During the revolutionary decade of the 1640s Thomas Collier emerged from his native Somerset to become a significant Particular Baptist leader. He produced more than a score of books and established numerous churches. Collier was a well-known controversialist who debated opponents on subjects such as baptism and the ordination of lay preachers. Collier's theology was worked out in the heat of such debates and must be studied against that landscape to be properly understood. Collier's writings and career reveal surprising willingness to embrace heterodox theological positions by Particular Baptist standards, especially in the late 1640s and after 1660. In the early period of his career he was enaroured of an allegorical, spiritualizing method of biblical interpretation and after 1660 he became increasingly hostile to limited atonement and election. The most orthodox phase of Collier's career was the period between 1653 and 1659 when he served as the leader of the Particular Baptists' Western Association. Under his leadership the association produced their Somerset Confession in 1656. After the Restoration Collier's disputes were increasingly with his fellow Particular Baptists. The publication of his Body of Divinity in 1674 and his Additional Word as a supplement to it in 1676 revealed increasingly divergent soteriological and eschatological views from those being espoused by the Particular Baptists. An attempt was made to discipline Collier by the London Baptist leadership, which was strongly and successfully resisted by Collier and his supporters within his local church in Southwick, Wiltshire. Collier's 1678 Confession of Faith, written in response to the London Baptists' adaptation of the Westminster Confession published the previous year, illustrated the wide breach of doctrine that had developed between Collier and his denominational colleagues.

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This work examines the historical details and the theological implications of a controversy that took place at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The controversy began when Associate Professor Norman Shepherd’s teaching on James 2:14-21 came under intense scrutiny. He was dismissed from his teaching post despite repeated exonerations by the seminary’s board, faculty and by his own presbytery. He taught that the formula <i>justification by faith alone</i> does not appear in Scripture or in the Westminster Standards and that Luther’s insertion of the particle <i>alone</i> in the formula<i> justification by faith alone</i> is exegetically indefensible.  The view of Calvin, and not that of Luther, has been given confessional standing in the <i>Westminster Confession of Faith</i>.  Calvin’s independence from Luther is essential for understanding this controversy. Part One explicates the administrative and procedural history of the controversy, and it identifies the major points of disagreement.  It details the processes and approaches that were used, neglected, or abused: interpersonal communications, group discussions, committee meetings, etc.  These data are evidence that the board did not have “adequate grounds” to dismiss Shepherd. Part Two examines the theology and the integrity of a document titled “The Commission on Allegations Regarding Professor Shepherd: Summary of Allegations”.  This document is examined for three reasons: it represents the mature theological expression of Shepherd’s opponents; the commission’s hearing is the last forum in which Shepherd was examined by the seminary; and the judgement of the commission is a matter of record. Shepherd’s repeated exonerations by the seminary and by his presbytery affirm that his understanding of justification by faith, his exegesis of James 2, his teaching on baptism, and his understanding of the “covenant dynamic” do not represent departures from historic Reformed theology; his formulations are orthodox.

The first Christian historian, Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote his pioneering Ecclesiastical History in the early 4th century, just after the western emperor Constantine’s “conversion” to Christianity. It was a history born of Eusebius’ present and designed for the future. Reading Eusebius and the Ecclesiastical History within the second sophistic movement, I argue that Eusebius’ picture of Christian history appropriated the past to fundamentally re-imagine the essence of Christian authority. Eusebius’ descriptions of past Christians used them as exemplars of a new model of Christian leadership designed for his 4th century context. Eusebius was writing in the first place for the Christian clergy; elite provincial Christians who shared the mores and stereotypes of their elite non-Christian neighbours. He therefore presented a model of Christian authority not based around the extreme violence of martyrdom and asceticism which had characterised the charismatic heroes of earlier 2nd and 3rd century Christian literature. It was based instead on a traditional elite rhetoric of temperance, learned through paideia and manifested in care for dependents. Around this thread Eusebius built his Empire-wide church.

