Fragility and Resilience: Church History and Myth in Nineteenth-Century Ethiopia

The growth of a myth of ancient origins pertaining to the church and monastery of Märṭulä Maryam and the exploration of its content and context form the central focus of this study. Material related to the church’s apparent ancient origin provides appropriate data through which to illustrate at once the themes of historical fragility and resilience. Märṭulä Maryam consolidated its mythical history by suppressing the memory of its actual founder, thus altering the tradition of the church itself. This study will demonstrate that efforts to completely erase the memory of Märṭulä Maryam’s founder and its original history were wholly in vain. Such acts of suppression inevitably leave indelible traces of the true past, not to mention the fact that its actual history is well secured within the records of other Ethiopian churches, as well as in those of Märṭulä Maryam itself.

Joseph Milner and his Editors: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Evangelicals and the Christian Past

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History ◽

10.1017/s0022046917000744 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 69 (1) ◽

pp. 86-104 ◽

Author(s):

PAUL GUTACKER

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

English Language ◽

Church History ◽

Church Of Christ ◽

Historical Narratives ◽

Religious Identities ◽

History Of ◽

Joseph Milner's ‘History of the Church of Christ’ (1794–1809) was the most popular English-language church history for half a century, yet it remains misunderstood by many historians. This paper argues that Milner's Evangelical interpretation of church history subverted Protestant historiographical norms. By prioritising conversion over doctrinal precision, and celebrating the piety of select medieval Catholics, Milner undermined the historical narratives that undergirded Protestant exceptionalism. As national religious identities became increasingly contested in the 1820s and 1830s, this subversive edge was blunted by publishers who edited the ‘History’ to be less favourable toward pre-Reformation Christianity.

Manning's Ultramontanism and the Catholic Church in British Politics

Recusant History ◽

10.1017/s0034193200020306 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 332-347 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jeffrey P. von Arx

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Catholic Church ◽

Central Italy ◽

Church History ◽

British Politics ◽

Roman Catholicism ◽

Papal States ◽

Italian Unification ◽

Roman Catholics ◽

After his conversion to Roman Catholicism, the first major controversy in which Henry Edward Manning found himself involved as a member of his new church concerned the Roman Question, or the Temporal Power; that is, the political status and future of the Papal States. Now the question of the temporal power of the pope, and the amount of controversy it engendered, is one of those issues in nineteenth century church history whose significance it is difficult for us to understand. By the mid-nineteenth century, especially in relation to the movement for Italian unification, the temporal power of the popes looks to us like an historical anachronism. To Roman Catholics today, it is obvious that the ability of the church to preach the gospel has been enhanced and its mission in the world correspondingly facilitated by being disembarrassed of the burden of political control in central Italy. How to explain, then, the tremendous controversy the Roman Question aroused over so long a period in the second half of the nineteenth century, and the conviction, especially of the papacy's defenders, that the preservation of the Papal States was critical for the survival, not only of religion, but, as we shall see, of civilization in the West?

History and Theology of Call

Claiming the Call to Preach ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197576373.003.0002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 49-112

Author(s):

Donna Giver-Johnston

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Church History ◽

Social Gospel ◽

Early Church ◽

Protestant Reformation ◽

Social Convention ◽

Priesthood Of All Believers ◽

Women Preachers ◽

Chapter 2 examines the scriptural text through word definition and interpretation and traces the concept of call throughout, with attention to nuances of meaning. Next, this chapter explores the theological tradition of how call has been interpreted and articulated from the time of Jesus to the nineteenth century, in theological doctrines of call and vocation and in ecclesial practice and social convention. By identifying theological themes of call throughout Church history—from “sacrifice” in the Early Church to “monasticism” in the Middle Ages, from “priesthood of all believers” during the Protestant Reformation to “spiritual revelation” and “extraordinary call” of the Revival–Social Gospel era—this chapter traces the development of the institutionalized call from inclusive to more exclusive of women preachers. Then, in the rhetorical and homiletical witness of the church, this chapter uncovers how a prejudiced trope has restricted women’s call and place in the pulpit. And, finally, it reveals how women utilized rhetorical techniques and tactics in order to challenge convention and claim their call to preach.

