Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'English church history'
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Gorton, Catriona Julie Mae. "English Baptist denominational history as a resource for theological reflection on church health." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2011. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/english-baptist-denominational-history-as-a-resource-for-theological-reflection-on-church-health(4425a2f9-685f-4325-bda0-4784b7f85bed).html.
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‘Knowledge of their past will inform the decisions [Baptists] take today which will shape their tomorrow.’ These words of Baptist historian Barrie White along with some from Archbishop Rowan Williams, that to ‘engage with the Church’s past is to see something of the Church’s future’ which ‘makes for the health of the church…’ lie at the heart of my thesis that denominational history has the potential to form a valuable and engaging resource for theological reflection within the field usually termed church health, and specifically in the consideration of change, actual or potential, in pastoral practice. As a Practical Theologian, central to my approach is a belief that such reflection should be undertaken by and for the people who make up local congregations. My particular interest is in assisting local churches (congregations) to approach and manage change in ways that avoid the potential for destructive conflict: might it be that examples from denominational history form a valuable resource for reflection on processes that might be employed to approach contemporary issues? An initial survey of materials suggests that it might, but that in its current form it is largely inaccessible (literally and in relation to how it is presented). This submission presents a portfolio of work, based on the popular 'pastoral cycle' approach, exploring this possibility and establishing a way forward for developing a more accessible and engaging method to 'tell the story'.After a thorough literature, which presents an overview of developments in the disciplines of church health and history alongside an outline of readily available Baptist history, my publishable article develops a renewed vision for the Baptist Historical Society, the voluntary body which produces the majority of UK Baptist historical writing, taking account of insights gained. Specifically, the potential for a more narrative/literary approach with a recovery of theological/spiritual language is identified as a way forward in increasing accessibility and usability of this rich resource in the way I advocate. Three possible approaches to developing resources are identified and explored in the research proposal, ranging from almost entirely empirical to totally theoretical, with justification of why each constitutes Practical Theology. Emphasis shifts away from the central thesis in the reflective paper which explores questions of 'readers' and 'writers' in relation to my own work as a researcher and a practical theologian. A final reflection, in lieu of a conclusion, draws threads together and affirms my conviction that denominational history has the potential to provide a rich and fruitful resource for theological reflection in the area of church health.
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Weimer, David E. "Protestant Institutionalism: Religion, Literature, and Society After the State Church." Thesis, Harvard University, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493395.
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Even as the Church of England lost ground to political dissent and New England gradually disestablished its state churches early in the nineteenth century, writers on both sides of the debates about church establishments maintained their belief in religion’s role as a moral guide for individuals and the state. “Protestant Institutionalism” argues that writers—from Herman Melville and Harriet Beecher Stowe to George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell—imagined through literature the institutions that would produce a religiously sound society as established churches began to lose their authority. Drawing on novels and poems as well as sermons and tracts about how religion might exist apart from the state, I argue that these authors both understood society in terms of institutions and also used their literature to imagine the institutions—such as family, denomination, and nation—that would provide society with a stable foundation. This institutional thinking about society escapes any literary history that accepts Protestant individualism as a given. In fact, although the US and England maintained different relationships between church and state, British authors often looked to US authors for help imagining the society that new forms of religion might produce precisely in terms of these institutions. In the context of disestablishment we can see how the literature of the nineteenth century—and nineteenth-century novels in particular—was about more than the fate of the individual in society. In fact, to different degrees for each author, individual development actually relies on the proper understanding of the individual’s relationship to institutions and the role those institutions play in supporting societyEnglish
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Rowe, Peter Anthony. "The roles of the cathedral in the modern English Church." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1859.
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A cathedral of the Church of England is the seat of the bishop and a centre of worship and mission. The history of this institution is followed from the English Reformation, which it survived, through to the Commonwealth, which it did not. Restored on the return of the monarchy, it then survived with little further trouble until the nineteenth century, when a lot of its income was diverted to the provision of churches and ministers for the populous urban and industrialised areas, which the Church could not fund in any other way. It was the subject of investigation by two Royal Commissions in the nineteenth century and three church-inspired commissions in the twentieth. These commissions stressed the links that should exist between cathedral, bishop and diocese, which the nineteenth century diocesan revival also encouraged, and suggested changes in instruments of governance to achieve this. Some proposals came to nothing, but others were brought into law. Unlike the Roman Catholic cathedral, the Anglican one never lost its autonomy. The religious situation in Britain today is considered in the light of some contemporary sociology and psychology, and it is recognised that the continued decline in the fortunes of the Church is tied up with the massive subjective turn which characterises contemporary culture. The cathedral has not shared the mistrust which faces the Church, and its various roles are discussed in the light of its continued hold on public affection. The conclusions reached are that, although the cathedral now has strong links with bishop and diocese, it should retain its independence within relationships of interdependence with them, to enable it to harness the popularity which it enjoys to remain a centre of worship, but primarily to concentrate on being a centre of mission. Appropriate ways of achieving that are discussed.
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King, Karen A. "Church, chapel and clergy in Margaret Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2002. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/736.
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This thesis examines the fictional works of Magaret Oliphant’s Chronicles of Carlingford in order to explain her understanding of the significance of Church and Chapel communities and their clergymen within an insular and atypical provincial community in mid-nineteenth century England. By drawing on a variety of examples in the novels and in real life, the thesis argues that Oliphant was a serious commentator on religious matters and controversies and not just a teller of tales. The thesis will address the significance of Oliphant’s engagement with a range of religious and social matters concerning the Church of England with a qualified reference to Nonconformity, given that Oliphant’s depiction of this group was limited to Congregationalists and did not portray other Nonconformist groups of their religious issues
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Machen, Chase E. "The Legacy of Purgatory: The Continuing English Eschatological Controversy." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5315/.
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This work examines particular attributes of the purgatorial phenomena from pre-Christian history of the Indo-European world to the Early Modern Period of England. An attempt has been made to identify and concentrate attention upon examples which provide the most significant and penetrating look into this evolution. For example, a portion of this paper attempts to determine just how widespread purgatorial customs were throughout England and the various types of community that supported these beliefs pre and post Reformation. By comparing life before and after the reigns of Henry and Edward a conclusion is reached that reveals the Protestant Reformation in England stripped the laity of a fundamental instrument they needed to support their religiosity and custom. This becomes evident in further years as some of those same customs and rituals that had been considered anathema by Protestants, slowly crept back into the liturgy of the new religion. Strong evidence of this is provided, with a strong emphasis placed upon late seventeenth and early eighteenth century death eulogies, with a section of this paper being devoted to the phenomena of the Sin-Eater.
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Laferriere, Anik. "The Austin Friars in pre-Reformation English society." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5f927d01-ce0b-4c17-83d8-b5346a9c22e5.
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This study examines the role of the Austin Friars in pre-Reformation English society, as distinct both from the Austin Friars of Europe and from other English mendicant orders. By examining how the Austins formulated their origins story in a distinctly English context, this thesis argues that the hagiographical writings of the Austin Friars regarding Augustine of Hippo, whom they claimed as their putative founder, had profound consequences for their religious platform. As their definition of Augustine's religious life was less restrictive than that of the European Austin Friars and did not look to a recent, charismatic leader, such as Dominic or Francis, the English Austin Friars developed a religious adaptability visible in their pastoral, theological, and secular activity. This flexibility contributed to their durability by allowing them to adapt to religious needs as they arose rather than being constrained to what had been validated by their heritage. The behaviour of these friars can be characterised foremost by their ceaseless advancement of the interests of their own order through their creation of a network of influence and the manoeuvring of their confrères into socially and economically expedient positions. Given the propensity of the Austin Friars towards reform, this study seeks to understand its place within and interaction with English society, both religious and secular, in an effort to reconstruct the religious culture of this order. It therefore investigates their interaction with the laity and patronage, with heresy and reform, and with secular powers. It emphasises, above all, the distinctiveness of the English Austin Friars both from other mendicant orders and from the European Austin Friars, whose rigid interpretations of the religious example of Augustine led them to a strict demarcation of the Augustinian life as eremitical in nature and to hostile relations with the Augustinian Canons. Ultimately, this thesis interrogates the significance of being an Austin Friar in fifteenth- or sixteenth-century England and their role in the religious landscape, exploring the exceptional variability to their behaviour and their ability to take on accepted forms of behaviour.
