Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, 1873 - 1933

1933 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-163

Sir Walter Morley Fletcher died on June 7, 1933, with unlooked for suddenness when he was just approaching his sixtieth birthday, but when his physique and brain were still those of a man in the most vigorous prime. Years of fruitful work had seemed to lie ahead of him, for he embodied the strength of a family of tenacious vitality. His father and mother had each lived beyond the ninetieth year, and all their ten children were alive when they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding day. Walter Fletcher was their youngest and sixth son, being born in 1873. His parents on both sides were from Yorkshire, and of that independent spirit which showed itself in Nonconformity to the Church. They were Congregationalists, and in each of them religion was blended with a sensitiveness to art and culture that made goodness and beauty seem to them almost the same. Walter Fletcher never lost these spiritual impressions that he received in his early years at home. His praise of clean scientific work rose to its highest appreciation when he spoke deliberately of its beauty, and characteristically in public addresses he was wont to choose a phrase from the Bible or related sources when he wished to express emotions that had been stirring deeply within him.

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 268-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Mandelbrote

The letter of Scripture suffering various Interpretations, it is plain that Error may pretend to Scripture; the antient Fathers being likewise dead, and not able to vindicate themselves, their writings may be wrested, and Error may make use of them to back itself; Reason too being bypassed by Interest, Education, Passion, Society, &c…. Tradition only rests secure.The 1680s were a difficult decade for the English Bible, just as they were for so many of the other institutions of the English Protestant establishment. Roman Catholic critics of the Church of England, emboldened by the patronage of James II and his court, engaged in controversy over the rule of faith and the identity of the true Church, much as they had done in the early years of the Reformation or in the 1630s. Nonconformists and freethinkers deployed arguments drawn from Catholic scholarship, in particular from the work of the French Oratorian Richard Simon, and joined in ridicule of the Bible as a sure and sufficient foundation for Christian belief.


1998 ◽  
pp. 46-52
Author(s):  
S. V. Rabotkina

A huge place in the spiritual life of medieval Rusich was occupied by the Bible, although for a long time Kievan Rus did not know it fully. The full text of the Holy Scriptures appears in the Church Slavonic language not earlier than 1499.


1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-245
Author(s):  
Winton U. Solberg

For over two centuries, the College was the characteristic form of higher education in the United States, and the College was closely allied to the church in a predominantly Protestant land. The university became the characteristic form of American higher education starting in the late nineteenth Century, and universities long continued to reflect the nation's Protestant culture. By about 1900, however, Catholics and Jews began to enter universities in increasing numbers. What was the experience of Jewish students in these institutions, and how did authorities respond to their appearance? These questions will be addressed in this article by focusing on the Jewish presence at the University of Illinois in the early twentieth Century. Religion, like a red thread, is interwoven throughout the entire fabric of this story.


Author(s):  
Paul A. Bramadat

Is it possible for conservative Protestant groups to survive in secular institutional settings? Here, Bramadat offers an ethnographic study of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at McMaster University, a group that espouses fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, women's roles, the age of the earth, alcohol consumption, and sexual ethics. In examining this group, Bramadat demonstrates how this tiny minority thrives within the overwhelmingly secular context of the University.


Author(s):  
Stephen Orchard

Like Presbyterians, Congregationalists drew on a broadly Calvinist heritage, which found expression in both the Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration. While Presbyterians emphasized the importance of the Presbytery for governing the church, Congregationalists were independently minded and tended to privilege the community of gathered believers itself. However, in practice Congregationalism was more of an ethos and philosophy than a reflection of how all local congregations operated and the boundaries between different strands of dissent could be porous. Disputes and divisions between Dissenters at a local and national level gradually led to the need for increased denominational infrastructure and organization, although the Congregational Union of England and Wales was not founded until 1831. Associations of local ministers became, following the growth of revivalism, springboards for mission at home and abroad.


Pro Ecclesia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 106385122199391
Author(s):  
James B. Prothro

The doctrine of inspiration grounds Christian use and interpretation of Scripture, making this doctrine at once theoretical and practical. Many theoretical accounts, however, restrict the “inspired” status of biblical texts to a single text-form, which introduces problems for the practical use of Scripture in view of the texts’ historical multiformity. This article argues that such restrictions of inspiration are theologically problematic and unnecessary. Contextualizing inspiration within the divine revelatory economy, this article argues that the Spirit’s same goals and varied activities in the texts’ composition obtain also in their preservation, so that we can consider multiple forms of a text to be inspired while acknowledging that not all forms are inspired to equal ends in the history and life of the church. The article concludes with hermeneutical reflections affirming that we, today, can read the “word of the Lord” while also affirming the place of textual criticism in theological interpretation.


1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Provan

It is well known that the seeds from which the modern discipline of OT theology grew are already found in 17th and 18th century discussion of the relationship between Bible and Church, which tended to drive a wedge between the two, regarding canon in historical rather than theological terms; stressing the difference between what is transient and particular in the Bible and what is universal and of abiding significance; and placing the task of deciding which is which upon the shoulders of the individual reader rather than upon the church. Free investigation of the Bible, unfettered by church tradition and theology, was to be the way ahead. OT theology finds its roots more particularly in the 18th century discussion of the nature of and the relationship between Biblical Theology and Dogmatic Theology, and in particular in Gabler's classic theoreticalstatementof their nature and relationship. The first book which may strictly be called an OT theology appeared in 1796: an historical discussion of the ideas to be found in the OT, with an emphasis on their probable origin and the stages through which Hebrew religious thought had passed, compared and contrasted with the beliefs of other ancient peoples, and evaluated from the point of view of rationalistic religion. Here we find the unreserved acceptance of Gabler's principle that OT theology must in the first instance be a descriptive and historical discipline, freed from dogmatic constraints and resistant to the premature merging of OT and NT — a principle which in the succeeding century was accepted by writers across the whole theological spectrum, including those of orthodox and conservative inclination.


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