...an important contribution. ...it is difficult to see how the historical argument could be any better presented than has been done by James McGoldrick. —Founders Journal

Over a 15-year period beginning in the mid-1970s, more than 40,000 Ethiopian Jews migrated from Africa and resettled in Israel. The return of the "Black Jews" to Israel is one of the most unique phenomena of modern day Black history for two reasons: first, the Ethiopian Jews are the only group of Africans practicing Judaism and secondly, they are the only group of Africans to immigrate to a predominantly white society for religious reasons. The Black Jews of Ethiopia examines the past of the Ethiopian Jews, or Beta Israelites, in order to understand their present life in Israel. Part I of the book looks at the pre-exodus Ethiopians, focusing on the social and cultural factors which fashioned their existence in Africa; Part II analyzes the compelling political, social, psychological and economic factors which led to the Ethiopian Jew exodus; the final sections of the book discuss the current conditions in Israel and the factors which either help of hinder their complete absorption into Israeli society. A must for any library supporting African or Judaic studies.

An important book, superbly produced. —Theological Book Review

At the end of the nineteenth century, a small group of American students launched a student mission movement that eventually recruited and helped to deploy more than twenty thousand missionaries over a period of about half a century. The story of the Student Volunteer Movement has been often recounted, but never in relationship to the colossal tragedies of the Great War. This is surprising, since the war challenged in fundamental ways both the premises and the practices of the Protestant missionary crusade. A Christian civilization's claim to moral superiority was savaged by the European war. International cooperation among Protestant denominations and missionary organizations received a devastating setback. The war crushed the cheerful hopes of the Social Gospel, that liberal alliance between the kingdom of God and American culture. The identification of the missionary and national causes in wartime led to a serious loss of credibility for missions in the decade after the war. This confusion of crusades, among a generation of disillusioned crusaders, dealt the Student Volunteer Movement (SVM) a blow from which it never recovered. The decline of the SVM was the result of many forces, both internal and external to the movement. Inextricably linked to many of these was the pervasive influence of the World War I. Although the volunteer movement finally disappeared, its response to the Great War is a significant chapter in the ongoing story of Christian missions, and an important contribution to our understanding of the encounter of religion and culture in America. The legacy of the Student Volunteer Movement could be seen at the end of the twentieth century in a lively evangelical student missionary movement that was organizing itself for the third millenium of Christian missions. It could be seen as well in national and international ecumenical structures that had been nurtured by the early volunteers. The End of the Crusade looks at the development and eventual decline of the SVM, chronicling the disillusionment felt by student volunteers as they were compelled to leave the SVM and enlist in a different crusade. With 11 black and white illustrations.

Douglas Geyer's illuminating analysis of Mark 4:35-6:56 explains why the Gospel ends as it does in the earliest manuscripts—abruptly, at 16:8, with the words, "for they were afraid." This ending, with women fleeing the empty tomb in "trembling and astonishment," has long been considered "problematic," and, in the several attempts to rewrite it, Mark 16 has become a source of unending mischief. Dr Geyer's work draws on a vast literature of fear, anomaly, terror, and dread in the ancient world to demonstrate that this ending is a consistent, overriding theme of Mark's Gospel.

In Mark we see and hear the story of Jesus through the eyes and ears of the Roman world. Dr Geyer brings to bear the literature of that world in a way that helps his readers to understand what Mark is doing and how the story that Mark tells continues to touch his readers and hearers ancient and modern (and "postmodern"). Dr Geyer guides the reader through a vast and uncharted primary literature, demonstrating its relevance for New Testament study. In so doing he clearly proposes a fresh and original understanding of Mark that cuts across many of the critical controversies and renews its purpose and usefulness as "good news"—Gospel—for the terrors and uncertainties of our own time.