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Kelly, Augustine. "The vernacular devotional literature of the English Catholic community, 1560-1640." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2651.
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The Catholic community of post-Settlement England relied upon devotional literature to sustain the faith of individuals who were generally deprived of the sacraments and contact with Catholic clergy. Increasingly, these books were used not only to promote Catholic spirituality, but to encourage greater fidelity and loyalty to the Catholic church. The genre is represented by texts which vary greatly and which accommodated a wide and disparate audience with different devotional requirements and even with varying degrees of attachment to the Catholic faith. The period was one of tremendous religious literary activity on the Continent and those who were involved in the production and distribution of Catholic literature drew heavily upon the spiritual books which were issuing in such great numbers from the commercial presses in France and the Netherlands. Translating the devotional works of the spiritual masters of the day proved to be a tremendously effective way of providing English readers with books of orthodox devotion, while at the same time drawing the isolated community into the wider world of Catholic renewal. Providing Catholic devotional texts to a persecuted audience under tremendous pressure to conform very often drew that audience into the fray of controversy and the quarrel of religious disputation. The line between devotion and controversy was thin and often crossed, and devotional books were frequently used as a method of promoting not only Catholic spirituality, but Catholic loyalty as well. Thus, these books, like other devotional artefacts, were considered dangerous to the religious - and political - stability of England. In the contemporary situation these devotional books were clearly regarded as effective tools for maintaining Catholicism in England, both by those who produced them and by those who sought to destroy them. The study of these books can help us to appreciate that important role and the place of devotional literature in the wider context of confessional conflict.
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Smith, Carolyn F. "The Origin of African American Christianity in the English North American Colonies to the Rise of the Black Independent Church." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1250628526.
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Wheeler, Carol Ellen. "Every man crying out : Elizabethan anti-Catholic pamphlets and the birth of English anti-Papism." PDXScholar, 1989. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3959.
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To the Englishmen of the sixteenth century the structure of the universe seemed clear and logical. God had created and ordered it in such a way that everyone and everything had a specific, permanent place which carried with it appropriate duties and responsibilities. Primary among these requirements was obedience to one's betters, up the Chain of Being, to God. Unity demanded uniformity; obedience held the universe together. Within this context, the excommunication of Elizabeth Tudor in 1570 both redefined and intensified the strain between the crown and the various religious groups in the realm. Catholics had become traitors, or at least potential traitors, with the stroke of a papal pen.
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Thomas, Jon E. "The Worldwide Expansion of Seminaries to English Speaking Countries from 1967 - 1970." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2756.
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This thesis explores the initial expansion of the seminary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints beyond North America from 1967 – 1970. During these years, seminary expanded to Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. William E. Berrett, as the administrator of the seminary and institute program, is involved in each phase of the program's expansion and therefore acts as a constant influence throughout the study. This study explores the conceiving and developing of the home study seminary program as well as the pilot program coordinated by Don Bond in the Midwestern United States. The efforts of the first international coordinators during the first year of expansion are related and examined. Administrators selected John Madsen to establish the program in Great Britain, J. L. Jaussi to establish the program in Australia, and Rhett James to establish the program in New Zealand. Each of these coordinators identified the challenges they faced and successes the program achieved. This study highlights the collective concern of Church Board members, local priesthood leaders, and Church education administrators for the youth of the Church as they approved, developed, and established the program internationally in Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
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Harding, John Anthony. "Dr William Clifford, third bishop of Clifton (1857-1892) : his influence at the first Vatican Council and on the English Catholic church." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.321288.
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William Clifford (Bishop of Clifton 1857 - 1893) was one of the most influential prelates in the 19th century English Catholic Church. Consecrated at the age of 33, he was the youngest English bishop since the Reformation. In 1865 he was the preferred candidate of Acton and other Catholic liberals for the See of Westminster. His adroit defence of Pio Nonds Syllabus of Errors won him many admirers. At the First vatican Council he spoke to great effect, particularly on the issue of Papal Infallibility. This he saw as distorting the proper balance between the Pope and the college of bishops, and as antagonising unnecessarily those Protestants who were well disposed to the Church. He nevertheless remained loyal and this gave him an added influence in the post conciliar Church. Gladstone's strictures against the Vatican Decrees were brilliantly answered by Clifford who demonstrated that for a catholic there was no conflict of loyal ties as between Pope and Queen. Other issues of the day also claimed his attention. Early attempts at Reunion, the admission of catholic students to the universities, and the long-standing dispute between the bishops and the religious orders were among them. His much acclaimed articles in The Dublin Review were a pioneering attempt to find an orthodox interpretation of the account of Creation in Genesis. Clifford was fluent in Latin, Italian and French. He possessed a fine theological and legal mind, was moderate in his opinions and of an attractive personality. Almost a century after his death this is the first full-length study to have appeared. Family and diocesan archives in England have been consulted, as well as archives in Rome, the Vatican, and Spain. As a result it is hoped that this thesis will prove to be a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the ecclesiastical history of the 19th century.
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Kakooza, Michael Mirembe. "Mid-Victorian weekly periodicals and anti-Catholic discourse 1850-60 : ideology and English identity." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683162.
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Duke, Gregory. "Parish, people and the English Bible in East Anglia, 1525-1560." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2004. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c353c664-d573-4086-89a5-bf1e1518dff8.
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This thesis examines the impact of the English Bible upon the people and parishes of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex between 1525 and 1560. It examines two major themes of this impact: firstly, the level of success of the installation of the Great Bible in the parish churches; secondly, the effects of the publication and open reading of the scriptures in the vernacular upon the laity of East Anglia. The first theme explains the reasons for the order to install English scripture in the churches, and the information on the success of this installation provided by prosecution records and churchwardens' accounts. It then introduces an obscure document set, the church-plate certificates produced during the reign of Edward VI, and using these examines the level of installation of the Bible and of the religious injunctions of 1547. The results of the study of the church-plate certificates and churchwardens' accounts are compared with a number of factors, including parish wealth, proximity to towns and agricultural patterns, to determine which types of parishes were more likely to comply. The second theme examines the various responses of laypersons to the appearance of the English Bible in East Anglia. Although much of this section has been derived from records of prosecution, it also studies the effects of the English Bible on diverse events such as Kett's Rebellion of 1549, popular printing in Ipswich and the production of educational primers. This section also looks at the level of scriptural knowledge of laypersons ranging from that of Robert Reynys, a churchreeve of Acle, of the 1430's, to that of the prosecuted Marian Protestants during the 1550's.
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McCall, Fiona. ""Our dear mother stripped" : the experiences of ejected clergy and their families during the English Revolution." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670060.
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Whiting, Michael. "Luther in English : law and gospel in the theology of early English evangelicals (1525-1535)." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683238.
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Drummond, Anne (Anne Margaret). "From autonomous academy to public "high school" : Quebec English Protestant education, 1829-1889." Thesis, McGill University, 1986. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=65546.
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Varnam, Laura. "The howse of God on Erthe : constructions of sacred space in late Middle English religious literature." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670140.
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Mills, Matthew. "Behold your mother : the Virgin Mary in English monasticism, c. 1050-c. 1200." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c72df193-cdbe-4fc1-b59f-714015846599.
