Showing papers in "Church History in 2010"
TL;DR: The best aspect of this volume is its open struggle with its title term: "Catholic Enlightenment" as mentioned in this paper, which is the first to point out that the term is slippery and that distinctively Catholic thinkers were engaged in a multiplicity of negotiations with exuberant rationality, Baroque spirituality, political philosophies concerning centralization of power, and moral philosophies of varying degrees of laxity and rigor.
Abstract: (ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Brill's commitment to publishing a series of reference books and handbooks on the intellectual and religious life of Europe is to be praised, and this volume of heavily footnoted essays with extensive bibliographies will be particularly useful.The best aspect of this volume is its open struggle with its title term: "Catholic Enlightenment." Ulrich Lehner in his excellent introduction is the first to point out that the term is slippery. This volume of essays, he notes, is a companion not a manual . What the essays make clear in their own ways is that distinctively Catholic thinkers were engaged in a multiplicity of negotiations with exuberant rationality, Baroque spirituality, political philosophies concerning centralization of power, and moral philosophies of varying degrees of laxity and rigor. The essays emphasize the particular negotiations of individuals and religious orders. At the physical center of the book is Mario Rosa's depiction of the mediation skills of Pope Benedict XIV who was able to open spaces for Christian tradition and apologetics to be enriched by "the powerful flow of the new culture of Enlightenment" (227). However, most of the book is not about popes and papal pronouncements. Writing about Benito Jeronimo Feijoo in Spain, Andrea Smidt notes the pervasive issue for enlightened Catholics was to avoid the extremes of "blind belief and obstinate unbelief" (418). Tensions between the tendencies of Jansenists and Jesuits play a variety of roles in most of the essays. In France, Jeffrey Burson describes the psychological and cultural tensions between Jesuit optimism about moral progress and the more pessimistic social reformism of the Jansenist form of an "Augustinian Catholic Enlightenment" (65). Harm Klueting describes the inability of Austrian Jansenism to remain viable within the moderate Catholic Enlightenment as it was co-opted by politics and Protestantism after the Jesuits were repressed. In most of these essays the Jesuit and Jansenist relationship to centralized politics of different countries affects the way each promoted regional versions of enlightened Catholicism.Evident in all the essays is a Catholic eclecticism that undermines old reference-book traditions of hard categories and simple definitions. Jeffrey Burson, for example, writes of a "Jesuit Synthesis" that was "sculpted and refined in various forms by Claude Buffier and Rene-Joseph Tournemine" (79). This synthesis responded to radical statements in Spinoza and Descartes while adapting Malebranche and Descartes to Aquinas by way of Locke (79-80). This kind cut-and-paste thinking was usually regional and ephemeral. It responded to specific needs at specific times, usually supporting specific political and ecclesiastical situations. Andrea Smidt describes the predominance in Spain of a particular Spanish Jansenism, rooted in humanist, Erasmian, episcopalist, and Augustinian traditions peculiar to Spain. Michael Printy writes about rival Catholic enlightenments in the Holy Roman Empire that were not simply manifestations of anti-clerical or anti-religious ideas, but rather, "the culmination of several generations of pious renewal and revival" (173). …
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on a figure of the fourth-century bishop of Milan, who defined his own body in such a way that he was able to instantiate physically in dozens of living human bodies, at least two dead human bodies and thousands of angelic bodies, and four church buildings.
Abstract: The late ancient body is a historiographical problem. In the combined lights of feminist, Foucaultian, and post-Foucaultian methodologies, much recent scholarship on bodies in late antiquity has focused on bodies as sites on which power relations are enacted and as discourses through which ideologies are materialized. Contemporary concern with definitions and representations of the posthuman, however—for example, in medical technologies that expand the capacities of particular human bodies, in speculative pursuit of the limits of avatars, or in the technological pursuit of artificial intelligence or artificial life—seem both to underline the fundamental lability of the body, and to require a broadening of scholarly focus beyond the traditional visible boundaries of the human organism. At the same time, scholarship on the posthuman emphasizes contemporaneity and futurity to an extent that may seem to preclude engagement with the premodern. I would like to suggest here that doubt about the boundaries of human embodiment is a useful lens through which to reconsider some very traditional questions in the history of Christianity, and that we may begin to think of bodies in Christian premodernity in terms of what we might call their pre-humanity, that is, as fundamentally open to extension, transformation, and multiple instantiation. The figure on whom I focus is Ambrose, the fourth-century bishop of Milan, who, I argue, defined his own body in such a way that he was able to instantiate physically in dozens of living human bodies, at least two dead human bodies, thousands of angelic bodies, and four church buildings. Ambrose's dynamic conception of his episcopal body was formed within a complex political and theological situation, so questions concerning the political ideology of bodies remain very much at issue. I add to these questions a concern for premodern uncertainty about how to recognize a body, both when it is visible and, perhaps more importantly, when it is not.
