Why Quakers and Slavery? Why Not More Quakers?

Author(s):  
J. William Frost

This chapter considers the question of why, after the Quakers began directly addressing the problem of slavery in the 1670s, there was only one period, between 1758 and 1827, during which they achieved any kind of consensus among themselves on the issue. The answer lies in changes within Quakerism itself. It argues that to understand Quaker antislavery, scholars need to understand how the beliefs and practices in the Society of Friends from the 1670s until the Civil War evolved, because these affected Friends'perspectives and actions on slavery. A few Quaker beliefs and practices influenced the variety of stances Friends took on slavery: the Inward Light, progressive revelation, the authority of the Bible, the nature of the church, the “Holy Experiment,” the antiwar stance, and the Quaker family. The chapter discusses these themes in turn because they first facilitated and then hampered antislavery activities.

Author(s):  
Dirk van Miert

Chapter 2 gives an example of how historiography has hitherto been skewed in favour of aligning philology with latitudinarian readings of the Bible. Philology was not the prerogative of the more libertine faction in the Reformed Orthodox Church; on the contrary, it was the orthodox Franciscus Gomarus who excelled in biblical scholarship. Philology was only of marginal concern in the highly public theological discussion in the decade following the death of Scaliger in 1609: the ‘Troubles’ over predestination and the relation between the State and the Church, which brought the nascent Dutch state to the brink of civil war. Arminius professed to value philological methods in his letters and showed an insight into recent developments, but this was of no consequence for his dogmatic position. His adversary Franciscus Gomarus proved a far more accomplished philologist than Arminius, but his philological work postdates the Troubles and has therefore been largely ignored.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Zink

AbstractIn the last several decades, the religious landscape in Nigeria has been transformed by the rise of neo-Pentecostal or ‘new generation’ churches. These churches teach a gospel of prosperity, advance an oppositional view of the world, focus on a supernatural arena of spiritual forces, accord a unique weight to the Bible, and practice a charismatic worship style. One result of the presence of these churches has been to change the face of Anglicanism in Nigeria. Concerned about the possibility of diminished influence and prestige, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has responded to neo-Pentecostal churches by adopting more of its rivals’ beliefs and practices. This paper argues that this changing environment explains, in part, Nigerian opposition to efforts at global Anglican unity and argues that it is impossible to address the future of the Anglican Communion without first understanding the on-the-ground religious context in Nigeria.


Author(s):  
М. А. Fedorov ◽  

Diversity and the fragmented nature of Protestantism are the reason of various interpretations of its boundaries and the number of denominations it comprises. The key criterion of affiliation with Protestantism is the acceptance of basic doctrines set forward in the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed. The analysis of the beliefs of the religious organizations traditionally connected with Protestantism suggests that Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Pentecostals-Unitarians are out of the doctrinal field of Christianity in general and out of the range of Protestantism in particular. The other distinct characteristic of Protestantism is the acceptance of the Five Solas – sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, Solus Christus и Soli Deo gloria, which are aimed at the validation of Christian doctrines set forth in the Bible. This thesis was demonstrated via the analysis of the doctrinal sources of Lutheranism, Reformed Church and Anglican Church. The article also reports on the five solas present in the creeds of Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Mennonites, Religious Society of Friends, and Seventh-Day Adventists. Cultural and historical proximity of protestants and religious organizations that do not meet the criteria above calls for a new category – “post reformation religions” – that can embrace them all.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 5821-5827
Author(s):  
C. SANTHOSH KUMAR, YANPOLUMI M SANGMA

Since the Bible,  the Christian religion has been deeply rooted in the commercialization of religion in society.  The poem The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Cross into the New World is an attack on the Church and its followers for practising commercialization in society.  Ironically,  it also attacks Christian beliefs and practices.  Kinnell presents shops,  market places, restaurants, and bars to link with religious marketing.  He portrays the characters as sellers and buyers,  a product,  and income.  He even presented Christ as income to boost the Roman taxes.  Marketing in religion affects both the spiritual and emotions of the followers.  The religious sacred is regarded as a product that is exchanged by prices and goods.  Kinnell rejected the Christian worshipping of idols.  Thus,  this paper presents the commercialization of religion in Galway Kinnell's poem The Avenue Bearing the initial of Cross into the New World


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.


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):  
Peter Linehan

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.


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.


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