Overview
The claim that the Bible was 'the Christian's only rule of faith and practice' has been fundamental to Protestant dissent. Dissenters first braved persecution and then justified their adversarial status in British society with the claim that they alone remained true to the biblical model of Christ's Church. They produced much of the literature that guided millions of people in their everyday reading of Scripture, while the voluntary societies that distributed millions of Bibles to the British and across the world were heavily indebted to Dissent. Yet no single book has explored either what the Bible did for dissenters or what dissenters did to establish the hegemony of the Bible in British culture. The protracted conflicts over biblical interpretation that resulted from the bewildering proliferation of dissenting denominations have made it difficult to grasp their contribution as a whole. This volume evokes the great variety in the dissenting study and use of the Bible while insisting on the factors that gave it importance and underlying unity. Its ten essays range across the period from the later seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century and make reference to all the major dissenting denominations of the United Kingdom. The essays are woven together by a thematic introduction which places the Bible at the centre of dissenting ecclesiology, eschatology, public worship and 'family religion', while charting the political and theological divisions that made the cry of 'the Bible only' so divisive for dissenters in practice.
Full Product Details
Author: Scott Mandelbrote (Fellow of Peterhouse, University of Cambridge) ,
Michael Ledger-Lomas (Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College, London)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.40cm
, Height: 2.90cm
, Length: 24.20cm
Weight: 0.662kg
ISBN: 9780199608416
ISBN 10: 0199608415
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 31 October 2013
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
This book offers a collection of through, serious essays on subjects close to the heart of this reviewer. They are often fascinating, never less than stimulating and informative, and at times challenging and provocative. * F J Morley, Congregational History Society Magazine * The volume is thoroughly researched, clearly written, and wide-ranging within its topic ... Whether narrowly or broadly construed, the enterprise is worthy. All thanks and praise to the editors and authors of Dissent and the Bible for beginning the conversation and setting high standards for anyone wishing to join in. * Charles I. Wallace, Church History *
This book offers a collection of through, serious essays on subjects close to the heart of this reviewer. They are often fascinating, never less than stimulating and informative, and at times challenging and provocative. F J Morley, Congregational History Society Magazine
This book offers a collection of through, serious essays on subjects close to the heart of this reviewer. They are often fascinating, never less than stimulating and informative, and at times challenging and provocative. * F J Morley, Congregational History Society Magazine * The volume is thoroughly researched, clearly written, and wide-ranging within its topic ... Whether narrowly or broadly construed, the enterprise is worthy. All thanks and praise to the editors and authors of Dissent and the Bible for beginning the conversation and setting high standards for anyone wishing to join in. * Charles I. Wallace, Church History * Covering a wide range, and offering detailed accounts of important case studies, this volume provides the thematic and historiographical backbone for future work on Dissent and the Bible in Britain. * Crawford Gribben, Queen's University Belfast, History *
Author Information
Scott Mandelbrote is Fellow of Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge. Michael Ledger-Lomas is Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College, London.