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TL;DR: Fassler's The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts as discussed by the authors examines the process of how medieval people forged identities by constructing customized histories and makes a convincing argument that a neglected treasure trove of sources for this endeavor is the liturgy such as chant, which she calls "a sonic kaleidoscope of historical meanings" (65).
Abstract: (ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)That it is the Virgin and not the cathedral who headlines in Margot Fassler's The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts is a telling signal of the originality of this important new study. Rather than pivot around the monument, the preferred method of art and architectural historians, or the liturgical manuscripts, as one might expect from a music historian, Fassler tries to sketch for us how the "character" of the Virgin developed in the imaginations of the medieval people of Chartres, and how it inflected the decisions of those who built the cathedral and designed the liturgy, as well as the responses of their audiences. Fassler's enterprise is to examine the process of how medieval people forged identities by constructing customized histories.Throughout the book, Fassler makes a convincing argument that a neglected treasure trove of sources for this endeavor is the liturgy, such as chant, which she calls "a sonic kaleidoscope of historical meanings" (65). Few medievalists would contest that the liturgy played a central role in medieval societies. But our understanding of how it operated across interlocking cultural arenas is limited because we lack interdisciplinary interpretations that translate the often highly technical and discipline-specific studies by music historians and liturgists for medievalists in other fields. There is reason to be thankful, therefore, to music historians like Margot Fassler and Nancy van Deusen, among others, whose work goes some way toward closing the gap.Fassler reminds us of the extent to which worshippers conceived the Virgin as a potentially active participant in the complex geo-political events that shaped their lives. She divides her study into four roughly chronological parts. In Part 1, she reconstructs the foundational history of Chartres, the fearsome battles and fires, the psychological scars they left and the ideological salves that were applied. In the power vacuum that greeted the beginning of the eleventh century, for example, when Chartres lost its royal protectors and bishop designate, the sequence "Hac clara die" offered up a more reliable ruler, the fertile Virgin, who had the power to bring much longed for peace and whose eternal reign was not subject to the turmoil and loss of prestige brought about by the consanguineous, childless, and eventually annulled marriage of King Robert II and Berta of Chartres/Blois.The public veneration of Mary continued to evolve in conjunction with the needs of the community of Chartres. In part 2 of her study, Fassler demonstrates that it made especial sense for the Virgin's Chartrain personality to be expressed in the liturgy of advent. The advent liturgy, which heralded the lineage and the arrival of Christ the King, was a powerful tool with which to shape contemporary concerns about the legitimacy and authority of rulers, as well as the relationship between Christians and Jews. Fassler offers fine and detailed readings of the liturgical sources to show how Chartrain liturgists such as Fulbert emphasized the Virgin's role in advent in order to highlight the power that she exerted, or could exert, through her relic on behalf of the cathedral and town.When Fassler reaches the twelfth century in part 3, she begins to weave what is known about the circumstances surrounding the building of the twelfth-century church into her narrative, an operation that culminates in a liturgically sensitive reading of the sculpture and glass of the west facade in part 4. …
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TL;DR: Beverhout as discussed by the authors pointed out that the black men and women of Sierra Leone were not being afforded the equal treatment they had been promised by white masters in America, and made the explosive claim that "we have a wright to chuse men that we think proper to act for us in a reasnenble manner".
Abstract: Henry Beverhout looked out over the West African village of Freetown in 1792 with misgivings. From his own experience and from the complaints he received from other townspeople, he now recognized that the black men and women of Sierra Leone were not being afforded the equal treatment they had been promised. Exploited and discriminated against for most of their lives by white masters in America, these expatriates had arrived in West Africa determined to chart a new course for themselves. But the path to economic, civil, and religious freedom was littered with obstacles. They soon encountered problems with white Sierra Leone Company officials over low pay, high prices, and the slow pace at which land was apportioned to the new settlers. Just as important, the black emigres were dismayed by the company's system of justice, whose juries Beverhout said did not “haven aney of our own Culler in” them. Having absorbed the British and American legal traditions of trial by a jury of one's peers, he demanded that in any “trial thear should be a jurey of both white and black and all should be equal.” Going even further, he then made the explosive claim that “we have a wright to Chuse men that we think proper to act for us in a reasnenble manner.”