I have read and studied many books on the Gospel of Mark (and written some, too), but I have never come across anything that illuminated Mark in the way that Dr Geyer's study has done. . . . I am confident that Dr Geyer's research will have a permanent effect on the study of Mark, and that this will be wholly beneficial. —John C. Fenton, Christchurch, Oxford

Douglas Geyer has found in Mark what is missing in the other Gospels (and Paul). Receiving the Gospel is not a mental exercise or a change in social context. Receiving the Gospel depends on serious doubt—the fear that the world is ordered by powers that cannot be trusted. The good news is that Jesus can trustfully encounter, though not resolve, the Anomalous Frightful. Geyer's research has serious theological importance. His case is founded on an incredible number of parallels in Greco-Roman literature. From a literary standpoint his argument is most convincing. —Graydon F. Snyder

This book examines the religious dimensions of an early twentieth century black power movement, the universal Negro Improvement Association, whose founder, Marcus Garvey, is here regarded as a religious thinker self-consciously endeavoring to construct their historical experience as a people.

...Burkett has convincingly demonstrated that earlier writers...were wrong in their treatment of Garvey's relations with the black clergy and in many of their assumptions about the religious elements of Garveyism...this carefully researched and insightful study is a major contribution to our understanding of the Garvey phenomenon. —American Historical Review

Emphasizes the English hymn as a literary entity within denominational and historical contexts. The author sets forth a number of definitions for hymnody and congregational song, and then examines the development of the various forms in England and the United States chronology, from the early Church through the twentieth century. Rogal focuses on Luther and his contemporaries; psalters and psalm paraphrases; Isaac Watts; the literary hymn in England and America during the nineteenth century; the nineteenth century American gospel song; and trends and developments on both sides of the Atlantic in this century. With a listing of works for further reading and an index to all hymns discussed.

...adds its part to what continues to be an on-going study of great worth and interest. —Sacred Music

...valuable both for the historical information it provides and for its appreciative evaluation of the religious treasures enshrined in English-language hymns. —Adris Newsletter

Foreword by C. Judson Child, Jr., former Chancellor, University of the South; Preface by George Daniel Browne, Bishop of Liberia. This study is at once an important discussion of a dimension of the role of Christian missions in the making of modern Africa; an historical account of the work in Liberia of the Episcopal Church of the United States; and a glimpse into the social history of Liberia. In seven chapters covering the period 1821-1980, based on primary archival sources and interviews, the author tells the story of what led the American Church to extend its missionary enterprise to Liberia, how it was established in the area, and how it came to be shaped by the peoples and cultures of the area, even as it left its controversial cultural imprint on the land.

...presents a definitive picture of the Church in West Africa...accurate, objective and important. —Vivian J. Edwards, St. Augustine College

Elwood Dunn has done us a great service in offering this carefully documented work...a must-read book. —Sewanee Theological Review

...a remarkable success...a thorough, painstaking narrative history...some dramatic and lurid incidents...Dunn has created a solidly coherent story from a mass of evidence. Everyone interested in the history of Christianity in Africa will be grateful to him for this contribution to the whole. —nglican and Episcopal History

One of the most significant books on Liberia to come along in years...urge your college and public library to get one. —Lone Star

Rastafari is one of the most significant yet least understood new religious movements in the twentieth century. Originating in Jamaica in the 1930s, it has evolved into a popular international phenomenon. Yet scholars have continued to view Rastafari in a marginal way as an other-worldly, fragile, or avant-garde social emergent. This book argues, rather, that Rastafari represents a transformative consciousness of "I-Sight" which is paradigmatic of a new social ethic. This ethic reflects a distinctive self-understanding (I-n-I ), lifestyle (livity), and center of value (Ethiopia ). The author is the first researcher to interpret Rasta poetry and song lyrics in relation to systematically constructed concepts of Jamaican religion and culture. Analyzing the meaning of key symbols in a wide cross-section of dub and other Rasta poetic expressions in the past quarter century, he explains many of the ambiguities and inconsistencies in the previous scholarship on Rastafari. As an interpretive sociological account of Rastafarian ethics, the book should be of interest to students and scholars in cultural analysis, Caribbean Studies, new religious movements and ethics, as well as students of English literature and aesthetics.