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This thesis examines the place of the Virgin Mary in the intellectual culture of Benedictine and Cistercian monasticism in medieval England, between c. 1050 and c. 1200. Drawing high profile thinkers, including Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), into dialogue with lesser known figures, it reveals the richness of monastic contributions to Marian doctrine and devotion, in many cases for the first time. The shape of the analysis is provided by five key 'moments' from Mary's life, unfolded consecutively across six chapters. Chapters 1 and 2, on Mary's conception, reveal a confident and pioneering monastic culture which drove the evolution of an obscure Anglo-Saxon feast into a theological doctrine, despite fierce opposition at home and abroad. Chapter 3 explains how Mary's virginity was adopted as a blueprint for the monastic life by Ælred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) and Baldwin of Forde (d. 1190), both of whom were inspired by its fruitfulness in the Incarnation of Christ. Chapter 4 brings to light the contributions made to exegesis of the Song of Songs as a poem about Mary's humility by the mysterious Honorius Augustodunensis (d. 1140) and John of Forde (d. 1214). Chapter 5, on the divine maternity, demonstrates how English monastic theologians gave new life to understanding of Mary as Theotokos ('God-bearer') by drawing out its significance for their own spiritual maternity as leaders of religious communities. Chapter 6 shows how Mary was believed to have entered into the pain of the Crucifixion through her own spiritual martyrdom, and how monks sought to share the experience with her by a communion of charity. These and other insights offer a compelling glimpse into the culture of English monasticism between the demise of the Anglo-Saxons and the advent of the friars. Inspired by a desire to understand and ultimately to know Mary, Benedictine and Cistercian monks produced theological and spiritual works which were imaginative, often intimate and occasionally pioneering. Most of all, they were profoundly pastoral, composed in the belief that Mary could inspire and support those who had embarked upon the monastic via perfectionis.
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Blanchard, Mary Elizabeth. "The late Anglo-Saxon royal agent : the identity and function of English ealdormen and bishops c.950-1066." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0e8f6abc-a959-4b4a-a19a-0d1055ffc2f4.
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This thesis examines the identities and functions of late Anglo-Saxon royal agents (c. 950-1066), focusing on bishops and ealdormen. To establish who royal agents were, the thesis explores the family relationships among the leading men in the ecclesiastical and secular spheres, especially those linking men administering ealdordoms to the senior clergy. It also examines the offices of royal agents in late Anglo-Saxon England and argues that the duties of ecclesiastical and secular officials were not fundamentally different. While traceable kin networks appear among senior clerics and among high secular officials, few familial links connect the senior clergy to ealdormen. Thus, this thesis divides these kin-groups into those who gained secular offices, 'lay families', and those who sought power through the ecclesiastical positions, 'church families'. The analysis of the strategies adopted by 'lay families' and 'church families' to secure and maintain political power indicates how the aristocracy served both the king and their own ambitions in the governance of late Anglo-Saxon England. Although these royal agents came from different family groups, their obligations as royal agents appear remarkably similar with the exception of their military functions. This information provides a better understanding of the pool of men from whom English kings generally chose their officials, how rulers may have kept this group from becoming too small, and what was expected of these royal agents. The lack of (recorded) nepotism across episcopal and secular lines provides a more nuanced understanding of the aristocracy in Anglo-Saxon England. Furthermore, by offering an examination of both the identities and the functions of royal agents, this thesis provides a better understanding of the late Anglo-Saxon kingdom and its administration. In addition it creates a clearer picture of the aristocracy, the king, and the Church as well as the relationships between all three.
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House, Seymour Baker. "Sir Thomas More and holy orders : More's views of the English clergy, both secular and regular." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2752.
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The purpose of this thesis is to present Sir Thomas More's views on the sacrament of Holy Orders with particular reference to the English clergy using as evidence More's own writings and relevant manuscript material as well as various other contemporary sources. The discussion of More's activity as ecclesiastical patron, based on manuscript sources, will illuminate this previously undocumented aspect of his involvement in clerical affairs. It will indicate how far his views on the English clergy are corroborated by those priests he presented to benefices in addition to providing us with a detailed look at the problems associated with early 16th Century patronage. More's activity as a royal councillor, seen through his own eyes and revealed in his writings and other sources, will be discussed as it touches on the English spirituality. Particular attention will be paid to the development of More's criticisms of the clergy and his emerging understanding of the sacrament of Orders as it took shape in his polemical career. His duties as Lord Chancellor, particularly his campaign against heretics in England and heretical writings abroad, will be presented as well as his opposition to secular statutory reforms of the clerical estate. More's activity as secular judge of clerical litigants in the courts of Star Chamber and Chancery will be analysed on the basis of manuscript evidence of those courts and his own comments found in his published and private writings. Finally, More's concluding remarks on both controversial doctrinal issues and the part played by the English clergy in the Henrician Reformation (to 1535) will be discussed as it is found in the works written from the Tower.
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Wolfe, Michelle. "The Tribe of Levi: gender, family and vocation in English clerical households, circa 1590-1714." Connect to this title online, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1095790286.
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Boone, Clifford. "Puritan evangelism : preaching for conversion in late-seventeenth century English puritanism as seen in the works of John Flavel." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683232.
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Howson, Barry. "The question of orthodoxy in the theology of Hanserd Knollys (c. 1599-1691) : a seventeenth-century English Calvinistic Baptist." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=36607.
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Mid-seventeenth-century England saw numerous religious sects come into existence, one of which was the Calvinistic Baptist group. During the upheaveal of the revolutionary years this group was often accused of heresy by their orthodox/reformed contemporaries. At that time Hanserd Knollys, one of their London pastors, was personally charged with holding heterodox beliefs, in particular, Antinomianism, Anabaptism and Fifth Monarchism. In addition, Knollys has been accused of hyper-Calvinism. This version of Calvinism was held by some eighteenth-century English Calvinistic Baptists. Some Baptist historians have suspected Knollys of holding this teaching in the seventeenth-century, or at least they have felt it necessary to defend him against it. All of these charges are serious, and consequently bring into question Knollys' orthodoxy. This thesis will systematically examine each charge made against Knollys in its context, and comprehensively from Knollys' writings seek to determine if they were valid. Furthermore, this thesis will elucidate Knollys theology, particularly his soteriology, ecclesiology and eschatology.
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Atchison, Liam Jess. "The English interpret St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans chapter thirteen: from God save the king to God help the king, 1532 – 1649." Diss., Kansas State University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/306.
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Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of History
Robert D. Linder
In England, 1532‐1649 was an era during which questions about obedience to rulers dominated ethical discussions. Most English people also respected biblical authority for governing certain behaviors. Obedience was central to the monarchy’s survival and the Bible was central to reformation of an English Church laden with medieval accretions. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 13:1‐7 was the most important biblical passage for understanding the Christian’s relationship to civil authority during this period, and interpreters had such high regard for biblical authority that the backing of this passage was crucial to the acceptance of any political theory that involved ideas about obedience or disobedience. Though eisegesis was not out of the question as a technique among these interpreters, societal and political circumstances motivated most exegetes to examine the text more closely than they might have if St. Paul’s meaning had been irrelevant. These conditions led to creative handling of the text that permitted the exegetes to continue to submit to biblical authority while advocating their varied opinions on obedience to civil authority. Some interpreters moved outside the constraints of traditional views of monarchy and obedience to develop a theory that God mediated his call to rulers through those who elected them. Acceptance of this theory finally brought about rejection of divine right monarchy, as symbolized by the execution of Charles I in 1649. By too quickly concluding that these English expositors merely sought biblical justification for their views after the fact, scholars have failed to appreciate how Romans 13 positively shaped Reformation views of the Christian’s relationship to the state. As the title suggests, this study will examine the discernable shift from seeing Romans 13:1‐7 as a text that commands non‐resistance to rulers to one that not only permits disobedience, but requires it. Thus, Romans 13 is not simply an influential political text, but stands as the most important political text of the period under consideration. This dissertation supplies a needed analysis of representative exegesis of Romans 13:1‐7 during this critical period of English history and considers the influence of these expositions on the development of republian ideals.
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Foulser, Nicholas E. "The influence of 'Lollardy' and reformist ideas on English legislation, c.1376-c.1422." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13641.
