Studies in Church History
3 total works
v. 45
The Church, the Afterlife and the Fate of the Soul
by Peter Clarke and Professor Tony Claydon
Published 21 May 2009
The impact of belief in the afterlife on the Church's history and evolution, and the manifold ways in which it has impacted on and been reflected in the lives, expectations, and aspirations of Christians across the centuries, is the central theme of this volume. By considering the whole chronological and geographic spread of the church's experience, these essays demonstrate the current excitement of scholarly study of the afterlife: and they frequentlyquestion such deeply held assumptions as the late development of purgatory in Christian thought, the divorce between the living and the dead in the western tradition after the sixteenth century, or the importance of post-death salvation in successful modern evangelism. PETER CLARKE is Lecturer in History at Southampton University; TONY CLAYDON is Professor of Early Modern History at Bangor University.
v. 46
The tension between faith and reason has marked Christian approaches to nature, and theologians since Augustine have sought to resolve this. In the wake of the Scientific Revolution the challenges to religious explanations of theworld increased dramatically, notably with the emergence of Darwin's theory of evolution. Science has often put Christianity on the defensive but also provoked theological reflection, especially on human stewardship of nature as man's impact on the environment has become more apparent. Christianity has long sought to learn from nature as a 'book', full of examples to illustrate religious teaching and signs of divine and saintly interventions in human history. Some Christians have even tried to live in harmony with nature in utopian communities. This volume bears witness to lively scholarly debate on these and other aspects of its theme, and covers a wide chronological, geographicaland thematic range stretching from missionary encounters with the New Worlds of Australia and Latin America to popular and learned responses towards nature in early modern Italy and Hungary.
PETER CLARKE is Reader of Medieval History at Southampton University; TONY CLAYDON is Professor of Early Modern History at Bangor University.
CONTRIBUTORS: A. Atherstone, M. Bentley, P. Biller, B. Bolton, C. Clark, S. Ditchfield, S. Foot, K. A. Francis, R. Gillespie, M. Gladwin, O. Gusakova, Tadhg Ó Hannrachain, R. G. Ingram, S. Knight, C. Kostick, G. Oppitz-Trotman, S. Parsons, A. Raffe, S. P. Rosenberg, T. Rowe, P. M. Scott, B. Sheils, M. Smith, A. Spicer, R. N. Swanson, E. Tingle, A. Walsham, P. White, J. Willis
PETER CLARKE is Reader of Medieval History at Southampton University; TONY CLAYDON is Professor of Early Modern History at Bangor University.
CONTRIBUTORS: A. Atherstone, M. Bentley, P. Biller, B. Bolton, C. Clark, S. Ditchfield, S. Foot, K. A. Francis, R. Gillespie, M. Gladwin, O. Gusakova, Tadhg Ó Hannrachain, R. G. Ingram, S. Knight, C. Kostick, G. Oppitz-Trotman, S. Parsons, A. Raffe, S. P. Rosenberg, T. Rowe, P. M. Scott, B. Sheils, M. Smith, A. Spicer, R. N. Swanson, E. Tingle, A. Walsham, P. White, J. Willis
v. 47
In most of its forms, Christianity has been a religion focused on the salvation of individuals. This has meant that its churches have questioned what sort of people, and which specific persons, are saved; and so have tried to describe the qualities of such 'saints'. The debates involved have ranged through the outward signs of salvation, whether saints can be identified in this life or after their deaths, whether their often extraordinary lives should serve as examples for a wider Christian public, and whether saints have a power that they can exercise on their own initiative or are owed a particular devotion.
This collection of essays provides a stimulating sample of recent historical research on Christianity's approach to these questions. It spans the earliest construction of personal sanctity in the Eastern and Western traditions, the 'golden age' of saintly cults in the medieval period, post-Reformation debates about the role of saints, and the meaning of canonization within a variety of churches in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It therefore provides insight into a key issue of Christian history which (as the later essays show) still has a huge influence on ecclesiastical practice and politics.
PETER CLARKE is Reader in Medieval History at Southampton University.
TONY CLAYDON is Professor of Early Modern History at BangorUniversity.
Contributors: ROBERT ANDREWS, CLYDE BINFIELD, FRANS CIAPPARA, AUDE DE MEZERAC-ZANETTI, SOPHIA DEBOICK, BERNARD HAMILTON, MARGARET HARVEY, JOY HAWKINS, COLIN HAYDON, JOSEPHINE LAFFIN, PAK-WAH LAI, OLIVER LOGAN, ANDREW LOUTH, ELENA MARTIN, MAUREEN MILLER, GESINE OPPITZ-TROTMAN, ARIANA PATEY, PATRICK PRESTON, RICHARD PRICE, SAM RICHES, SALVADOR RYAN, SARAH SCUTTS, ROWAN STRONG, KATHARINE SYKES, ALAN THACKER, ALEXIS TORRANCE, PETER TURNER, CHRISTINE WALSH, MICHAEL WALSH, CORDELIA WARR, MARTIN WELLINGS, CHRIS WILSON
This collection of essays provides a stimulating sample of recent historical research on Christianity's approach to these questions. It spans the earliest construction of personal sanctity in the Eastern and Western traditions, the 'golden age' of saintly cults in the medieval period, post-Reformation debates about the role of saints, and the meaning of canonization within a variety of churches in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It therefore provides insight into a key issue of Christian history which (as the later essays show) still has a huge influence on ecclesiastical practice and politics.
PETER CLARKE is Reader in Medieval History at Southampton University.
TONY CLAYDON is Professor of Early Modern History at BangorUniversity.
Contributors: ROBERT ANDREWS, CLYDE BINFIELD, FRANS CIAPPARA, AUDE DE MEZERAC-ZANETTI, SOPHIA DEBOICK, BERNARD HAMILTON, MARGARET HARVEY, JOY HAWKINS, COLIN HAYDON, JOSEPHINE LAFFIN, PAK-WAH LAI, OLIVER LOGAN, ANDREW LOUTH, ELENA MARTIN, MAUREEN MILLER, GESINE OPPITZ-TROTMAN, ARIANA PATEY, PATRICK PRESTON, RICHARD PRICE, SAM RICHES, SALVADOR RYAN, SARAH SCUTTS, ROWAN STRONG, KATHARINE SYKES, ALAN THACKER, ALEXIS TORRANCE, PETER TURNER, CHRISTINE WALSH, MICHAEL WALSH, CORDELIA WARR, MARTIN WELLINGS, CHRIS WILSON