Learning Against Religion, Learning as Religion: Mark Pattison and the ‘Victorian Crisis of Faith’

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/s042420840001041x ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 17 ◽

pp. 311-324 ◽

Author(s):

Duncan Nimmo

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Church Of England ◽

Church History ◽

Crisis Of Faith ◽

Reason And Faith ◽

Anglican Theology ◽

A Minor ◽

The Church ◽

Lincoln College

In the drama of English church history in the nineteenth century, the reverend Mark Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, from 1861 to 1884, has hitherto been accorded a minor and somewhat transient role. He has appeared in two guises: first, as an Oxford Tractarian who, compelled by Newman’s secession in 1845 to choose between the Church of England and of Rome, opted for the former, but found his faith so unsettled by the process that he eventually lost it altogether; and secondly, as one of the contributors to that landmark—and landmine—of Anglican theology, Essays and Reviews. The argument of this paper is that his role was in fact both more constant and more considerable: an exploration of conflict between learning and religion, reason and faith; a conflict which in one way or another spanned his life, and in which reason did not merely criticise and challenge religion, but also aspired to replace it. In these two forms the conflict of learning and belief was, it need hardly be said, a key element in the so-called ‘Victorian crisis of faith’; insofar as Pattison’s career embodied it, he becomes a representative figure of the experience of his time, and so takes his stand, if not at the centre, then certainly in the foreground of the ecclesiastical stage.

Henry Boynton Smith and Church History in Nineteenth-Century America

Church History ◽

10.1017/s0009640716000019 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 85 (2) ◽

pp. 302-327 ◽

Author(s):

Annette G. Aubert

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Church History ◽

Church Of Christ ◽

Central Position ◽

Nineteenth Century America ◽

German Education ◽

History Of ◽

History Of Doctrine ◽

American Society ◽

Henry Boynton Smith (1815–1877) was one of the few nineteenth-century American scholars committed to disseminating German methods of ecclesiastical historiography to a country known for its anti-historical tendencies. However, modern scholars have generally overlooked his significant contributions in this area. Hence exploring his scholarly reception and specifically his History of the Church of Christ, in Chronological Tables will fill a niche in the historiography of church history.Philip Schaff (1819–1893), the renowned church historian and founder of the American Society of Church History, was one of the few contemporaries of Smith who understood that Smith's scholarship was on a par with that being produced in Germany. Schaff specifically praised Smith's chronological tables—evidence of Smith's German education among some of the best German historians of the period, including Leopold von Ranke and August Neander. This essay reviews Smith's History of the Church of Christ, in Chronological Tables in the context of the newly emerging scientific history and describes his contribution to nineteenth-century American scholarship. Smith is worthy of attention for establishing a central position for the history of doctrine and for promoting the field of church history and the use of chronological tables in nineteenth-century America.

The New England Contribution to Colonial American Presbyterianism

Church History ◽

10.2307/3160547 ◽

1948 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 32-43 ◽

Author(s):

L. J. Trinterud

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

New England ◽

Church History ◽

Colonial Period ◽

The contributions made to American Presbyterianism during the colonial period by those of its members who were of New England stock have never been adequately recognized. For various reasons this contribution was so greatly minimized during the nineteenth century that even today an essentially false picture of the origins of American Presbyterianism has become currently accepted. Typical of the nineteenth-century propaganda which was later to be accepted as fact, was the attitude of Samuel Miller, the first professor of Church History at Princeton Seminary. In 1833, Miller wrote a series of open letters to Presbyterians as part of the Old School party's polemic against the New England element in the Church.

Early African Christianity–A Thematic Analysis

E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies ◽

10.38159/erats.2020084 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 264-273

Author(s):

Aidan Kwame Ahaligah

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Thematic Analysis ◽

Church History ◽

Religious Culture ◽

Early Church ◽

African Theology ◽

African Christianity ◽

History Of ◽

First Millennium ◽

This article is devoted to a thematic analysis of early or ancient African Christianity and its influence on ecclesial practices and thinking in contemporary Africa. Drawing on literature in the history of the church in antiquity this paper re-tells the story of how Africa and Africans in the first millennium developed and shaped World Christianity. Specifically, it discusses the contributions made to the early Church by the African Fathers of the faith, Origen and Augustine. The paper contest sentiments and perceptions that Christianity is a “white mans” religion and to reclaim African Christianity’s identity as a global religious culture which has existed since antiquity. Moreover, it argues that a lot is lost, with its attendant misinterpretations, when Christianity in Africa is only viewed as a result of the fruits of the nineteenth-century missionary activities. The paper contributes to the study of African Church history, the contextualisation/inculturation of the gospel, and African theology.