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This thesis explores the potential influence of 'Lollardy' and reformist ideas on English legislation in the period c.1376 to c.1422. It focuses on a comparison between the ideas expressed in a variety of Wycliffite works, most especially the tracts that were reportedly presented to parliament, and the ideas contained within parliamentary legislative activity. The aim of the thesis is to shed light on the extent to which the political community shared the ideas expressed in 'heterodox' works and the extent to which the debate over 'Lollardy' informed the debates over other issues within parliament. It begins with an introductory section which explores the nature of 'Lollardy', the potential of the parliamentary and statute rolls as sources for the impact of reformist ideas, and an examination of what can be gleaned from other sources as regards the attitudes of the political community to reform. It then moves on to explore legislative activity on a variety of issues including papal provisions, vagrancy, appropriation, non-residence and pluralism, hospitals and fraternal recruitment practices - on a primarily chapter by chapter basis, exploring the ideas and arguments as they developed chronologically and mapping these, as far as possible, against the known chronology of 'Lollardy'. It also makes comparisons between the petitions and the government's response, in order to determine the dynamics of 'Lollardy's' influence. Did the commons have an underlying programme of reform? If so, did this programme bear any relationship to the programme of reform advocated by the Wycliffites and the protagonists of disendowment? How committed were the commons to the ideas they espoused? Did the Church accept a level of parliamentary interference to stave off the threat of 'Lollardy'? What was the government's attitude to reform? These are some of the central questions of this thesis.
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Aalders, Cynthia Yvonne. "Writing religious communities : the spiritual lives and manuscript cultures of English women, 1740-90." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:786913a8-64a6-48ef-bce4-266b6fa70ff3.
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This thesis examines the spiritual lives of eighteenth-century English women through an analysis of their personal writings. It explores the manuscripts of religious women who practised their faith by writing letters, diaries, poetry, and other highly personal texts—texts that give unique access to the interior, spiritual lives of their authors. Concerned not only with the individual meaning of those writings but with their communal meanings, it argues that women’s informal writing, written within personal relationships, acted to undergird, guide, and indeed shape religious communities in vital and unexplored ways. Through an exploration of various significant personal relationships, both intra- and inter-generationally, this thesis demonstrates the multiple ways in which women were active in ‘writing religious communities’. The women discussed here belonged to communities that habitually communicated through personal writing. At the same time, their acts of writing were creative acts, powerful to build and shape religious communities: these women wrote religious community. A series of interweaving case studies guide my analysis and discussion. The thesis focuses on Catherine Talbot (1721–70), Anne Steele (1717–78), and Ann Bolton (1743–1822), and on their literary interactions with friends and family. Considered together, these subjects and sources allow comparison across denomination, for Talbot was Anglican, Steele Baptist, and Bolton Methodist. After an introductory chapter, Chapter Two focuses on spiritual friendship, showing how women used personal writings within peer relationships to think through religious ideas and encourage faith commitments. Chapter Three considers older women as spiritual elders, arguing that elderly women sometimes achieved honoured status in religious communities and were turned to for spiritual direction. Chapter Four explores the ways in which women offered religious instruction to spiritual children through the creative use of informal writings, including diaries and poetry. And Chapter Five considers women’s personal writings as spiritual legacy, as they were preserved by family and friends and continued to function in religious communities after the death of their authors.
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Roberts, Gabriel C. B. "Historical argument in the writings of the English deists." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f4f32628-8e30-49b4-b2ab-449dc0b94b64.
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This study examines the role of history in the writings of the English deists, a group of heterodox religious controversialists who were active from the last quarter of the seventeenth century until the middle of the eighteenth century. Its main sources are the published works of the deists and their opponents, but it also draws, where possible, on manuscript sources. Not all of the deists were English (one was Irish and another was of Welsh extraction), but the term ‘English Deists’ has been used on the grounds that the majority of deists were English and that they published overwhelmingly in England and in English. It shows that the deists not only disagreed with their orthodox opponents about the content of sacred history, but also about the relationship between religious truth and historical evidence. Chapter 1 explains the entwining of theology and history in early Christianity, how the connection between them was understood by early modern Christians, and how developments in orthodox learning set the stage for the appearance of deism in the latter decades of the seventeenth century. Each of the following three chapters is devoted to a different line of argument which the deists employed against orthodox belief. Chapter 2 examines the argument that certain propositions were meaningless, and therefore neither true nor false irrespective of any historical evidence which could be marshalled in their support, as it was used by John Toland and Anthony Collins. Chapter 3 traces the argument that the actions ascribed to God in sacred history might be unworthy of his goodness, beginning with Samuel Clarke’s first set of Boyle Lectures and then progressing through the writings of Thomas Chubb, Matthew Tindal, Thomas Morgan, and William Warburton. Chapter 4 charts the decline of the category of certain knowledge in the latter half of the seventeenth century, the rise of probability theory, and the effect of these developments on the deists’ views about the reliability of historical evidence. Chapter 5 is a case-study, which reads Anthony Collins’s Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724) in light of the findings of the earlier chapters. Finally, a coda provides a conspectus of the state of the debate in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, focusing on the work of four writers: Peter Annet, David Hume, Conyers Middleton, and Edward Gibbon.
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Thouroude, Véronique Joséphine Gabrielle. "Sickness, disability, and miracle cures : hagiography in England, c.700-c.1200." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b9c42b2d-9d25-454c-bed9-169ef79e223b.
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This thesis considers how religious literature represented sickness and disability in Anglo- Saxon and post-Conquest England. Based on Gospel accounts of Jesus's healings, narratives of miracle-cures were highly valued within medieval Christian culture. By analysing a selection of miracle-cure narratives from the main period of miracle writing in England, from the age of Bede to the late twelfth century, this project considers the social significance of such stories. All miracle-cures followed the pattern of a spiritual triumph over the material world, but this thesis focuses on how hagiographers represented human experiences of sickness and disabilities. The first two chapters of this thesis address the conceptual structure of the project. The first explains the two areas of scholarly theory that underpin this thesis. These are the use of narrative sources for historical study; and sociological conceptualisations of bodily difference. The second chapter orientates the case-studies selected for this project in their context. Miracle-cures were recounted in relation to other aspects of the culture of medieval England, most importantly the theology of sainthood and of sin. The remaining three chapters of the thesis provide detailed thematic analysis of selected miracle-cure narratives. The third chapter asks how the spiritual experience of bodily difference was understood. The next chapter considers the physical understandings of a body that was affected by either sickness or disability, and the links between miracle-cure narratives and contemporary medical theory. The fifth and final chapter addresses the representation of social aspects of sickness and disability in these texts, in particular the moralising rhetoric of such texts in favour of community support. This thesis concludes with a discussion of how modern Disability Studies and scholarship on medieval culture benefit from interaction with one another.
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Treacy, Susan. "English Devotional Song of the Seventeenth Century in Printed Collections from 1638 to 1693: A Study of Music and Culture." Thesis, North Texas State University, 1986. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc331253/.
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Seventeenth-century England witnessed profound historical, theological, and musical changes. A king was overthrown and executed; religion was practiced fervently and disputed hotly; and English musicians fell under the influence of the Italian stile nuovo. Many devotional songs were printed, among them those which reveal influences of this style. These English-texted sacred songs for one to three solo voices with continuo--not based upon a previously- composed hymn or psalm tune—are emphasized in this dissertation. Chapter One treats definitions, past neglect of the genre by scholars, and the problem of ambiguous terminology. Chapter Two is an examination of how religion and politics affected musical life, the hiatus from liturgical music from 1644 to 1660 causing composers to contribute to the flourishing of devotional music for home worship and recreation. Different modes of seventeenth-century devotional life are discussed in Chapter Three. Chapter Four provides documentation for use of devotional music, diaries and memoirs of the period revealing the use of several publications considered in this study. Baroque musical aesthetics applied to devotional song and its raising of the affections towards God are discussed in Chapter Five. Chapter Six traces the influence of Italian monody and sacred concerto on English devotional song. The earliest compositions by an Englishman working in the stile nuovo are Henry Lawes' 1638 hymn tunes with continuo. Collections of two- and three-voice compositions by Child, the Lawes brothers, Wilson, and Porter, published from 1639 to 1657, comprise Chapter Seven, as well as early devotional works of Locke. Chapter Eight treats Restoration devotional song-- compositions for one to three voices and continuo, mostly of a more secular and dramatic style than works discussed in earlier. The outstanding English Baroque composers--Locke, Humfrey, Blow, and Purcell--are represented, and the apex of this style is found in the latest seventeenth-century publication of devotional song, Henry Playford's Harmonia sacra, (1688, 1693).
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Falk, Seb. "Improving instruments : equatoria, astrolabes, and the practices of monastic astronomy in late medieval England." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2016. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/256996.
