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This book traces the development of Ireland's Magdalen Asylums, which are the homes that were founded in the mid-nineteenth century for the detention of prostitutes undergoing reform. The inmates of these asylums were discouraged (and many forcibly prevented) from leaving, and sometimes were detained for life. Put to work without pay in adjoining laundries, these women were subject to penance, harsh discipline, enforced silence, and prayer. As the numbers of prostitutes began to dwindle, the church looked elsewhere for this free labor, targeting other “fallen” women such as unwed mothers and wayward or abused girls. Some were incarcerated simply for being “too beautiful”, and therefore in danger of sin. Others were mentally retarded. Most of them were brought to the asylums by their families or priests, and many were forcibly prevented from leaving. Unbelievably, the last of these asylums was closed only in 1996. Drawing on hitherto unpublished material, the author presents case histories of individual women and their experiences in Magdalen homes, which claimed some 30,000 women in all.

Dionysius Exiguus composed a 95‐year list of Easter dates beginning in what he designates as the year 532 from Christ. His list was a continuation of an Alexandrian table that ended in the year 247 from Diocletian. How Dionysius knew that 247 Diocletian should be followed by the year 532 of the Lord has puzzled scholars for almost 1500 years. His year AD 1 seems inconsistent with the evidence of the New Testament for the chronology of Christ. This book argues that Dionysius did not calculate a new date at all. He adopted the Christian era of Julius Africanus, which was based on a date for the crucifixion in AD 31 and the assumption that Jesus was 30 years old at that time. This date was transmitted to Dionysius Exiguus through the Easter calculations of Alexandria. About the same time, the Armenian church adopted a national era whose first year they synchronized with the year 553 from Christ. This Armenian Christian era agrees with that of Dionysius, but adjusted to the Armenian calendar. The Armenians received this numbering of the years from Christ independently from Dionysius, through the Alexandrian Easter tables.

The book takes a wide-ranging look at all of the main bodies — Anglican, Free Church, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic — which collectively make up ‘the Christian Church’. Their distinctive beliefs, attitudes, structures, and personalities receive attention, but all are firmly set in social, political, and cultural contexts. The comparisons, connections, and contrasts across England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales that raise issues of identity and allegiance, particularly at moments of political change and conflict, are emphasized. The book identifies a series of underlying tensions. In charting the stuttering development of ecumenism, it stresses a place between ‘unity’ and ‘diversity’, both within and between the Churches. In considering ideologies, it notes contrasting attitudes to liberal democracy, communism, and fascism. In analysing attitudes during the two world wars, the Cold War, and decolonization, it detects a place between patriotism and pacifism. In considering social welfare, it observes support for ‘the Welfare State’ and some apprehension about its implications. These and other cognate matters, particularly the control and content of education, are manifestations of a wider issue which pervades the book: the ambiguous ending of ‘Christendom’. The context in which the churches functioned at the beginning of the 20th century, in both Britain and Ireland, was very different from that at its close. The final concern, therefore, is with countries variously described as Christian, multi-faith, post-Christian, or secular. The book concludes with an exploration of the puzzling and unresolved uncertainties which this ‘pluralism’ presents, both for the Churches and the wider society.

John Erskine was the leading evangelical in the Church of Scotland in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Educated in an enlightened setting at Edinburgh University, he learned to appreciate the epistemology of John Locke and other empiricists alongside key Scottish Enlightenment figures such as his ecclesiastical rival, William Robertson. Although groomed to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, Erskine changed career paths in order to become a minister of the Kirk. He was deeply moved by the endemic revivals in the west of Scotland and determined that his contribution to the burgeoning evangelical movement on both sides of the Atlantic would be much greater as a clergyman than a lawyer. Yet Erskine was no “enthusiast.” He integrated the style and moral teachings of the Moderate Enlightenment into his discourses and posited new theories on traditional views of Calvinism in his theological treatises. Erskine's thought, however, never crossed the boundaries of orthodoxy. He hoped to update evangelicalism with the new style and techniques of the age without sacrificing the gospel message. While widely recognized as an able preacher and theologian, Erskine's primary contribution to evangelicalism was as a disseminator. He sent correspondents like the New England pastor Jonathan Edwards countless religious and philosophical works so that he and others could learn about current ideas, update their writings, and provide an apologetic against perceived heretical authors. The book argues that within his lifetime, Erskine's main contribution to evangelicalism was as a propagator of an enlightened form of evangelicalism.

This book discusses the ethical implications of German liberal theology in the early years of the 20th century. It seeks to understand a much neglected period on its own terms. The leading figure, Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923), is treated as a ‘public theologian’, engaging at many different levels with his social and political context and trying to ensure that religion could continue to shape the future course of history. To understand his context he made use of the tools of the emergent discipline of sociology and also entered into dialogue with philosophers and historians. Troeltsch's public theology is contrasted with other liberal modes of theology, particularly those of the New Testament scholar, Wilhelm Bousset, and the systemic theologian, Wilhelm Hermann, who were far more reluctant to engage seriously with their situation and as a result isolated religion from its broader context. Troeltsch's theological solution is also compared with Max Weber's sociological response to the problems of modernity: Troeltsch's ideas of cultural synthesis are seen as both constructive and critical and as having much to contribute to contemporary social and political theology.

This book seeks to answer the question: What happens when a revivalist religion based on scriptural orthodoxy participates in the volatile politics of the Third World? Is the result a democratic politics of the ballot box, or is it more like an authoritarian politics of command from on high? Does the evangelical faith of the Bible hinder or promote a politics of the ballot box? At a time when the global-political impact of another revivalist and scriptural religion—Islam—fuels vexed debate among analysts the world over, this book aims to offer an unusual comparative perspective on a critical issue: The often combustible interaction of resurgent religion and the developing world's unstable politics. This book considers the case of Latin America, where evangelical Protestantism is increasingly challenging the historical Catholic hegemony in the religious sphere. In Latin America, Protestant identity was forged in relation to the dominant Catholicism, producing an “adversarial” style of Protestantism. This necessarily colors the role of evangelicalism in Latin America civil society. The Introduction to this book offers a historical overview of evangelicalism in the region. The book then offers individual case studies of five countries: Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

This book offers a reassessment of the theology of Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), one of the most significant theologians of the modern Church of England. It seeks to place Maurice’s theology in the context of nineteenth-century conflicts over the social role of the Church, and over the truth of the Christian revelation. Maurice is known today mostly for his seminal role in the formation of Christian Socialism, and for his dismissal from his chair at King’s College, London, over his denial of the doctrine of eternal punishment. Drawing on the whole range of Maurice’s extensive published work, this book argues that his theology as well as his social and educational activity were held together above all by his commitment to a renewal of Anglican ecclesiology. At a time when, following the social upheavals of the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, many of his contemporaries feared that the authority of the Christian Church — and particularly of the Church of England — was under threat, Maurice sought to reinvigorate his Church’s sense of mission by emphasizing its national responsibility and its theological inclusiveness. In the process, he pioneered a new appreciation of the diversity of Christian traditions that was to be of great importance for the Church of England’s ecumenical commitment. He also sought to limit the damage of internal Church division by promoting a view of the Church’s comprehensiveness that acknowledged the complementary truth of convictions fiercely held by competing parties.