaccio, but in order as it were that my writings should supplement his.]2 The Florentine humanist and chancellor took it upon himself to balance Boccaccio’s version by emphasizing Dante’s political activity—he calls this emphasis a focus on “delle cose estimabili [more valuable things]”—in the period leading up to and just after his exile from Florence. To validate his approach, Bruni points to the archival record, informing his reader that he has seen one of Dante’s letters (83) and other documents to which Dante refers (88). The glimpse into the archive provides Bruni with the authority necessary [End Page 1] to present his new and improved reading of Dante’s life, a biography that includes political action and writing that was consistently attentive to the machinations of politics. Bruni’s hyperbolic correction marks the start of the long career of Dante politico, the ongoing reception of Dante as a political thinker and actor, and the reception of the vast array of politicized interpretations of Dante’s life and works over the centuries. As Bruni continues his biography, he emphasizes “la cacciata di Dante, e per che cagione e per che modo [the cause and circumstances of Dante’s banishment]” and he dwells on the poet’s life in exile, “delli affanni suoi publici [his public troubles],” before finally shifting to talk about Dante’s art.3 The focus is first and foremost on Dante as a political actor. Bruni and other humanists of the 1430s and 1440s—Filelfo, Palmieri, and Alberti, among them—began to use Dante to promote political and civic causes linked to Florence, thus overcoming the reservations about his work articulated first by Petrarch and sharpened by intervening humanists such as Niccolò Niccoli. This set the stage for the full-scale revalorization of Dante as a linguistic and civic model in Medicean Florence at the end of the fifteenth century, as seen in the contributions of Lorenzo, Poliziano, Ficino, and Cristoforo Landino. Landino’s chauvinistic commentary on the Commedia (1481) reinterprets the poem in a contemporary civic setting that emphasizes the classical underpinning of the vernacular literary culture embodied in it, and in so doing subtly recuperates Dante for Medicean political culture. Even if the Florentines could not literally bring home the bones of their poet who had died in exile in Ravenna in 1321—as they repeatedly tried to do—they could claim him through their carefully orchestrated interpretive work. Less subtle were the Protestant readings of Dante’s works between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries that cast him as a reformer on a par with none less than Martin Luther. Dante’s political career and exile, his criticism of the papacy for its extensive involvement in foreign policy, his steadfast support of the Holy Roman Emperor, and his belief that the two powers, spiritual and temporal, should be separated and distinct, made him into an unexpected symbol of liberty and gave him currency as a radical political thinker among English Protestants as early as the...

Anti-clericalism in translation: Anti-Catholic ideology in the English translation of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Clelia o il governo dei preti (1870)

Giuseppe Garibaldi’s novel Clelia o il governo dei preti (1870) is an exposition of the Italian hero’s strong anti-clerical sentiments in the form of a historical novel. Even before its publication in Italian, the novel was translated and published in England and the United States. The study examines how the source text was appropriated by the anonymous translator to suit the ideological agenda of radical anti-Catholic Protestant groups in Britain and America in the second half of the 19th century. The translation is considered within the historical context of Garibaldi’s celebrity status, the fortunes of his memoirs and literary works and the anti-Catholic campaigns in Britain and the US in the 19th century. The translation strategies adopted by the translator to rewrite Garibaldi’s novel according to the propaganda requirements and the sensibilities of Anglo-American Protestant readers particularly hostile to the Catholic Church are analyzed from the perspective of Lefevere’s view of translation as rewriting and its relationship with ideology, as well as Venuti’s identification of domestication as an ideological translation strategy.

Biblical Women in Early Modern Literary Culture 1550–1700

Introduction: Discovering biblical women in Early Modern literary culture - Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher PART I: Women and feminine archetypes of the Old Testament 2. Overview: reading Old Testament women in Early Modern England, 1550-1700 - Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher 3. A 'Paraditian Creature': Eve and her unsuspecting garden in seventeenth century literature - Elizabeth Hodgson 4. Christian liberty and female rule: exegesis and political controversy in the 1550s - Adrian Streete 5. Wives, fears and foreskins: Early Modern reproach of Zipporah and Michal - Michele Osherow 6. The politics of female supplication in the Book of Esther - Alison Thorne 7. Gender and the inculcation of virtue: the Book of Proverbs in action - Danielle Clarke PART II: Women and feminine archetypes of the New Testament 8. Overview: reading New Testament women in Early Modern England, 1550-1700 - Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher 9. Christ's tears and maternal cannibalism in Early Modern London - Beatrice Groves 10. Mary of recusants and reform: literary memory and defloration - Thomas Rist 11. Stabat mater dolorosa: imagining Mary's grief at the cross - Laura Gallagher 12. St Helena of Britain in the land of the Magdalene: all's well that ends well - Lisa Hopkins 13. Imagining the enemy: protestant readings of the whore of babylon in Early Modern England, c.1580-1625 - Victoria Brownlee 14. Afterword - Dympna Callaghan Index

The Protestant Reading Ethic and Variation in Its Effects

Max Weber's thesis that a “Protestant ethic” in a subset of Protestant sects created a “spirit of capitalism” is often interpreted as an explanation for the increase in economic growth in the Protestant parts of the West before and during the industrial revolution. One alternative pathway through which Protestantism might have contributed to high economic performance is that it was Protestantism's promotion of literacy that led to higher economic growth and not behavioral changes due to a Protestant ethic as suggested by Weber. To evaluate the “Protestant reading ethic” thesis, this study examines historical events for the period from 1500 up to the 1800s in nine countries. The study also explores available cross‐national quantitative data on economic development and literacy for the same period. The qualitative and quantitative evidence supports the overall thesis that Protestantism promoted literacy and rises in literacy likely contributed to the economic development. The evidence also suggests that the impact of Protestantism on literacy varied depending on what actions were taken by Protestant states and Protestant national churches to promote literacy.