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Histories of medieval astronomy have brought to light a rich textual tradition, of treatises and tables composed and computed, transmitted and translated across Europe and beyond. These have been supplemented by fruitful inquiry into the material culture of astronomy, especially the instruments that served as models of the heavens, for teaching and for practical purposes. But even now we know little about the practices of medieval astronomers: how they obtained and passed on their knowledge; how they drew up and used mathematical tables; how they drafted the treatises in which they found words to express their ideas and inventions for their particular audiences. This thesis uses a case study approach to elucidate these medieval astronomical practices. Long thought to be a holograph manuscript in the hand of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Equatorie of the Planetis (Peterhouse, Cambridge MS 75.I) has recently been identified as the work of John Westwyk (d. c. 1400), a Benedictine monk of Tynemouth Priory and St Albans Abbey. His draft description of the construction and use of an astronomical instrument, with accompanying tables, provides an opportunity to reconstruct the practices of an unexceptional astronomer. The first chapter of this thesis reconstructs Westwyk’s astronomical reading and understanding, through an examination of the other manuscript that survives in his hand: a pair of instrument treatises by the outstanding monastic astronomer Richard of Wallingford. I show how Westwyk copied this manuscript in a monastic context, learning as he annotated texts and recomputed tables. In the second chapter I discuss the purposes of planetary instruments such as equatoria, their place among other astronomical instruments, and the physical constraints and possibilities experienced by their makers. Through this discussion I assess the craft environment in which Westwyk came to write his own instrument-making instructions. Chapters three and four assess Westwyk’s language, explaining the basis for his choice to write a technical work in the vernacular, and analysing how his innovative use of Middle English furthered his didactic objectives. In the final chapter, I undertake a technical reassessment of the Equatorie treatise, an integrated analysis of the instrument with the somewhat neglected tables that Westwyk compiled alongside it. The thesis thus applies a range of methodologies to examine the practices and products of a single inexpert astronomer from all angles. It aims to show what an in-depth case study approach can offer historians of the medieval sciences.
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Pink, Stephen Arthur. "Holy scripture and the meanings of the Eucharist in late medieval England, C. 1370-1430." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:60a9655b-779b-4853-9102-7a9b058f0d5e.
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This thesis examines how, in late-medieval England, uses of Scripture and associated written discourses expanded to encompass the sacramental functions hitherto privileged to the bread and wine of the Mass. This process, reflecting the longstanding if implicit importance of scriptural symbolism to the medieval Eucharist, also bears witness to a major cultural shift in this period: the assignment to words of the same powers that had underpinned the function of visual, non-verbal symbols in medieval religion and society. As Chapter Two demonstrates, this process was starkly exposed in John Wyclif’s vision of an English religion centred upon the sacrament of the preached word of Scripture, rather than on the Mass. As Chapter Three shows, this was the vision that Wyclif’s followers sought to realize, even if they may have achieved their aims only within a limited band of followers. However, Wyclif’s vision was powerful precisely because its relevance was not confined to Wycliffites. Chapter Four charts how the same substitution was taking place through the dissemination in English of ‘Scripture’, which, in its broadest sense, encompassed meditations upon depictions of Christ crucified as well as preaching. The greatest danger of Wycliffite thought to the late-medieval Church rested in its potential to increase lay awareness of this process. This threat was reflected in the restrictions placed by the English Church upon lay use of religious writings in the early fifteenth century. Nonetheless, as Chapter Five shows through a reading of one of Wyclif’s sternest critics, Thomas Netter, the eucharistic function of ‘Scripture’ had not disappeared but had to be occluded. This occlusion represents the most significant shift in the eucharistic function of ‘Scripture’ in the fifteenth century, allowing its use to develop further without threatening the Mass. This thesis concludes that the unacknowledged yet increasingly central role of ‘Scripture’ helps to explain why, at the Reformation, a scripturally-based religion seemed so quickly to supplant one to which images had been fundamental.
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Depold, Jennifer Rene. "The martial Christ in the sermons of late medieval England." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b7820bbc-d971-4252-95a5-351166102514.
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Current scholarship on the devotional practices of late medieval England has emphasized two representations of Christ. The first, considered the dominant trend, is that of the suffering Christ; the second, a minor, but important trend particularly for female audiences, is the maternal Christ. Both are revealing of the nature of late medieval Christo-centric devotion. This project contributes to the understanding of late medieval Christocentric devotion in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by examining the representation of Christ in a martial role, as presented to clerical and lay audiences through the medium of popular sermons. It is a new contribution to the scholarship of late medieval devotion in its demonstration of a multifaceted Christ; the martial Christ echoes, but in many ways also contrasts, the images of the suffering and maternal Christ, in order to provide its audience with a more complex rendering of the human Christ, one which may have been more accessible to a lay populace seeking to form a relationship with him. This project also contributes to the growing field of sermon studies, intended to be comprehensive in nature. It uses a different approach to sermon studies, in that the entire corpus of nearly 4,500 sermons was reviewed. This was done in order to provide the most complete picture of the martial Christ. As a result, this project examines Christ in various martial roles, as well as his modelling of knighthood for kings, knights, preachers, and the laity. These representations were utilised by preachers to instruct their audiences in devotional practice, specifically forms of affective meditation; it was used as a didactic tool to teach the laity the complex doctrines of redemption and atonement; and finally, it was employed as a means to demonstrate the importance of right living in order to fulfill what Christ had promised on the cross, that is eternal salvation.
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Rogozhina, Anna. "'And from his side came blood and milk' : the martyrdom of St Philotheus of Antioch in Coptic Egypt." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:35b8fd5c-5c85-4b5f-81c8-77e0b66a165d.
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My thesis examines the function and development of the cult of saints in Coptic Egypt. For this purpose I focus primarily on the material provided by the texts forming the Coptic hagiographical tradition of the early Christian martyr Philotheus of Antioch, and more specifically - the Martyrdom of St Philotheus of Antioch (Pierpont Morgan M583). This Martyrdom is a reflection of a once flourishing cult which is attested in Egypt by rich textual and material evidence. This text enjoyed great popularity not only in Egypt, but also in other countries of the Christian East, since his dossier includes texts in Coptic, Georgian, Ethiopic, and Arabic. This thesis examines the literary and historical background of the Martyrdom of Philotheus and similar hagiographical texts. It also explores the goals and concerns of the authors and editors of Coptic martyr passions and their intended audience. I am arguing that these texts were produced in order to perform multiple functions: to justify and promote the cult of a particular saint, as an educational tool, and as an important structural element of liturgical celebrations in honour of the saint. Another aim of this work is to stress the entertainment value of such texts. I explore the sources used by Coptic hagiographers for creating such entertaining stories, as well as the methods they used to re-work certain theological concepts and make them more accessible to the audience. The thesis begins with description of the manuscript tradition of Philotheus and a brief outline and comparison of its main versions. The second chapter discusses the place of the Martyrdom of Philotheus in Coptic hagiography and its connection to the so-called cycles. The next two chapters explore the motifs and topoi characteristic of Coptic martyr passions, especially the legend of Diocletian the Persecutor and the image of Antioch as the Holy City in Coptic hagiography, as these two motifs appear in one way or another in the majority of the martyr passions. Chapter 5 is dedicated to one of the focal points in the Martyrdom - the miracle of resurrection and the tour of hell – and its literary and theological background. Chapter 6 discusses representations of magic and paganism in Coptic hagiography and some of the concerns of Coptic hagiographers. In the last chapter I explore the geography of the cult, its iconographic and hymnographic dimensions and the transformation of the perception of the saint; the second part of this chapter discusses the questions of performance, authorship and audience.
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Cichy, Andrew Stefan. "'How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?' : English Catholic music after the Reformation to 1700 : a study of institutions in Continental Europe." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0bdfe9b2-b5c6-48fe-a565-ddb699b72312.
