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The Shaping of Western Civilization: From the Reformation to the Present begins with the Reformation and ends with globalization. Unlike other textbooks that pile on dates and facts, Shaping is a more coherent and interpretive presentation.
Michael Burger's goal in this inexpensive overview is to provide a brief, historical narrative of Western civilization. Not only does its length and price separate this text from the competition, but its no-frills, uncluttered format and well-written, one-authored approach make it a valuable asset for every history student. The Shaping of Western Civilization: From Antiquity to the Mid-Eighteenth Century begins with the ancient Near East and ends with the mid-eighteenth century. Unlike other textbooks that pile on dates and facts, Shaping is a more coherent and interpretive presentation. Burger's skills as writer and synthesizer will enable students to obtain the background required to ask meaningful questions of primary sources. In addition to suggestions for further reading, this overview includes over 40 images and 14 maps.
Being released in the 400th anniversary of his birth, Enamoured with Piety by Dr. Yarran Johnston, offers an insight into the life and ministry of the Puritan, Thomas Watson. Johnston traces the pervading theme of godliness in Watson’s thoughts and writings, making the case that Watson represents English Puritanism in its mature phase, specifically in its understanding of godliness as a proper regard for God.
Four years after John Bunyan released his instantly popular journey allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, he published The Holy War--a battle allegory and companion volume. His first book explores salvation of the individual Christian; the second portrays the battle for sanctification. While Christian struggles with questions about assurance of salvation, the collective Mansoul labors with the challenges of being led by and filled with the Holy Spirit. The Pilgrim's Progress focuses on the individual's struggle against sin; The Holy War portrays the Church in a corporate struggle against systemic evil. Bunyan wrote that The Holy War originates in "the same heart, and head, fingers and pen" as The...
In their studies of social Christianity, scholars of American religion have devoted critical attention to a group of theologically liberal pastors, primarily in the Northeast. Gary Scott Smith attempts to paint a more complete picture of the movement. Smith's ambitious and thorough study amply demonstrates how social Christianity--which included blacks, women, Southerners, and Westerners--worked to solve industrial, political, and urban problems; reduce racial discrimination; increase the status of women; curb drunkenness and prostitution; strengthen the family; upgrade public schools; and raise the quality of public health. In his analysis of the available scholarship and case studies of individuals, organizations, and campaigns central to the movement, Smith makes a convincing case that social Christianity was the most widespread, long-lasting, and influential religious social reform movement in American history.
This book provides a new account of the emergence of the philosophy of personal identity in the early modern period. Reflection on personal identity is often thought to have begun in earnest with John Locke’s famous consciousness-based account, published in the 2nd Edition of the Essay in 1694. The present work argues that we ought to understand modern notions of personal identity, including Locke’s own, as emerging from within debates about the metaphysics of resurrection across the seventeenth century. It recovers and analyses theories of personal identity and resurrection in Locke and Leibniz, as well as largely-forgotten theories from the Cambridge Platonists, Thomas Jackson, and Fra...
Explores how Vanity Fair transformed from its Puritan origins as an emblem of sin into a modern celebration of hedonism.
Mystical Bedlam explores the social history of insanity of early seventeenth-century England by means of a detailed analysis of the records of Richard Napier, a clergyman and astrological physician, who treated over 2000 mentally disturbed patients between 1597 and 1634. Napier's clients were drawn from every social rank and his therapeutic techniques included all the types of psychological healing practised at the time. His vivid descriptions of his clients' afflictions and complaints illuminate the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people. This book goes beyond simply analysing mental disorder in a seventeenth-century astrological and medical practice. It reveals contemporary attitudes towards family life, describes the appeal of witchcraft and demonology to ordinary villagers, and explains the social and intellectual basis for the eclectic blend of scientific, magical, and religious therapies practised before the English Revolution. Not only is it a contribution to the history of medicine but also a survey of some of the darkest regions of the mental world of the English people of the seventeenth century.
Challenging contemporary perceptions of the ascetic in the early modern period, this book explores asceticism as a vital site of religious conflict and literary creativity, rather than merely a vestige of a medieval past.