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TL;DR: In this article, Kallendorf has brought together both younger and more established scholars in the field to show the breadth and depth of that scholarship and to introduce graduate students or new scholars to the subject matter.
Abstract: (ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)The flourishing of mysticism in the Hispanic world attracted considerable attention during the early modern period and, in recent years, has been the subject of extensive study by scholars. In this new collection, Hilaire Kallendorf has brought together both younger and more established scholars in the field to show the breadth and depth of that scholarship. In the introduction, Kallendorf articulates a clear tension that pervades the collection. On the one hand, she explains how she hopes to "expand the mystical canon" (3). On the other hand, she wants to "introduce graduate students or new scholars" to the subject matter (3). As a result, the collection lacks continuity; however, some of the seventeen articles by scholars in Spanish literature, Religious Studies, History, and Music are better at achieving the first goal, while others succeed at the second.Although Kallendorf hopes to "expand the mystical canon," not surprisingly, many of the essays deal directly or indirectly with the most well known mystic of the period, Teresa of Avila. Her mystical writings and the scholarship on her works provide the framework for most of the scholarship. Some of the authors like Luce Lopez-Baralt, focus solely on one aspect of Teresa's work. However, many of the authors are clearly working to "expand the mystical canon" either by looking at lesser-known figures like Cecilia del Nacimiento and Juana de la Cruz or by taking very different perspectives on what constitutes mystical activity. In his essay on religious autobiography, Francisco Duran Lopez takes a very broad view of mystical activity, nearly equating all authors of spiritual autobiographies with mystics. Freddy Dominguez, in his study of Maria de la Visitacion, sees mystical activity as the source of authority for an otherwise problematic holy woman. In contrast, Glyn Redforth focuses on the limitations of mysticism, arguing in his essay on Luisa de Carvajalthat that "a mystic must want to be seen as such" (294). Still others expand the canon by taking different approaches to mysticism and mystical writings. Christina Lee considers Cervantes's use of mysticism in his novel The Trial of Persiles and Sigismunda and Tess Knight looks at the presence of music in mystical writings. Both Maria Mercedes Carrion's study of the use of mudejar elements and Maryrica Lottman's piece on the garden in Teresa's work focus on the relationship between mysticism and space. …
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TL;DR: Van Engen as mentioned in this paper presents a survey of urban life and institutional structures in the Low Countries, lay and clerical, during the “long” fifteenth century, providing some furtive glimpses of the ways in which the goals of contemplative monastics made their way out of the cloister and out into the streets.
Abstract: shift in terminology, as well as a shift in our understanding of the place of this movement in its day and time. This is also a very complete survey of urban life and institutional structures in the Low Countries, lay and clerical, during the “long” fifteenth century. To a lesser extent, this magisterial survey also plumbs the spiritual life of these men and women, providing some furtive glimpses of the ways in which the goals of contemplative monastics made their way out of the cloister and out into the streets. Written with advanced specialists in mind rather than neophytes, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life pays meticulous attention to detail. This may make it less attractive to non-specialists, or even some impatient specialists, but in the long run no one who subscribes to this journal should pass up this book. If nothing else—even for those who do not focus on this time period— it serves as a primer in the interweaving of social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history. So, while it may be as difficult to pigeonhole as the Modern-Day Devout themselves, Van Engen’s latest offering, much like all of his work, is a timely exemplar of religious history at its very best.
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TL;DR: The authors argued that a self-understanding of European Protestants inherited from the Reformation had to die in the 1740s in the process of giving birth to the rapidly spreading version of western Christianity that became known as evangelicalism.
Abstract: In a provocatively titled 2005 book, Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom wondered Is the Reformation Over? While not presuming to answer their query, the present essay argues that a self-understanding of European Protestants inherited from the Reformation had to die in the 1740s in the process of giving birth to the rapidly spreading version of western Christianity that became known as evangelicalism. Protestants, of both the radical and magisterial sort had cherished since the sixteenth century a sense of themselves as the true, ancient, and apostolic church. The Reformation, however, in its theological, as well as its socio-political and economic dimensions, had long “left its heirs no settled comprehensive system, only with many unresolved questions of principle and usage, not least in decisions relating to the body.”