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Research on English Catholic Music after the Reformation has focused almost entirely on a small number of Catholic composers and households in England. The music of the English Catholic colleges, convents, monasteries and seminaries that were established in Continental Europe, however, has been almost entirely overlooked. The chief aim of this thesis is to reconstruct the musical practices of these institutions from the Reformation until 1700, in order to arrive at a clearer understanding of the nature of music in the post-Reformation English Catholic community. To this end, four institutions have been selected to serve as case studies: 1. The Secular English College, Douai. 2. St Alban’s College, Valladolid. 3. The Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of the Assumption, Brussels. 4. The Augustinian Monastery of Our Lady of Nazareth, Bruges. The music of these institutions is evaluated in two ways: firstly, as a means of constructing, reflecting and forming English Catholic identity, and secondly, in terms of the range of influences (both English and Continental) that shaped its stylistic development. The thesis concludes that as a result of the peculiarly domestic nature of religious practice among Catholics in England, and interactions with Continental Catholicism, the aesthetic and ideological bases for English Catholic music were markedly different from those of its Protestant counterpart. The marked influence of Italianate styles on the sacred music of English Catholic composers and institutions in exile demonstrates a simultaneous process of cultural alignment with the aesthetic and theological principles of the Counter-Reformation, and dissociation from those of English Protestantism. Finally, it is clear that music was an important formational tool in both the seminaries and convents, where it shaped both community and self-identity, and created affinities with the locales in which these institutions were situated – although it is also clear that these uses of music had the potential to conflict.
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Kershaw, Alison. "The poetic of the Cosmic Christ in Thomas Traherne's 'The Kingdom of God'." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0085.
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[Truncated abstract] In this thesis I examine the poetics of Thomas Traherne’s often over-looked Christology through a reading of The Kingdom of God. This work, probably written in the early 1670s, was not discovered until 1997, and not published until 2005. To date, no extended studies of the work have been published. It is my argument that Traherne develops an expansive and energetic poetic expressive of the theme of the ‘Cosmic Christ’ in which Christ is understood to be the source, the sustaining life, cohesive bond, and redemptive goal, of the universe, and his body to encompass all things. While the term ‘Cosmic Christ’ is largely of 20th century origin, its application to Traherne is defended on the grounds that it describes not so much a modern theology, as an ancient theology rediscovered in the context of an expanding cosmology. Cosmic Christology lies, according to Joseph Sittler,“tightly enfolded in the Church’s innermost heart and memory,” and its unfolding in Traherne’s Kingdom of God is accomplished through the knitting together of an essentially Patristic and Pauline Christology with the discoveries and speculations of seventeenth century science: from the infinity of the universe to the workings of atoms. … The thesis concludes with a distillation of Traherne’s Christic poetic The Word Incarnate. The terms put forward by Cosmic Christology are used to explicate Traherne’s intrepid poetic. In his most remarkable passages, Traherne employs language not only as a rhetorical tool at the service of theological reasoning, but to directly body forth his sense of Christ at the centre of world and self. He promises to “rend the Vail” and to reveal “the secrets of the most holy place.” Scorning more “Timorous Spirits,” he undertakes to communicate and “consider it all.”
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M'Caw, Martin Trevor. "A history of the English-speaking Baptist churches of North Wales." Thesis, Bangor University, 2010. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/a-history-of-the-englishspeaking-baptist-churches-of-north-wales(92058a42-2ba5-4fb0-9598-deacc555e63c).html.
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This dissertation attempts to chart the history of the English-speaking churches of North Wales from the time of the commonwealth to the present. Beginning with the radical separatism of Morgan Llwyd at Wrexham during the puritan period, it describes and analyzes the development of religious thought and structures through the restoration and the older dissent (chapter one), the eighteenth century including the Evangelical Revival and Sandemanianism (chapter two), the expansion of the churches including those on the coastal strip during the nineteenth century (chapters three and four) and consolidation including the challenges of secularization during the twentieth (chapters five and six). The Introduction sets out the rationale and the Conclusion provides a reflective summary. Thee essential elements form the parameters within which the following analysis has been made, namely geography, language and the Baptist principle of associating. The way in which an English medium community formulated its religious identity within a Welsh, and often Welsh speaking, context is assessed, and how it did so well away from the very different English language Baptist life in South Wales while diverging also from mainstream Baptist life in England. As such the dissertation could be interpreted as a study in divergence, assimilation and the development of a specific regional-national identity. The backcloth for the individual chapters is determined by United Kingdomwide or British, national (Welsh), or denominational topicalities each of which may stand alone or exist in combination with the others. In broad terms the formative years are dominated by British considerations, national (Welsh) factors predominate during the nineteenth century, whilst the twentieth century is dominated by denominational concerns. Throughout the study the three formative factors of geography, language and the specifically Baptist principle of associating emerge as the key elements in the evolution of the English-speaking Baptist churches and the North Wales English Baptist Union.
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Mathieu, Jeanne-Mathilda. "La dispute religieuse dans le théâtre élisabéthain (1580-1625)." Thesis, Montpellier 3, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018MON30060.
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Le présent travail s’intéresse à dix pièces écrites et jouées entre 1580 et 1625. Le corpus retenu inclut des pièces rédigées par Robert Daborne, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Heywood, Christopher Marlowe, Philip Massinger, Thomas Middleton, Samuel Rowley et William Shakespeare et Nathaniel Woodes. Cette étude tâche principalement de révéler en quoi les dramaturges de la Renaissance se sont appropriés et ont transformé des codes appartenant à la tradition de la disputatio médiévale afin de mettre en scène les dissensions religieuses de leur époque. Nous avons pris en compte deux acceptions du terme « dispute ». Il peut en effet être défini comme un débat formel et dialectique et comme la manifestation d’un désaccord violent entre deux personnes ou plus.La première partie étudie les éléments conflictuels que l’on trouve dans les scènes de dispute, observant comment les dramaturges mettent en scène les différents aspects du conflit théologique et se sont emparés de l’idée d’hybridité religieuse qui caractérise la période. Cette partie s’interroge sur la mesure dans laquelle la scène de dispute reflète mais aussi nourrit le conflit religieux. Toutefois, une seconde partie analyse ces dialogues et rencontres conflictuelles, souvent violents, comme une manière paradoxale de négocier une certaine forme de coexistence et de décréter une trêve. Une troisième partie se concentre enfin sur les procédés dramatiques mis en œuvre par les auteurs pour proposer une résolution du conflit et atteindre un compromis littéraire entre une forme artistique élitiste et populaire. Ce travail souligne également le lien entre une célébration de l’art du théâtre comme un art fondamentalement hybride et la représentation du conflit religieux à travers les scènes de disputeThis study focuses on ten plays written and performed between 1580 and 1625. The corpus includes plays by Robert Daborne, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Heywood, Christopher Marlowe, Philip Massinger, Thomas Middleton, Samuel Rowley, William Shakespeare and Nathaniel Woodes. The primary aim of this work is to determine the extent to which Renaissance dramatists appropriated and transformed the old tradition of the medieval disputatio in order to stage the religious dissensions of their time. Two definitions of the word ‘dispute’ were considered. Indeed, it can be defined both as a formal dialectical debate and as a violent disagreement between two or more people.The first part explores the conflictual elements to be found in a scene of dispute, looking at how the playwrights staged the different aspects of the conflict and dealt with the idea of religious hybridity which characterises the period. This part questions the extent to which the scene of dispute reflects but also fuels the religious feuds. Nevertheless, the second part analyses these conflictual, and sometimes violent, encounters and dialogues as a paradoxical way to negotiate a certain form of coexistence and to call a truce. Finally, a third part focuses on the way the playwrights used drama to suggest a solution to the conflict and to reach a compromise between an elitist and a popular form of art. This study also explores the link between the vindication of the art of theatre as something fundamentally hybrid and the representation of the religious conflict through scenes of dispute
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Sharland, Jill Elena. "The Secret Wife." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2002. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5101.
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This master's thesis project is the first half of a historical novel concerning the involvement of Elvira Field Strang Baker, the first plural wife of James Jesse Strang, with the "Beaver Island Mormons" who followed Strang from Nauvoo shortly after the death of Joseph Smith in 1844. The events portrayed are historical, although fictionalized. This portion of the novel contains a brief introduction to her childhood in Chapter One and follows her involvement with the Strangite movement beginning in April 1847 to the coronation of her husband in. Elvira was the first plural wife of James Jesse Strang who to this day is the only crowned American king. She married Strang in July 1849 and kept her marriage a secret for one year until Strang announced her as his wife during the above-mentioned coronation ceremony. Elvira was a woman ahead of her time. She was educated and had the opportunity to enjoy professional success which was rare for a woman of the mid-eighteenth century. She was a teacher, a trained tailor, an author of articles for her husband's newspapers, and one of his most capable administrators. While this portion of the novel focuses primarily on the early days of Elvira's acquaintance with James, his subsequent courtship, and the early days of their marriage, it also follows Elvira's movement within this unorthodox community that was supposed to be Zion.
