Reform Tradition Research Articles

The occupation of Ottawa: Canadian rupture, American rapture or Reformation tradition?

The key practices of the Freedom Convoy/trucker protest – prominently, truck-borne pilgrimage and truck-based occupation, but also ‘hot-tubbing’ – as well as the discursive practices of observers – notably, intimations of moral depravity, including child abuse – bear a remarkable resemblance to the behaviours often associated with the ‘popular’ or ‘radical’ protests of evangelicals in the 16th-century European Reformation. This suggests that the presence of diverse aspects of Christian evangelicalism in the Freedom Convoy (placards, rhetorical performances, etc.), generally considered exotic by those members of the press who did not just ignore them altogether, was deeply rooted in several histories of European immigration and settlement in Canada. This article argues that the Freedom Convoy, far from representing a rupture in Canadian political culture (possibly due to an invasive influence of contemporary American political culture), demonstrates long cultural continuities mediated by religious communities firmly established in Canada. Several Canadian evangelical subcultures present at the Freedom Convoy actively maintain a strong sense of European Reformation heritage, apparently along with what J. C. Scott once termed ‘hidden transcripts’ for evangelical political protest.

Hamka and the Rise of Kaum Muda (the Modernist) in Indonesia

The paper aims to study the historical background of the Islamic reform movement in West Sumatra with particular reference to the idea of Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah or his pseudonym Hamka (1908-1981). His religious ideal was instrumental in driving the new consciousness and unprecedented religious struggle that erupted in the late 20th century in the Malay Archipelago, which reflected the force of modern ideas of Shaykh Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905) that had brought decisive and greatest influence in the region. The reform movement he inaugurated was carried out by Kaum Muda (the young faction) in the Malay Archipelago, who disseminated his dynamics ideas and aspirations through journals and newspapers such as Al-Imam, Al-Munir, and Saudara. One of the leading figures and pioneers in the struggle of Kaum Muda was Haji Rasul dan Kiyai Ahmad Dahlan, whose legacy was continued by Hamka, who was hailed as the foremost advocate of Abduh’s reformist ideas through his influential writing and activity. To highlight this significant work and idealism, this research presents and analyzes Hamka’s struggle to lead this unprecedented religious movement for reform (islah) and renewal (tajdid) in the Malay world. This research aims to develop his legacy and monumental contribution to the history and tradition of reform in the Malay world.

Mary Queen of Scots. The first biography. With the life and times of its author, George Con. By Ronald Santangeli. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 240; Texts and Sources, 14.) Pp. xviii + 442 incl. frontispiece and 10 colour figs. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €129. 978 90 04 52940 3; 1573 4188

Mary Queen of Scots. The first biography. With the life and times of its author, George Con. By Ronald Santangeli. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 240; Texts and Sources, 14.) Pp. xviii + 442 incl. frontispiece and 10 colour figs. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €129. 978 90 04 52940 3; 1573 4188

Searching for compromise? Interreligious dialogue, agreements, and toleration in 16th–18th century eastern Europe. Edited by Maciej Ptaszyński and Kazimierz Bem. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 235.) Pp. xiv + 410 incl. 2 colour ills, 6 tables and 1 colour map. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €139. 978 90 04 44640 3; 1573 4188

Searching for compromise? Interreligious dialogue, agreements, and toleration in 16th–18th century eastern Europe. Edited by Maciej Ptaszyński and Kazimierz Bem. (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 235.) Pp. xiv + 410 incl. 2 colour ills, 6 tables and 1 colour map. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €139. 978 90 04 44640 3; 1573 4188

Saints and shrines as ‘contested heritage’ and the case of Norwich Cathedral

ABSTRACT ‘Contested heritage’ and ‘cancel culture’ have specific meanings and points of reference in our culture today, but these are by no means new phenomena in the life of cathedrals. At the time of the Reformation and the Civil War, all evidence of traditional Catholic culture was considered fair game for iconoclasts, who systematically destroyed saints’ shrines and tombs with their relics. In recent years, in association with the revival of the practice of pilgrimage and in unstated rejection of Reformation tradition, shrines of saints in many cathedrals have been restored, some including relics. It is unsurprising that saints and their shrines can be controversial, since saints themselves are ‘signs of contradiction’, those whose lives lived according to the standards of the kingdom of heaven challenge the values of earthly kingdoms and cultures. Norwich Cathedral is unusual among the ancient cathedrals of England in never having had a great saint enshrined within it. This study will consider the cases of two figures locally revered as martyrs, William of Norwich and Edith Cavell, whose lives and witness have been causes of international controversy and yet who still merit commemoration by Christians today.