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TL;DR: Zachman et al. as discussed by the authors provide a much needed corrective to Calvin's views concerning images, showing the deep importance of images in Calvin's theology and revealing the many tensions in his thought concerning divine manifestations and proclamations.
Abstract: images must be given by God alone and attached to God’s word means that Calvin’s images still remain overly “cerebral.” By this I mean that a “portrait” for Calvin is something painted mostly, if not exclusively, by words, even as the words use various images (see 292–93). Likewise, for Calvin the portrait that the words paint ultimately aim to direct the person to a spiritual reality seen through and beyond the material world. Furthermore, Zachman points to Calvin’s use of the idea of accommodation in his employment of images, but does not offer a wider analysis of how the tool of accommodation operates in Calvin’s theology. In the end, this is a substantial contribution to Calvin scholarship that offers a much needed corrective to Calvin’s views concerning images. It is a carefully researched work that not only rightly shows the deep importance of images in Calvin’s theology but also reveals the many tensions in Calvin’s thought concerning divine manifestations and proclamations.
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TL;DR: The significance of captives in the history of empire has come to the fore in several recent books and articles as discussed by the authors and Colley starts her intriguing study of this theme with the stories of two famous, if legendary, British captives, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver,explaining how each represents a different conception of empire: the former a shipwrecked ex-slave turned conqueror and colonizer; the latter an overseas adventurer who is captured, humiliated, and terrorized but ultimately transformed by the values of his captors into a critic of his own society.
Abstract: The significance of captives in the history of empire has come to the fore in several recent books and articles. Linda Colley starts her intriguing study of this theme with the stories of two famous, if legendary, British captives—Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver—explaining how each represents a different conception of empire: the former a shipwrecked ex-slave turned conqueror and colonizer; the latter an overseas adventurer who is captured, humiliated, and terrorized but ultimately transformed by the values of his captors into a critic of his own society. Far from the heroes of Defoe and Swift, female captives featured in conversion accounts on the east Roman frontiers represent another response to captivity in a very different imperial world—that of the Roman and Iranian empires of late antiquity. These protagonists neither came to dominate the kingdoms in which they were held nor assimilated the culture of their captors but maintained their identity, their customs, and their religion in captivity. Indeed, these captives went further still, actually transforming the peoples and governments under which they were held from their very positions of subordination.
TL;DR: On July 11, 1666, the new cathedral in the French colonial capital at Quebec was finally consecrated by the vicar apostolic of New France, Msgr. Francois de Laval as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: On July 11, 1666, the new cathedral in the French colonial capital at Quebec was finally consecrated by the vicar apostolic of New France, Msgr. Francois de Laval. Catherine de Saint-Augustin, a nursing sister who belonged to the Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, described the elaborate ceremony in her journal. The celebrants in their regalia made three trips around the church sprinkling holy water and chanting prayers before they came to the main door. After striking the door three times with a cross, “to signify the power of Jesus Christ, sovereign bishop of the Church,” they entered, and majestically processed toward the high altar. Upon the altar sat four candles, which signified “that Catholics (have) spread to the four corners of the world.” In the middle of these was a single cross, “that of Our Lord,” which symbolically linked the entire Church throughout the world to its (European) center—“au milieu du monde.” Following a number of minor rites including lessons and responses, the bishop circled the altar seven times sprinkling its base with holy water. The relics of saints were interred within it, and the church was dedicated to the holy trinity—the new seat of a new bishop in a “New” World.
TL;DR: For instance, this paper pointed out that Americans published numerous pseudo-biblical texts, a practice that peaked from approximately 1770 to 1830, which was the product of an age still suffused with the Bible yet at the same time Enlightened as to the liberal use of that book's language, notably for political issues across the ideological spectrum.
Abstract: Students of early America have overlooked the fact that Americans published numerous pseudo-biblical texts, a practice that peaked from approximately 1770 to 1830. This unique and forgotten tradition of writing “in the style of antiquity” was the product of an age still suffused with the Bible yet at the same time Enlightened as to the liberal use of that book's language, notably for political issues across the ideological spectrum. Employing the full range of the stylistic measures of the King James Bible's English, from biblical-like titles and short numbered verses to a distinct Jacobean vocabulary, this pseudo-biblical tradition in America sheds light on a host of historical issues and problems: from the ways in which Americans attempted to reclaim authority as they experienced the diminishing influence of traditional sources of social power, to new modes of religiosity and attitudes toward time and history. This remarkable practice thus presents an ideal vantage point from which to gain a better understanding of the intellectual processes and historical consciousness that accompanied the momentous transformations that the American republic endured during the decades following its creation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors of these papers derive from a conference, and the only instances of interaction among the authors are the thoughtful responses to Harrison (1:363-96, 2:527-39).