His extensive research into their [Rastafarians] lives and beliefs, and especially their poetry, shows that they are misunderstood because they are countercultural, egalitarian and without organized structure. —Theology Digest

Few questions have troubled Christians more than the destiny of those who do not hear the gospel. For reasons described in this work, Irenaeus (second century Bishop of Lyons) did not directly address the issue of the salvation of the unevangelized. A careful analysis is therefore made of the saving effects of the various modes of revelation about which Irenaeus wrote, in the context of his conflict with the Gnostics. Particular attention is given to his understanding of the respective roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in divine revelation, the role of the Church, and the human response to divine revelation which is necessary for salvation. Tiessen concludes that Irenaeus should not be cited as an early proponent of Karl Rahner's "anonymous Christianity" without careful qualification. Some aspects of his thought, however, indicate that he might have granted the possibility of salvation for individuals outside of the institutional Church, if he had known a situation such as we know today. The work will be of particular interest to patrologists, missiologists, and theologians interested in the issues of revelation and salvation.

...a useful introduction to the subject... —Theological Studies

...Tiessen thoroughly examines Irenaeus, and arrives at what is surely (and perhaps self-evidently) the right answer. Of interest particularly to theologians and ecclesiologists. —Religious Studiew Review

...this work has the great value of recognizing the differing views on the success of the great commission between Irenaeus and ourselves. —Missiology

There is no question that women preachers helped to make the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century a powerful religious movement of enduring significance. This book is an effort to rediscover the lost history of the early women preachers of Methodism and their relationship to its primary leader, John Wesley. Chilcote reconstructs the portraits of over one hundred fascinating women, including Sarah Crosby, Mary Bosanquet, and Sarah Mallet, in a highly readable narrative interweaving biographical, historical, and theological concerns.

This definitive study ought to be required reading in all courses on Methodism. —Dr. Diane Lobody, Warner Chair in Church History, Methodist Theological School in Ohio

... there are extended biographies of a number of the more important women preachers, but it is the Appendix of forty-two biographical outlines, with bibliographical references, which provides much additional material and so forms the basis for further study and exploration into this absorbing subject. —E. Dorothy Graham, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society

The series should be congratulated for publishing this remarkably able analysis of women in the early British Wesleyan movement. Chilcote's strength rests firmly on intensive research into the women functioning in British Wesleyanism and his notes expand the analysis of the topic. ...his appendices will serve as a vital starting-point ... Chilcote allows the women to speak for themselves through extensive quotation from letters and diaries. ... provides also valuable insight into the more normal activities of women in class meetings, bands, prayer meetings, and the day-to-day life of the church. ... invaluable for anyone interested in the conjunction of women and institutional religion, the empowerment of women, or for truly understanding the significance of the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century and its nineteenth-century evolution. It is logical, articulate, and interesting for a broad audience. —Neil Semple, Jnl. Canadian Church Hist Soc.

This critical edition of the works of Jupiter Hammon, the first black writer in America, modernized for 20th-century readers, includes vital background on Jupiter Hammon's life and times. Disinformation on striking similarities between northern slavery (particularly in Hammon's home state, New York) and the southern colonies, and on the slaves' survival strategies, has led to misinterpretation and underevaluation of works by 18th-century slave writers like Hammon, Wheatley, Occum, Equiano, and others. Equally important is the explication of Biblical symbolism that these writers used in surreptitious code to inspire rebellion against slavery.