Jan Bavinck’s (1826-1909) Reformed Piety: Experiential and Holistic

Jan Bavinck’s (1826-1909) Reformed Piety: Experiential and Holistic

ARMINIUS AND THE REFORMED TRADITION: Grace and the Doctrine of Salvation

Review

Guiding Muslim Women in the University: The Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria Women’s Programmes in Northern Nigeria

ABSTRACT This article discusses how the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) shapes the way of life of Muslim women in northern Nigeria’s higher educational institutions. The MSSN expects Muslim women to be symbols of piety, home builders and career professionals, and, in line with these objectives, it promotes an Islamic reform that emphasises Western education and the embodiment of prophetic traditions. Many platforms, such as the Sisters’ Circle and Marriage Guidance and Counselling (MAGACO), are used by the MSSN to guide the women on how to achieve this tradition of reform. Through these platforms, the women are engaged on a variety of subjects, such as giving support to acquire Western education, learning the prophetic traditions, and dealing with marital concerns and societal problems that affect their gender. I argue that these platforms enable Muslim women to actively participate in public life and deal with the problems they face in education, religion and marriage. This is demonstrated in their employment in many professional careers, and their ability to stimulate changes, including contesting the notion of women’s education, the women-centred reform orientation of the MSSN, and the government policy on veiling in public schools.

Rita Banerjee. India in Early Modern English Travel Writings: Protestantism, Enlightenment, and Toleration. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2021. $167.00 (cloth).

Rita Banerjee. India in Early Modern English Travel Writings: Protestantism, Enlightenment, and Toleration. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2021. $167.00 (cloth).

The Connection between Cavour and Calvinism

In the perennial dilemma over the relationship between church and state, few eras were as crucial as the nineteenth century and the rise of nation-states. Italy with the Risorgimento in many ways paralleled similar struggles that were going on within the broader European context after the Spring of Nations of 1848. I argue that the Calvinist view of civil government, held by the Swiss Reformed tradition at the time of Alexandre Vinet, was foundational to the separatist position of the first Italian prime minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, during the time of the Italian Risorgimento. Through Cavour, Vinet’s separatism reverberated beyond Protestantism into the broader political Italian context of the day. While the relationship between church and state experienced many changes and even deterioration up to the time of the European revolutions, the contextual environment of the nineteenth century remains particularly significant in tracing a possible connection between Vinet’s principle of a “free church in a free state” and its Italian expression through the key political figure of Cavour.

Reprint: The Turn Once Again Toward Practice-Based Teacher Education

Current work to identify the core teaching practices that should be included in teacher education curriculum is a part of a long-standing tradition of reform in American teacher education. This article situates the proposals of Hiebert and Morris and the contemporary work to which it is linked within this historical tradition and identifies several issues that need to be addressed by this current work. These include the task of developing a system that unlike performance-based systems in the past is evidence-based, manageable, and sustainable, and that does not ignore important aspects of good teaching.

Nicolaus Mameranus: Poetry and Politics at the Court of Mary Tudor. By Matthew Tibble. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 220. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2000. Xii + 389pp. €157 cloth.

Nicolaus Mameranus: Poetry and Politics at the Court of Mary Tudor. By Matthew Tibble. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 220. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2000. Xii + 389pp. €157 cloth.

The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond, Volume 4: Resistance and Reform. Kevin Ingram, ed. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 225; Converso and Morisco Studies 4. Leiden: Brill, 2021. viii + 284 pp. $155.

The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond, Volume 4: Resistance and Reform. Kevin Ingram, ed. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions 225; Converso and Morisco Studies 4. Leiden: Brill, 2021. viii + 284 pp. $155.

The Identities of Catherine de’ Medic. By Susan Broomhall. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 228. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2021. xiv + 394 pp. €157.00/$189.00 hardback.