Abstract: hermeneutical practices have affected the study of both nature and scripture (1:3–4). Essayists like Peter Harrison target the assumption that natural science is independent of interpretive questions and therefore completely objective. In spite of the fact that most of these papers derive from a conference, the only instances I find of interaction among the authors are the thoughtful responses to Harrison (1:363–96, 2:527–39). Topics covered range from Philo of Alexandria to Dutch Reformed, Arabic, and Judaic debates of the twentieth century. There are groundbreaking studies of at least fifty subjects, including the Qur’an and its commentators, Rabbis Isaac Mayer Wise and Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin, Russian Orthodox theologians like Pavel Svetlov, and even modern geocentrists like Gerardus Dingeman Bouw. The treatment of working scientists alongside clergymen demonstrates the existence of a larger conversation and avoids the impression that hermeneutics was only a religious enterprise. Many of the essayists utilize the metaphor of the “two books” of nature and scripture, but some (notably G. Blair Nelson) also point out that there were other books on the shelf such as social issues (2:174). Each essay has its own separate bibliography. The set will serve well as a reference work (each of the two volumes ends with a thorough index) and as a starting point for further research.
TL;DR: Rauschenbusch as mentioned in this paper compared the sin of speculating in land to that of slavery and argued that most Christians do not realize that it is a crying wrong to hold land idle for speculation in cities where men's lungs are rotting away.
Abstract: In Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Walter Rauschenbusch compared the sin of speculating in land to the sin of slavery. The great theologian of the Social Gospel tried to open his audience's eyes to the sinfulness of land speculation by reminding them that not long ago, Christians had been unaware of the sinfulness of slavery. Before the abolition of slavery, he wrote, “there were millions of genuine Christians, honestly willing to see and do the right thing in other matters, to whom it seemed a preposterous proposition that slavery is incompatible with Christianity.” To these honest believers, slavery was a necessary social institution like the family or the school. Today, he continued, most Christians, despite their genuine faith, do not realize “that it is a crying wrong to hold land idle for speculation in cities where men's lungs are rotting away … few who realize that it is a flat denial of Christianity to take advantage of the needs of your fellow man to buy his labor cheaply or sell him your goods dearly.” Christians were blind to the evils of industrial society just as they had been blind to the evils of slavery. Both slavery and land speculation were social sins, morally deficient practices that were so deeply embedded in the economic and social structure that they seemed to be “a necessary and inevitable part of the structure of society.” Social sins were different than individual sins. “Genuine Christians” did not tolerate individual sins like drunkenness, adultery, or murder, but they had tolerated slavery.
TL;DR: Relegated to the fringes of American medical and religious orthodoxy for most of the twentieth century in part because of its metaphysical philosophy, today chiropractic is mainstream: its offices can be found in strip malls; medical insurance plans cover adjustments; and, in a dramatic readjustment of traditional cultural alignments, conservative Christians embrace chiropractor as a God-given method of pain relief.
Abstract: Daniel David Palmer (1845–1913) reputedly “discovered” chiropractic in 1895 when he performed the first “adjustment,” using spinal manipulation to restore hearing to an African American janitor named Harvey Lillard. Relegated to the fringes of American medical and religious orthodoxy for most of the twentieth century in part because of its metaphysical philosophy, today chiropractic is mainstream: its offices can be found in strip malls; medical insurance plans cover adjustments; and, in a dramatic readjustment of traditional cultural alignments, conservative Christians embrace chiropractic as a God-given method of pain relief.
TL;DR: The first of a series of lectures on Naturalistic Theories of Religion as Opposed to Supernatural Revelation was given by the controversial Congregationalist minister Horace Bushnell.
Abstract: On December 15, 1851, Andrew Jackson Davis—self-styled Harmonial philosopher and noted scion of the spiritualist world—sent a public letter. Addressed through the Hartford Times to the controversial Congregationalist minister Horace Bushnell, the message concerned the first of a series of lectures Bushnell was delivering at his North Church. Davis, who at the time claimed Hartford, Connecticut, as his base, was clearly excited. The announced topic—“On the Naturalistic Theories of Religion as Opposed to Supernatural Revelation”—already gave Davis “much pleasure,” suggesting a position “entirely unlike any other ever assumed by the clergy of Christendom.” More than that, Bushnell's way of approaching the subject and defining his position was “considerably unlike the method pursued by most clergymen,” since Bushnell relied on his own “reason or judgment” to address “the corresponding faculty in the mind of the hearer.” Davis went on to propose that, with so important an issue, better to move the lectures from Bushnell's North Church pulpit to a different location and to invite “all parties interested” to “analyze and examine before the same audience the various positions.”