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Smith, C. Julianne. "A Seal of Living Reality: The Role of Personal Expression in Latter-day Saint Discourse." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2006. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1301.
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A personal mode of discourse is central to Latter-day Saint culture. This mode is both pervasive throughout the culture and significant within it. Two specific genres-the personal experience narrative and the personal testimony-illustrate the importance of this discourse mode in LDS culture. Understanding the LDS personal mode of discourse is essential to properly understanding Mormonism. The personal orientation in LDS discourse mirrors a tendency towards personal expression which has become common throughout Western culture. This tendency has important roots in the Protestant religious movement. In particular, Puritanism represents a significant point of origin for American personal expression. Such expression has been further encouraged by the democratic climate of America and has become an important part of American religious discourse. However, LDS personal discourse cannot be explained by merely reducing the Latter-day Saint tradition to outside influences. Latter-day Saints, while deriving influence from many points, have fashioned a tradition of using personal expression in their religious discourse which deserves independent consideration. Within Latter-day Saint culture, the LDS tradition of personal discourse has special significance because it draws upon a host of doctrinal and cultural associations that are religiously significant to Latter-day Saints. LDS doctrines about the necessity of personal revelation and the importance of pragmatic action legitimate a religious focus on personal experience. Likewise, cultural encouragements towards personal religious involvement and spiritual expression foster a culture of personal expression. Because of these philosophies and commitments, LDS audiences respond powerfully to personal discourse. A personal style of discourse is important in mediating authority in the LDS religion. Personal expression is a means through which official LDS doctrine is conveyed. This mode of expression also allows individual Latter-day Saints to locate their identities within the structure of the LDS religion. Culturally-encouraged genres of personal expression allow LDS speakers to enact their religious beliefs. These genres reinforce fundamental LDS doctrines and serve an acculturating function in LDS culture. They teach Latter-day Saints how to experience, interpret, and speak about the world in ways consistent with the Latter-day Saint community's doctrines and commitments.
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Perry, Ann K. "Manliness, goodness, and God, poverty, gender, and social reform in English-speaking Montréal, 1890-1929." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0004/MQ28245.pdf.
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Stamper, Amber M. "Witnessing the Web: The Rhetoric of American E-Vangelism and Persuasion Online." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/3.
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From the distribution of religious tracts at Ellis Island and Billy Sunday’s radio messages to televised recordings of the Billy Graham Crusade and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, American evangelicals have long made a practice of utilizing mass media to spread the Gospel. Most recently, these Christian evangelists have gone online. As a contribution to scholarship in religious rhetoric and media studies, this dissertation offers evangelistic websites as a case study into the ways persuasion is carried out on the Internet. Through an analysis of digital texts—including several evangelical home pages, a chat room, discussion forums, and a virtual church—I investigate how conversion is encouraged via web design and virtual community as well as how the Internet medium impacts the theology and rhetorical strategies of web evangelists. I argue for “persuasive architecture” and “persuasive communities”—web design on the fundamental level of interface layout and tightly-controlled restrictions on discourse and community membership—as key components of this strategy. In addition, I argue that evangelical ideology has been influenced by the web medium and that a “digital reformation” is taking place in the church, one centered on a move away from the Prosperity Gospel of televangelism to a Gospel focused on God as divine problem-solver and salvation as an uncomplicated, individualized, and instantaneously-rewarding experience, mimicking Web 2.0 users’ desire for quick, timely, and effective answers to all queries. This study simultaneously illuminates the structural and fundamental levels of design through which the web persuades as well as how—as rhetoricians from Plato’s King Thamus to Marshall McLuhan have recognized—media inevitably shapes the message and culture of its users.
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Owen, Ceri. "Vaughan Williams, song, and the idea of 'Englishness'." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:117f2c64-3b63-43aa-9dd3-15a7ce2f9339.
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It is now broadly accepted that Vaughan Williams's music betrays a more complex relation to national influences than has traditionally been assumed. It is argued in this thesis that despite the trends towards revisionism that have characterized recent work, Vaughan Williams's interest in and engagement with English folk materials and cultures remains only partially understood. Offering contextual interpretation of materials newly available in the field, my work takes as its point of departure the critical neglect surrounding Vaughan Williams's contradictory compositional debut, in which he denounced the value of folk song in English art music in an article published alongside his song 'Linden Lea', subtitled 'A Dorset Folk Song'. Reconstructing the under-documented years of the composer's early career, it is demonstrated that Vaughan Williams's subsequent 'conversion' and lifelong attachment to folk song emerged as part of a broader concern with the intelligible and participatory quality of song and its performance by the human voice. As such, it is argued that the ways in which this composer theorized an idea of 'song' illuminate a powerful perspective from which to re-consider the propositions of his project for a national music. Locating Vaughan Williams's writings within contemporaneous cultural ideas and practices surrounding 'song', 'voice', and 'Englishness', this work brings such contexts into dialogue with readings of various of the composer's works, composed both before and after the First World War. It is demonstrated in this way that the rehabilitation of Vaughan Williams's music and reputation profitably proceeds by reconstructing a complex dialogue between his writings; between various cultural ideas and practices of English music; between the reception of his works by contemporaneous critics; and crucially, by considering the propositions of his music as explored through analysis. Ultimately, this thesis contends that Vaughan Williams's music often betrays a complex and self-conscious performance of cultural ideas of national identity, negotiating an optimistic or otherwise ambivalent relationship to an English musical tradition that is constructed and referenced through a particular idea of song.
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Langdell, Sebastian James. "Religious reform, transnational poetics, and literary tradition in the work of Thomas Hoccleve." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a2e8eb46-5d08-405d-baa9-24e0400a47d8.
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This study considers Thomas Hoccleve’s role, throughout his works, as a “religious” writer: as an individual who engages seriously with the dynamics of heresy and ecclesiastical reform, who contributes to traditions of vernacular devotional writing, and who raises the question of how Christianity manifests on personal as well as political levels – and in environments that are at once London-based, national, and international. The chapters focus, respectively, on the role of reading and moralization in the Series; the language of “vice and virtue” in the Epistle of Cupid; the moral version of Chaucer introduced in the Regiment of Princes; the construction of the Hoccleve persona in the Regiment; and the representation of the Eucharist throughout Hoccleve’s works. One main focus of the study is Hoccleve’s mediating influence in presenting a moral version of Chaucer in his Regiment. This study argues that Hoccleve’s Chaucer is not a pre-established artifact, but rather a Hocclevian invention, and it indicates the transnational literary, political, and religious contexts that align in Hoccleve’s presentation of his poetic predecessor. Rather than posit the Hoccleve-Chaucer relationship as one of Oedipal anxiety, as other critics have done, this study indicates the way in which Hoccleve’s Chaucer evolves in response to poetic anxiety not towards Chaucer himself, but rather towards an increasingly restrictive intellectual and ecclesiastical climate. This thesis contributes to the recently revitalized critical dialogue surrounding the role and function of fifteenth-century English literature, and the effect on poetry of heresy, the church’s response to heresy, and ecclesiastical reform both in England and in Europe. It also advances critical narratives regarding Hoccleve’s response to contemporary French poetry; the role of confession, sacramental discourse, and devotional images in Hoccleve’s work; and Hoccleve’s impact on literary tradition.
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Latham, Jamie Marc. "The clergy and print in eighteenth-century England, c. 1714-1750." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/275032.