O jornal Imprensa Evangélica e a formação do leitor protestante brasileiro no século XIX

This article has as corpus the first Protestant newspaper published in Brazil - Imprensa Evangelica - published fortnightly, from 1864 to 1892, in Rio de Janeiro by missionaries of the Presbyterian Church USA along with the first Brazilian followers of the movement. The goal is to detect, from the analysis of selected texts, the formation strategies of Protestant readers in national context. To do so, it investigates literary genres present in the newspaper, its contents and interdiscourses connected to both the North American Protestantism as the Brazilian Catholicism. The relevance of the study is due to the fact the newspaper be the first Protestant publication produced in Brazil to circulate throughout the national territory. The theoretical framework used is the History of Book and Reading, Comparative Literature and History of Brazilian Protestantism.

The Rise of Liberal Religion: Book Culture and American Spirituality in the Twentieth Century. By Matthew S. Hedstrom. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. x + 278 pp. $55.00 cloth.

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The Rise of Liberal Religion: Book Culture and American Spirituality in Twentieth Century . By Matthew S. Hedstrom . New York : Oxford University Press , 2013. x + 278 pp. $55.00 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesMatthew Hedstrom contributes to a growing body of recent work on American religious liberalism with his analysis of American Protestant book culture from 1920s through end of World War II. Focusing upon a range of literary campaigns conducted by liberal Protestant book clubs, and joined during World War II by joint publishing campaigns with Catholics and Jews, Hedstrom shows how an emerging book culture crafted a distinctive form of American popular religion that was geared toward a white, middle-class cultural center (what author refers to as middlebrow culture). He shows how desire of liberal Protestant leaders to forge a concerted campaign to promote religious literacy through books opened readers to a wider embrace of religious pluralism by middle of twentieth century. Increasingly this pluralism was defined not in terms of theological doctrines and beliefs. Rather the most critical of these new religious developments for twentieth-century religious liberalism were a renewed and transformed emphasis on mystical practice and experience, healing ministry known as mind cure, and rise of modern psychology (15). Ultimately, this religious quest through books opened new vistas of spirituality in latter half of twentieth century.An assistant professor of American Studies at University of Virginia, Hedstrom builds upon a spate of recent scholarship arguing that liberal Protestants were far more influential in shaping religious and cultural worldviews than often given credit. Building upon arguments from Leigh Eric Schmidt's Restless Souls (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2005), Hedstrom follows religious liberalism's impact beyond parameters of churches and denominations. Beginning with an examination of religious book clubs in 1920s, he discusses how these liberal Protestant endeavors lived in tension between a wish to preserve an older Protestant culture of privilege and a desire to capitalize upon a growing consumer demand for reading. Influenced by insights on religious experience articulated in early twentieth century by figures such as Rufus Jones and William James, emerging movement of book publishers promoted religious literacy while increasingly exposing Americans to intellectual currents that moved beyond exclusive domain of American Protestantism. While these initial efforts in 1920s and 1930s were often rooted in a hope to promote a vision of America as a Protestant Christian nation, increasingly these book clubs exposed readers to a wide range of religious traditions. This pattern is especially evident in author's discussion of Eugene Exman. The longtime religion editor at Harper & Brothers (including serving as Harry Emerson Fosdick's editor), Exman's expanding interest in Eastern religion helped foster a spate of works that both promoted core values of liberal Protestantism while also fostering a growing interfaith consciousness.By time of World War II, these earlier Protestant reading clubs joined forces with Catholic and Jewish publishing interests to promote reading in both American military and on home front. These wartime ecumenical-interfaith campaigns helped forge a distinctive vision of American religion (what would become commonly known in 1950s as the Judeo-Christian heritage). …

Diseased Bodies, Defiled Souls: Corporality and Religious Difference in the Reformation*

AbstractThis study examines Catholic and Reformed Protestant readings of the body among pastoral and polemical writers from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth century. Both Catholics and Calvinists utilized bodily corruption as a motif to promote piety and unmask religious difference in a period of intense confessional conflict. This corporal hermeneutic coincided with a pivotal moment in the history of medicine, in which a widespread enthusiasm for anatomy mixed uneasily with time-honored notions of Galenic physiology until the ascendancy of a mechanical Cartesian outlook in the late 1600s. In this intellectual milieu, Catholic and Calvinist pastoral treatises generally relied on similar corporal features to signify a sinful state, but polemical texts made important distinctions about the effects of religious difference. Catholic writers identified the heretical body as the site of humoral contamination, whereas Calvinist theorists regarded the idolatrous body as the locus of inordinate sensuality.