TL;DR: Van der Donck is now proclaimed to have ensured that Dutch religious toleration became the basic assumption and pattern that evolved into modern American religious pluralism as mentioned in this paper, which is the theme of a best-selling history of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, the predecessor of New York.
Abstract: Historians have neglected a seventeenth-century hero whose actions and words laid the groundwork for America's democratic diversity and religious toleration—at least that is the theme of a best-selling history of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, the predecessor of New York. This courageous but forgotten lawyer, Adriaen van der Donck, went out from Holland in 1641 as a young man to serve as “schout” (chief judicial officer, both sheriff and prosecutor) of Rensselaerwyck, then moved to New Amsterdam where he eventually became the spokesman of colonists irked by the arbitrary highhandedness of the Director General, Petrus Stuyvesant. Van der Donck is now proclaimed to have ensured that Dutch religious toleration became the basic assumption and pattern that evolved into modern American religious pluralism. The great popularity of this recent revelation ensures that thousands of people, from general readers to professional historians whose specialty lies elsewhere, now believe that religious toleration in America originated in New Amsterdam/ New York, where Dutch customs of toleration contrasted with the theocratic tendencies of English colonies. Is this claim true? In my opinion—no. Should historians pay attention to journalistic jingoism? Perhaps—because unexamined assumptions affect topics treated more seriously. What, then, can be said about the fabled Dutch tradition of toleration and its contribution to the discussion of religious freedom in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
TL;DR: The Text Incarnate as discussed by the authors is an excellent book about the Reformation and the Bible, but it does not discuss or even mention Jean-François Gilmont's classic books on The Reformation And the Book and John Calvin and the Printed Book.
Abstract: are stupefying, such as “it is important to remember that [the] vision of the Bible as a single text . . . would have been alien to most Christians prior to the Reformation” (269 n. 63). This would have indeed come as a surprise not only to the scriptores of the great Carolingian one-volume Bibles produced in the abbeys of Fulda, Bobbio, or Saint-Martin-de-Tours, but also to the lay scribes of Paris, Bologne, or Salisbury, who turned out so many small format one-volume Bibles in the thirteenth century that they can still be bought today on the Antiquarian market at a reasonable price—not to speak of the Dominican and Franciscan friars who used them daily in their preaching. All in all this brilliant book leaves the reader with the strange impression that it was published too soon, before its obviously gifted author had acquired sufficient command of fields that should have been essential to support his thesis. It is paradoxical to write three hundred pages about the symbolism of material books and to show such cavalier neglect of the materiality of books as studied by codicologists and bibliographers—Kearney does not discuss or even mention Jean-François Gilmont’s classic books on The Reformation and the Book (Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1998) and John Calvin and the Printed Book (Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 2005). Because of too many inaccuracies, lacunae, and unsubstantiated statements, The Text Incarnate runs the risk of irritating historians of the Reformation book so much that they would not pay attention to the subtlety and insightfulness of a number of its literary analyses, and to the importance of its central theme.
TL;DR: Ashley and Deegan as discussed by the authors have published a volume of images from the pilgrimage routes to the Holy Land, including a representation of the Trinity featuring God the Father as an old man holding a crucifix from St-Hilaire-la Grande.
Abstract: representation of the Trinity featuring God the Father as an old man holding a crucifix from St-Hilaire-la Grande (140). Ashley and Deegan have not created a tome that is particularly challenging or provocative, but they have offered a volume featuring exquisite images that detail the pilgrimage routes to Santiago. The book does not boast the depth of scholarship other secondary sources on pilgrimage have to offer, such as Jonathan Sumption’s work or the foundational work of Peter Brown (an author Ashley and Deegan cite often). Still, it is an admirable contribution to the field of medieval art and architecture, due to its catalog of images. For a scholar of this period, this book is a handy visual reference guide for the towns along these routes. While this title would not be a likely candidate for adoption in any undergraduate or graduate course, the book is recommended for interested readers in ecclesial art and architecture of the medieval period. The book’s images will likely beckon both scholar and general reader alike to seek an opportunity to visit these sites in person and gaze upon their grandeur face to face on the way to Santiago.