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In much of the historiography surrounding print culture and the book trade, the worldliness of print remains a point of common emphasis. Indeed, many influential studies either assume or actively present the history of print as part of a broader ‘secularization thesis’. Recently, however, historians have challenged these narratives, recognizing the central role of religious print as a driver of growth within the book trade and discussion within the nascent ‘public sphere’. Yet the scholarship into ‘religion and the book’ remains fragmentary, focused on individual genres or persons, with no unified monograph or standard reference work yet to emerge. This dissertation addresses some of the barriers to synopsis by investigating the long-term print output of the largest social and professional group engaged in evangelizing Christianity to the public: the clergy of the Church of England. By focusing on the clergy, this dissertation evades the usual narrow focus on genre. In the past, book-historical and bibliographic studies have relied heavily on a priori classification schemes to study the market for print. While sufficient in the context of relatively well-defined genre categories, such as printed sermons, the validity of these classification schemes breaks down at the wider level, for example, under the conceptual burden of defining the highly fluid and wide-ranging category of ‘religious works’. This dissertation begins to remedy such problems by modelling the print output of a large population of authors who had the strongest stake in evangelizing Christianity to the public through print. It utilizes the latest techniques in the field of digital humanities and bibliometrics to create a representative sample of the print output of the Anglican clergy over the ‘long’ eighteenth-century (here 1660-1800). Based on statistical trends, the thesis identifies a crucial period in the history of clerical print culture, the first four decades of the Hanoverian regime. The period is explored in detail through three subsequent case studies. By combining both traditional and digital methods, therefore, the dissertation explores clerical publishing as a phenomenon subject to evolution and change at both the macro and micro level. The first chapter provides an overarching statistical study of clerical publishing between 1660 and 1800. By combining data from two bibliographical datasets, The English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC), and the prosopographical resource, The Clergy of the Church of England Database (CCED), I extract and analyse a dataset of clerical works consisting of almost 35,000 bibliographic records. The remaining chapters approach the thesis topic through primary research-based case studies using both print and manuscript sources. The case studies were selected from the period identified in the preceding statistical analysis as a crucial transitional moment in the history of clerical publishing culture, c.1714 to 1750. These case studies form chapters 2, 3, and 4, each of which explore a different aspect of a network of authors who worked under the direction of the bishop of London, Edmund Gibson (1723-1748), during the era of Whig hegemony under Sir Robert Walpole. Finally, an appendix outlines the methodology used in chapter 1 to extract the sample of clerical printed works from the ESTC. Overall, the thesis demonstrates the profound influence of the clergy on the development of English print in the hand-press period. It thus forms both a historiographic intervention against the secularization thesis still implicit in discussions of print culture and the book trade, as well as providing a cautionary critique of the revisionism which has shaped recent investigations into the Church of England.
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Galloway, James 1957. "English Arminianism and the parish clergy : a study of London and its environs c.1620-1640 / by James Galloway." 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/18652.
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Corrigenda is pasted onto front fly-leaf.Bibliography: leaves 357-370.
vii, 370 leaves : ill., maps ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1996?
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(9148919), Marsalene E. Robbins. ""The Breadth, and Length, and Depth, and Height" of Early Modern English Biblical Translations." Thesis, 2020.
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The significance of early modern Bible translation cannot be overstated, but its “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” have often been understated (King James Version, Ephesians 3.18). In this study, I use three representative case studies of very different types of translation to create a more dynamic understanding of actual Bible translation practices in early modern England. These studies examine not only the translations themselves but also the ways that the translation choices they contain interacted with early modern readers.
The introductory Chapter One outlines the history of translation and of Bible translation more specifically. It also summarizes the states of the fields into which this work falls, Translation Studies and Religion and Literature. It articulates the overall scope and goals of the project, which are not to do something entirely new, per se, but rather to use a new framework to update the work that has already been done on early modern English Bible translation. Chapter Two presents a case study in formal interlingual translation that analyzes a specific word-level translation choice in the King James Version (KJV) to demonstrate the politics involved even in seemingly minor translation choices. Chapter Three treats the intermedial translation of the Book of Psalms in the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter. By using the language and meter of the populace and using specific translation choices to accommodate the singing rather than reading of the Psalms, the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter facilitates a more active and participatory experience for popular worshippers in early modern England. Finally, Chapter Four analyzes John Milton’s literary translation in Paradise Lost and establishes it as a spiritual and cultural authority along the lines of formal interlingual translations. If we consider this translation as an authoritative one, Milton’s personal theology expressed therein becomes a potential theological model for readers as well.
By creating a more flexible understanding of what constitutes an authoritative translation in early modern England, this study expands the possibilities for the theological, interpretive, and practical applications of biblical texts, which touched not only early modern readers but left their legacies for modern readers of all kinds as well.
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Moore, William Gene. "From biblical fidelity to organizational efficiency: The gospel ministry from English Separatism of the late sixteenth century to the Southern Baptist Convention of the early twentieth century." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10392/259.
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This dissertation provides a historical and theological examination of Baptist views of the gospel ministry from English Separatists of the late sixteenth century to the Southern Baptist Convention of the mid-1920s. Chapter 1 provides the thesis of the dissertation, background material to its being written, and the methodology by which its conclusions are reached.
Chapters 2 through 4 provide overviews for the ministry among English Separatists, British Baptists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and American Baptists of the mid-seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, respectively. Each chapter focuses upon primary writings revealing each group's understanding of such issues as the office of the minister, the divine call to the ministry, ordination, preparation, the call by a congregation to a local church, and mutual responsibilities of ministers and church members.
Chapters 5 through 7 examine the ministry among Southern Baptists from about 1865 to 1925. While the fifth chapter follows the same pattern as the previous three, Chapter 6 examines the beginning of a shift in the focus of the work of the minister from 1865 to 1900 with the introduction of organizational efficiency. Chapter 7 demonstrates that this shift became denominationally accepted during the early twentieth century.
This work maintains that the heritage of Southern Baptists expressed consistent views concerning the office of the minister into the latter decades of the nineteenth century. The minister's call to the ministry, preparation, ordination, call to a congregation, and mutual responsibilities with church members were derived from clear biblical statements and principles. The end of the nineteenth century, however, witnessed a shift in the Southern Baptist view of the work of the ministry regarding the ability to produce quantifiable outcomes-a shift which became firmly established during the first two and a half decades of the twentieth century. This shift fueled a Baptist concern for organizational efficiency, a concern which viewed successful churches as those which were optimally organized to produce quantifiable results. Because pastors were seen as the key to organizational efficiency, they were judged according to the success of their churches' achieving those results.This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.
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Clark, Jan Katherine. "Of kings and popes and law: an examination of the Church and state relationship in England during the high Middle Ages and the influence of that relationship on the structure and processes of English law." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4071.
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During the latter half of the 11th century through to the end of the 13th century, Europe was experiencing what is considered by some historians as “the” medieval renaissance, otherwise referred to as the European Renaissance of the Twelfth Century. The time appears to have been ripe for an explosion of cultural and intellectual advancement and change. Two fields that experienced significant development during that period were law and governance, both secular and ecclesiastical.
In England, the period which most legal historians consider to be the key formative years of the common law was the reign of King Henry II. Indeed, Sir William Holdsworth credits Henry II for “substituting one common law for that confused mass of local customs of which the law of England had formerly consisted”. But as R.H. Helmholz said, “legal history, like any other, is a history of winners, and the history of the losing side is often overlooked. That we only hint of the history of the canon law by reference to the common law is a fact of life and not to be lamented”. However, he admonishes us not to ignore the intrinsic importance of the jurisdiction once exercised by the courts of the Church in the development of the law of England.
I take up Helmholz’ challenge in this thesis and examine the relationship that developed between the English royal authorities and the Latin (Western) Christian Church from the beginning of the reign of Edward the Confessor to the end of the reign of King John. Through a review of cases reported by the Selden Society from the royal courts of Henry II, Richard I and John, I then focus my research on the 62 year period between the beginning of the reign of Henry II and the death of John, and consider the influence of the Church and State relationship on the structure and processes of the developing English royal law and its scope.Graduate
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Parrey, Yvonne Margaret. "'Examples and instrumentes of vertues' : vernacular books and the formation of English nuns, c. 1380 to 1540." Phd thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/144351.
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Douglas, Nigel Charles. "The Fall Into Modernity." Thesis, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10756/288464.
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