The Identities of Catherine de’ Medic. By Susan Broomhall. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, 228. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2021. xiv + 394 pp. €157.00/$189.00 hardback. - Volume 91 Issue 4

Tradition and traditions: From a Model of the Church to a Model of Society – A Response to Challenges in the Black Sea Region

It is a common perception that some of the most conservative institutions in the world are the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. As some say: In 2.000 years, the Church has not changed anything. On the one hand, the statement is true as regards the Tradition of the Church, that is, all that was handed on by the Apostles and contributes toward the holiness of life and increase in faith of the peoples of God (Dei Verbum 8). On the other hand, there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down (Dei Verbum 8). In other words, the Church remains the same as regards her essence (this is preserved by Tradition), while she needs to change as regards her historical forms of life (these are traditions). This conference will show the distinction between Tradition and traditions according to Yves Congar, one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century. His thesis is that the Church must preserve Tradition and reform traditions. To accomplish this goal, that is a true reform within Church without schisms, Congar proposes four conditions for an authentic reform. This conference claims that this model of reform in the Church can be transferred to the present societies in the Black Sea Region. Mutatis mutandis, the four conditions of true reform are applicable to modern societies. Thus, distinguishing between Tradition and traditions, each society can preserve what is essential to its’ own identity and ethos, while accepting the changes suggested by the present and future situations of life

Keeping Faith with Literature

Keeping Faith with Literature

Silke Muylaert. Shaping the Stranger Churches: Migrants in England and the Troubles in the Netherlands, 1547–1585. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2021. Pp. 268. $119.00 (cloth).

Silke Muylaert. Shaping the Stranger Churches: Migrants in England and the Troubles in the Netherlands, 1547–1585. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2021. Pp. 268. $119.00 (cloth). - Volume 61 Issue 3

칼뱅 신학에 나타난 신학의 사회포용에 관한 연구

This present study explores theology of John Calvin’s social engagement in terms of its social inclusivism. Historically, Calvinism has been known as developed strict reformed tradition which led its relation to the society in dualistic conflict. However, John Calvin’s Geneva Reform clearly showed that his reformation has developed in the idea of mutual relation between the Church and the Society. Calvin underscored the Christian consecration of the Church, and socially practiced the embrace of gospel in order to prevent any form of discrimination and prejudice. Calvin’s inclusive dualism served as an outstanding theological reflection that shows what kind of attitude Calvinism should take toward society. The distinctive of Calvin’s theology has been developed as more contemporary Reformed theology through the works of Abraham Kuyper. In his book “Lectures on Calvinism”(1898), he provided the new value of Calvinism which can be identified as a system of holistic human life. It offered the social inclusion of theology that helps to reorganize historical Calvinism in order to meet the demands of the future era.

Free Markets and Public Interests in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Comparative Analysis of Catholic and Reformational Critiques of Neoliberal Thought

The rise of liberal market economies, propagated by neoliberal free market thought, has created a vacant responsibility for public interests in the market order of society. This development has been critiqued by Catholic social teaching (CST), forcefully arguing that governments and businesses should be directed to the common good. In this debate, no attention has yet been given to the Reformational tradition and its principle of sphere sovereignty, which provides guidelines on the responsibilities of governments and companies for the public interest of society. This article analyzes the differences and similarities between CST and the Reformational philosophy in their critiques of the neoliberal free market perspective of Hayek. We apply the three perspectives to the case of orphan drugs in the pharmaceutical industry and show that CST and the Reformational philosophy offer valuable insights in correction to Hayek’s views on the responsibilities of governments and companies for public health interests.

Leading groups: public sector reform with Chinese characteristics in a post-NPM era

In recent decades, the emerging post-New Public Management (post-NPM) reform wave has introduced a variety of coordinative organizational forms, among them super-ministries and networks. In this study of Leading Groups (LGs), a form of network that characterizes China’s public sector reforms, an instrumental-structural and a cultural-value perspective are used to analyze the post-NPM features of the LG model, paying special attention to its Chinese characteristics. It reveals that LGs are in fact part of China’s public reform tradition and have been revived in the Xi era. They resemble post-NPM in that they are designed to strengthen integration and coordination, but they also show a great deal of cultural path-dependency. LG reform efforts are a central part of a broader Party-dominated network framework involving the recentralization of administrative power to the Party, which is typically Chinese.