TL;DR: In this article, Howard and Moretti used CAD to reconstruct the interior of a building from drawings and engravings of the interior to study the relationship between sound and space in the context of liturgical performance.
Abstract: the researchers register the perception of sonic characteristics of the space and sound (volume, clarity, reverberance, envelopment, intimacy, warmth, brilliance, echo, timbre, and background noise). In the case of one of their spaces, which was demolished in the nineteenth century, the authors reconstructed the space using computer-aided design (CAD). Drawing on plans and section drawings of the structure, and eighteenth-century engravings of the interior, they were able to simulate the building’s sonic properties. Howard and Moretti also conducted scientific measurements of the acoustic parameters of each space such as sound pressure levels, early decay time, a variety of reverberation rates, and other features, each of which could be compared productively to the human reception of sound qualities gathered in the questionnaires. Finally, the authors studied archival documents and other historical sources to inform their study of the uses of the space in liturgical performance and other ritual settings. An extensive apparatus of appendices compiles their methods and resulting data. The book is a beautifully produced volume, well illustrated with 135 blackand-white illustrations and color plates. The text is clearly written prose with a great deal of careful historical discussion of architects, musicians, composers, ritual occasions, contemporary acoustical theory, architectural designs, and historical contexts. Rather than restrict themselves to one form of evidence or one disciplinary protocol, Howard and Moretti have demonstrated how a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach can respond far more robustly to the performance of religion as an intersensory event, and how the study of the interaction of two media—sound and space—captures very productively how religion happens in the ritual setting of time and place. This study is a solidly conceived and executed piece of research that may serve as a model for scholars interested not only in sound and space but also in such combinations as vision and movement, sound and sight, smell and space, or taste and sight.
TL;DR: Early in 1740, actor-turned-revivalist George Whitefield journeyed to Savannah after a preaching tour that had taken him to Philadelphia and New York before heading south to Charleston, where he arrived in January that year as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Early in 1740, actor-turned-revivalist George Whitefield journeyed to Savannah after a preaching tour that had taken him to Philadelphia and New York before heading south to Charleston, where he arrived in January that year. At the time, Charleston was experiencing communal angst. A few months before, in September 1739, an uprising occurred in this colony where African slaves were a majority—perhaps even two-thirds of the population. Around two dozen whites lost their lives, and several plantations were burned. Popular belief held that a Catholic priest inspired the revolt since apparently many involved in the uprising were Catholic Kongo people who hoped to escape to St. Augustine where Spanish Catholic authorities had promised them freedom. The assault came on a Sunday early in September. Later that month new colonial legislation that required white men to be armed at all times—even while attending Sunday worship—would become law. Whites assumed that the timing was intended to assure that the revolt occurred before that provision took effect, since most did not ordinarily carry firearms to church on Sunday.
TL;DR: The author of the above quotation, Rudolf Jokiel, was one of over twelve million ethnic Germans expelled from their homes in Germany's eastern provinces (East Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia), the Sudetenland, and other pockets of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II and resettled within the country's truncated postwar borders as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The author of the above quotation, Rudolf Jokiel, was one of over twelve million ethnic Germans expelled from their homes in Germany's eastern provinces (East Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia), the Sudetenland, and other pockets of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II and resettled within the country's truncated postwar borders. The expellees bitterly lamented their enforced exile, and many Christians within this population shared Jokiel's sentiments concerning the connection between faith and homeland. Those who settled in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) developed an elaborate network of overlapping subcultures dedicated to preserving their memories of lost homelands and advocating for their right to return there. In the process, these lands came to acquire a distinctly religious aura, holy places that were integral to their spiritual well-being.
TL;DR: The authors reexamine narratives of unofficial mission on the eastern frontiers, in particular accounts of captive women credited with converting whole kingdoms to the Christian faith, in each case a female ascetic has either been taken prisoner or has lived for some time as a captive in a foreign land just beyond east Roman borders.