The Professionalization of an Elite: The Nineteenth Century Episcopate

Albion A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies ◽

10.2307/4051112 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 459-482 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

William T. Gibson

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Eighteenth Century ◽

Social History ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Church History ◽

Ecclesiastical History ◽

Popular View ◽

History Of ◽

Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽

A number of Victorian writers identified a change in the episcopate in the nineteenth century: Dean Burgon, for example, believed that a remodeled episcopacy emerged at this time. Historians have advanced the view that the changes were generated by the Whig ecclesiastical reforms of the 1830s. Indeed it is part of the schemata of ecclesiastical history that bishops in the eighteenth century were fundamentally different from those in the nineteenth century. Yet, as C. K. Francis Brown admitted, there has been no attempt to establish a pattern of this in the career and social history of the nineteenth century episcopate. This is all the more surprising since a structuralist analysis of the Caroline and Hanoverian episcopate has existed for some years. The traditional view of Church history, that the ecclesiastical reforms of the 1830s and 1840s were the principal engine of change, have tended to overlook the structural changes in bishops' career patterns and that there was a change in the concept of the episcopal function. The context of this changed concept of episcopal duty is important. Recent work on the professionalization of the clergy has focused on the immediate impact of the Reformation and the development of the Church as a profession up to the early eighteenth century. Rosemary O'Day and Geoffrey Holmes have demonstrated that between 1580 and 1730 the clerical profession became increasingly stratified. The overpopulation of the clergy in the eighteenth century accelerated this trend, establishing a Church in which there were extremes of wealth and poverty. At the same time the clergy were subject to greater lay control than any other emergent profession. This tension between professionalization and institutions of the state has been examined in other occupations, but throughout the nineteenth century it grew stronger in the Church. From patronage of a living to nomination to a see, laity dominated the Church. In spite of Whig reforms of the 1830s and 1840s lay control established strict parameters within which the professionalization of the episcopate occurred. The effect of control from outside the Church was that the paths to the bench of bishops remained more numerous and varied than the limited paths to the elite of other professions like the judiciary. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also saw functional trends that brought about the professionalization of the clergy. These changes have been thoroughly analyzed by Anthony Russell. The self-conscious spirituality of the Tractarian movement also effected changes in the popular view of the clerical function, and the episcopate was not immune to these changes. By the closing decades of the nineteenth-century bishops were appointed whose careers had been touched by these trends. Equally important were developments within the episcopate that altered the bishops' roles.

The Township, the Pregnant Girl and the Church: Community Dynamics, Gender and Social Control in Early Nineteenth-century Scotland

Northern Scotland ◽

10.3366/nor.2019.0168 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 41-67

Author(s):

Elizabeth Ritchie

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Social Control ◽

Community Dynamics ◽

Church Discipline ◽

Sexual Offences ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

Female Community ◽

The Church ◽

Unmarried Girl

In 1814 in a small Highland township an unmarried girl, ostracised by her neighbours, gave birth. The baby died. The legal precognition permits a forensic, gendered examination of the internal dynamics of rural communities and how they responded to threats to social cohesion. In the Scottish ‘parish state’ disciplining sexual offences was a matter for church discipline. This case is situated in the early nineteenth-century Gàidhealtachd where and when church institutions were less powerful than in the post-Reformation Lowlands, the focus of most previous research. The article shows that the formal social control of kirk discipline was only part of a complex of behavioural controls, most of which were deployed within and by communities. Indeed, Scottish communities and churches were deeply entwined in terms of personnel; shared sexual prohibitions; and in the use of shaming as a primary method of social control. While there was something of a ‘female community’, this was not unconditionally supportive of all women nor was it ranged against men or patriarchal structures.

Scottish Missionaries, ‘Protestant Hinduism’ and the Scottish Sense of Empire in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century India

The Scottish Historical Review ◽

10.3366/shr.2007.86.2.278 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 86 (2) ◽

pp. 278-313 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Philip Constable

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Western India ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

Church Of Scotland ◽

Free Church ◽

Intellectual Engagement ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

This article examines the Scottish missionary contribution to a Scottish sense of empire in India in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Initially, the article reviews general historiographical interpretations which have in recent years been developed to explain the Scottish relationship with British imperial development in India. Subsequently the article analyses in detail the religious contributions of Scottish Presbyterian missionaries of the Church of Scotland and the Free Church Missions to a Scottish sense of empire with a focus on their interaction with Hindu socioreligious thought in nineteenth-century western India. Previous missionary historiography has tended to focus substantially on the emergence of Scottish evangelical missionary activity in India in the early nineteenth century and most notably on Alexander Duff (1806–78). Relatively little has been written on Scottish Presbyterian missions in India in the later nineteenth century, and even less on the significance of their missionary thought to a Scottish sense of Indian empire. Through an analysis of Scottish Presbyterian missionary critiques in both vernacular Marathi and English, this article outlines the orientalist engagement of Scottish Presbyterian missionary thought with late nineteenth-century popular Hinduism. In conclusion this article demonstrates how this intellectual engagement contributed to and helped define a Scottish missionary sense of empire in India.