Not often does a literary analysis offer clarification and insight of prevailing historical analysis. But that is precisely what... O'Neale's analysis... does... forces us to reckon with a liberation theology among black Americans originating in 18-th century structures of domination. —Cynthia Hamilton, Director, African and Afro-American Studies, University of Rhode Island

... clearly and rightly interprets his writings as the earliest anti-slavery protest published by a black person.... places Hammon's writings in their widest possible context.... a much needed corrective to many years of misinterpretation and misinformation... —John C. Diamond, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta

... O'Neale supports her claims by giving excellent analyses of the poems and prose that show how Hammon delivered his real message through the use if masking devices, mostly accomplished by employing biblical rhetoric and imagery.... Recommended for all students and researchers of African American studies. —Choice

Nuclear weapons challenge traditional moral and political categories for the evaluation of war. This book argues that political and technological changes have demonstrated the inadequacy of both just war theory and political realism in relation to modern war, and examines how these changes have transformed the way in which war is conceived and fought. War with nuclear weapons is no longer a contest of military strength but a bargaining process characterized by the manipulation of risk. Current thinking often rests on an outdated understanding of war. This unique book spans the disciplines of history, ethics, and international relations theory in its search for an adequate response to the criminal burden of nuclear weapons.

Adeney's book is valuable to an academic library for it illustrates an influential, Protestant-Christian approach to the problem." —Choice

Erwin Goodenough was not only a historian of religion whose writings on Philo Judaeus and Jewish symbols have had a major impact on the study of Judaism through their emphasis on the existence of multiple Judaisms, especially Hellenistic. He was also a pioneer in regarding sex as integrally related to the spiritual. His insistence on the "value of 'myth' for moderns" in 1937 anticipated Joseph Campbell's development of that thesis and his popular television talks on the subject with Bill Moyers. To see how Goodenough came to these views it is necessary to follow the course of his life, as it determined the directions his scholarship took and his conclusions. We gain insight as we trace his personal journey, from the fundamentalist Methodist upbringing through his introduction to the Harvard Divinity School's empiricism, his first marriage and the years at Oxford, his relationships with Tom French, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, and his divorce and remarriage. Myth for Moderns chronicles this extraordinary life, providing insight in narrative form peppered with excerpts from letters to his parents, his second wife, and his many friends. Interviews conducted by the author with those who knew him throughout his life further complete the life story of this intriguing man. With seven black and white photographs.

Rubinstein examines the efforts of the Protestant missionaries, representatives of evangelical mission societies in Great Britain and the United States, who sought to introduce Protestant Christianity to Canton, Guangdong Province, and the great empire that was the Qing-dominated China in the decades before the Opium War. He discusses the cultural and political background, the work of missionary pioneer Robert Morrison of the London Missionary, and follows the evolution of his mission work in Canton. The book concludes by showing how British and American missionaries joined forces to create a viable and influential Anglo-American missionary community in South China.

Moore provides new insights into the complex and crucial role which the Protestant liberal theology of the evangelical missionary enterprise played in the evolution of Pan-Africanism. He also challenges the traditional interpretations that depict Africans and African-Americans as passive recipients of Western theology and missiology. Moore begins with an overview of the recent literature and introduces the missiological roots of evangelical Pan-Africanism. He then examines the synthesis of theological liberalism and Pan-Africanism as reflected in the writings and activities of Orishatukeh Faduma, who attempted to adapt theological liberalism and its missiological and educational tenets to the Pan-African cause. With bibliography.

Press Toward the Mark recounts the story of one denomination's growth and development into a mature church body in the northeastern United States. The volume covers the period from 1830 to 1930, during which the Lutheran Ministerium of New York and Adjacent States experienced repeated divisions, with the formation of eight different synods, before all were eventually reunited in 1929 to form the United Lutheran Synod of New York. The book introduces two topics in telling the story: the rise of denominationalism and the development of the Lutheran confessional movement in the United States. As a case study of one denomination's development, the volume also contains an extensive bibliography, and numerous illustrations, maps, charts, graphs, and tables detailing the patterns of growth, division, and merger, down to the individual congregations which made up the United Synod.