Abstract: Discussion of mission in east Roman or Byzantine history has typically focused on imperial ambitions, royal conversions, and a “top-down” approach to Christianization. The Christian emperor, the earthly image of the heavenly king, had been called by God to propagate the faith and civilize the barbarians. Toward this end he sent out emissaries to foreign potentates, and the conversion of the ruler was soon followed by the Christianization of his people. Such narratives largely ignore missionaries “from below,” deemed “accidental” evangelists, and focus instead on imperially sponsored or “professional missionaries.” Several recent studies have added nuance to the traditional picture by devoting increased attention to mission from below or presenting Christianization as a process comprising multiple stages that spanned several centuries. Building on my own previous article on this theme, the present essay will reexamine narratives of unofficial mission on the eastern frontiers, in particular accounts of captive women credited with converting whole kingdoms to the Christian faith. In each case a female ascetic has either been taken prisoner or has lived for some time as a captive in a foreign land just beyond east Roman borders. The woman's steadfast adherence to her pious way of life, performance of apostolic signs, and verbal testimony to faith in Christ move the ruler and his people to accept the Christian God.
TL;DR: In Australia, the average communion frequency among most practising Catholics was relatively nominal in the nineteenth century, perhaps three or four times a year was typical as discussed by the authors, and by the eve of the Second Vatican Council, most Catholics in Australia were partaking of communion fortnightly and even weekly.
Abstract: Today, most Catholics attending Mass come forward to receive communion as a matter of course. But this fact actually belies a very long history of low communion frequency and an institution's often losing struggle to have Catholics regularly receive the body of Christ. Already by the end of the fourth century, communion frequency in the Church, both East and West, had declined rapidly. Thereafter, outside small circles of especially devout communicants, communion at Mass remained for most Catholics an infrequent act. Yet during the mid-twentieth century, in the space of just a few decades, this situation showed signs of quite dramatic reversal. In the nineteenth century in Australia, average communion frequency among most practising Catholics was relatively nominal—perhaps three or four times a year was typical. On the eve of the Second Vatican Council, however, most Catholics in Australia were partaking of communion fortnightly and even weekly. Why this shift? What happened in the course of a generation which turned around a situation spanning many centuries in the Church's tradition of eucharistic worship?
TL;DR: The Delaware Conference as mentioned in this paper was held on the Delaware campus of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, in 1941, where opponents of American entry into World War II were being asked to shut up in the presence of the self-styled political realists who were chiefly behind the conclave.
Abstract: “I hope that the matter of the agreement not to discuss the war can be satisfactorily clarified,” Walter M. Horton wrote to the office of the Federal Council of Churches in November of 1941, referring to a meeting of several hundred liberal Protestant leaders the FCC was planning for the following March. “I found some questioning about it” at a recent meeting of peace advocates, some of whom, Horton continued, expressed fear that if they went to the conference they would be obliged “to swear an oath not to say a word about the dominant reality on the horizon.” The distinguished Oberlin theologian worried that the question of “a just and durable peace” that was to be addressed at the “Delaware Conference”—so named on account of its being held on the Delaware, Ohio, campus of Ohio Wesleyan University—might not be effectively engaged because opponents of American entry into World War II were being asked to shut up in the presence of the self-styled “political realists” who were chiefly behind the conclave.
TL;DR: Wild-Wood as discussed by the authors studied how women challenged male dominance and how young Anglicans confronted the authority claimed by their elders in the DRC, and gave a new slant to the process of "indigenization" of Christianity as it occurred in Africa.
Abstract: the two most interesting chapters in Wild-Wood study are one that discusses how women challenged male dominance, and another that shows how young Anglicans confronted the authority claimed by their elders. At the close of the twentieth century, a religious experience that forty years earlier had had one, rather specific articulation, was now “pluriform” in expression. This transformation had not been without acrimony. But as Wild-Wood suggests, Anglicans in the DRC had come to celebrate “unity in diversity” (211). As Wild-Wood explained her goal, she hoped to respond to Terence Ranger’s plea that scholars come to see “mission churches as much less alien and independent churches as much African as hitherto has been the case” (214). Her response to the first part of that plea, the only part with which her research was concerned, should be counted as effective. Wild-Wood did two things that should make her work worthy of wide scholarly attention. First she wrote a history of a Christian church in Africa that makes almost no reference to Europeans. Building upon the work of David Maxwell on the dynamics behind “popular Christianity” in Africa (African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism and the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement, Oxford: James Currey, 2006), Wild-Wood shows how African cultural and spiritual concerns propelled the evolution of a Christian church. Arguably as revolutionary is the fact that she wrote this history about what was originally a mission church. The second thing Wild-Wood did was to give a whole new slant to the process of “indigenization” of Christianity as it occurred in Africa. Dismissing lines of interpretation such as that offered by the Comaroffs, which treat Christianity as a colonizing religion (John and Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), she illustrates how what many would describe as a distinctly European religious experience was embraced and transformed by Africans for Africans.