Stephens traces the changing conception of the person of Christ in American Protestantism from the mid-eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century. He focuses on the various ways by which Christology found expression in the works of Jonathan Edwards, major figures of the New Divinity, William Ellery Channing, selected Unitarian leaders, Moses Stuart, Leonard Woods, Charles Hodge, John W. Nevin. He emphasizes the inherent conflict found in the variety of images of Christ, culminating in the more Christocentric theology which found expression in the work of Horace Bushnell. A useful contribution to the study of the history of religion, to American history of that period, and to philosophy.

The past two decades have seen a resurgence of interest in American manifestations of the nineteenth century high-church movement, including the German Reformed confessionalism of the "Mercersburg theology" of John Williamson Nevin (1803-1886) and Philip Scharff (1819-1893). Reformed Confessionalism in Nineteenth Century America is a scholarly yet accessible resource for religious historians, mainline and evangelical ecumenists, liturgists, pastors, and educated laypersons. Contributors include James D. Bratt, Richard E. Wentz, Walter Conser, Jr., and John B. Payne.

The study of the hymnody of both the State Church and the Free Churches of Scandinavia was undertaken because of the scarcity of detailed writings in English on this subject. The author traces the development of hymnody in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark from the Protestant Reformation to the present, with special attention to the hymnody of the Baptist, Methodist, Mission Covenant, and Pentecostal denominations in these countries.

This is a scholarly work of particular interest to church musicians or historians, and a useful addition to music or theological library collections. —Dorothy E. Jones, Arba

...A wealth of valuable and interesting information...Fills a large gap not only in English-language hymnological writing, but in the history of European free-church hymnody. —The Hymn

...an important contribution to hymnology. —Review & Expositor

...much needed...a wealth of valuable information. Recommended. —American Organist

Explores the relationship between theology and preaching by examining the careers of four enormously influential, twentieth-century New York preachers (Harry Emerson Fosdick, George Buttrick, Paul Scherer, and Ralph Sockman), whose sermons reached the leaders in culture, commerce, and government across the United States. It examines these preachers' pulpit theology in its social, cultural, political, economic and demographic context as well as their doctrine and the theological legacy they bequeathed. Sundays in New York will be of interest to historians, theologians, students, and practitioners of ministry.

In Book XI of the Confessions, Augustine claims that time has its beginning and ending in eternity. In Being and Time, Heidegger claims that death is the ultimate futural possibility for authentic human existence. These two texts, one from the fourth century, the other from the twentieth century, depict two very different perspectives on what limits the human conception of time. Can these perspectives be reconciled? Initially, Severson follows Paul Ricoeur's reconciliation of Augustine and Heidegger on time and eternity as presented in Time and Narrative (Chicago, 1984-88). But Ricoeur's argument is criticized for lacking theological depth. Building upon the earlier work of Bultmann, Tillich, and Scharlemann, Severson offers a new reading of the Confessions that affirms Augustine's religious quest for understanding while taking into account the constraints of modern criticism.

A Catholic Book Club Selection for May 1996—Father John LaFarge, S.J., (1880-1963) was one of the most prominent American Roman Catholic clergymen of his time, who achieved recognition as a major civil rights activist in the years before and after World War II. An Unordinary Man examines the extraordinary career of this civil rights activist and editor of America—from his youth in Rhode Island, through the founding of the Catholic Interracial Council and the writing of his encyclical on racism (at the request of Pope Pius XI in 1938), to his continued presence in the civil rights movement. Based largely on LaFarge's private and professional papers, as well as interviews with relatives and colleagues, this biography offers civil rights and religious historians a new viewpoint on the participation of the Catholic Church in the civil rights movement. Includes a bibliographical essay and a selected bibliography.

Hecht's wide knowledge of the LaFarge family is put to good advantage in telling this story...a very good read. —Commonweal

...well-written study of a key group of professionals.... Certainly libraries serving theological colleges should seriously consider acquiring a copy of What Ministers Know. —G. E. Gorman, ALR

...an important and unique book —Library and Information Science Research