Religious leaders were key figures within African American society in the late antebellum South. They undertook a vital religious function within both the plantation slave community and the institutionalised biracial and independent black church and many became a focal point for African American Christianity amongst slaves and free blacks. These religious leaders also took on a number of secular responsibilities, becoming counsellors, mediators, and advisors, individuals that blacks would frequently seek out for their opinion, advice and solace. African American religious leaders held a position considered to be vital and prestigious. But such a position was also perilous. Black religious leaders had to reconcile the conflicting demands of two groups whose needs were almost diametrically opposed. Slaves and free blacks wanted to hear a message of hope, but the Southern elite wanted to hear a message of obedience to ensure that their authority remained unchallenged. Appeasing both groups was an almost impossible task. Failing to meet their demands, however, could be disastrous for black religious leaders. Slaves and free blacks who heard a message of obedience to the Southern white elite rejected the authority of the black preacher, who was then often unable to continue his ministrations. Conversely, those who were considered to be teaching a message that was undermining the planter's authority faced reprisals from white society. These reprisals could be violent. In order to survive, black religious leaders had to chart a difficult course between the two groups, giving a sense of hope to the enslaved but in a manner that did not appear to undermine white authority. Within historical scholarship, it has been argued that African American religious leaders shared a common role. By the late antebellum period, however, a divide had emerged amongst black religious leaders. Although they continued to share many of the same goals, responsibilities, and challenges, the form of Christianity practiced by black preachers on the plantation was not the same as that practiced by licensed black ministers in the biracial and independent black church. Christianity within the plantation slave community continued to include African traditions and rituals that had survived the transatlantic crossing. Christianity within the biracial and independent black church, however, had begun to reject these African traditions as backward and outdated, and had moved instead towards a form of religion that, whilst still emotional and uplifting, was also more formal and hierarchical, resembling the Christianity of white Southern evangelicals.Black preachers and licensed black ministers were preaching Christianity in the face of adversity and had the potential to become political leaders within the African American community. The realisation of this potential was hindered, not only by the constant supervision of these religious leaders by the white elite but also through the refusal of black preachers and ministers to use Christianity to justify acts of resistance. This research adds new insight to the role of African American religious leaders through a detailed understanding of their different approaches in delivering the Christian message.

This thesis is the first study of Church of Scotland chaplains serving with the Army during the Second World War. It explores the way in which the Church of Scotland accepted the challenge of the Second World War and how the Presbyterian chaplains were recruited, trained and how they performed their ministerial duties under wartime conditions. The thesis opens with an examination of the Church of Scotland during the inter-war years, with particular attention to the background of those ministers who were ordained in the 1930s and who were later recruited as Army Chaplains from 1939-45. The discussion highlights pacifism, anti-Semitism, and the Scottish response on the German Church struggle. The thesis then considers from a Scottish perspective the history of the Royal Army Chaplains' Department and the involvement of the Church of Scotland Chaplains' Committee in looking after the interests of Presbyterian chaplains and Scottish soldiers at home and overseas. The thesis considers the factors which led ministers to enlist as chaplains, and assesses the training which they received. It shows how Scottish chaplains integrated with both officers and men and the contribution they made to the moral and spiritual life of many units. Inevitably a number of chaplains were captured in the course of their duty and taken as prisoners of war. This thesis includes a chapter on ministry in the POW camps. The thesis includes two case studies on the wartime experiences of the Very Rev Prof. T.F. Torrance and the Very Rev Dr. R. Selby Wright. Torrance was enlisted into the Church of Scotland Huts and Canteens organisation and saw active service in Italy. Selby Wright meanwhile enlisted as a TA chaplain in 1939 but was later seconded to the BBC as the "Radio Padre". Finally, this thesis concludes with a chapter in which the chaplains are allowed to reflect on their wartime experience and an assessment is made of the overall work and worth of this particular wartime ministry.

This thesis traces the establishment and development of a functioning reformed church in the parishes of Fife after the official Reformation of 1560. Based principally on archival sources, especially the records of the kirk sessions which governed the church at parish level, it examines how ecclesiastical institutions developed and interacted with laypeople, and evaluates the progress made in the challenging task of inculcating Protestant values and identity in Fife’s parishioners. The first section examines the development of the reformed church in three chapters on the parish ministry, church discipline, and reformed worship respectively. The progress made in providing parish ministers and establishing kirk sessions was hesitant, and it took several decades before the church’s institutions were functioning healthily across Fife. This gradual process of reformation was not what the original reformers wanted, but it may have in fact eased the transition to the more firmly Protestant parish culture that emerged around the turn of the century. The second section looks more thematically at three key aspects of the church, focusing mainly on this latter period. The fourth chapter analyses the ministry as a profession, while the fifth chapter goes on to discuss the efforts made to instruct the laity in more detailed Protestant understandings from the 1590s onwards. The sixth and final chapter returns to the subject of discipline, describing the main targets of the disciplinary regime and evaluating the effectiveness of discipline. The church that emerged in the seventeenth century was relatively healthy, staffed by a stable and well-educated ministry, and was starting to make much stronger efforts to educate and discipline the laypeople of Fife. The thesis concludes that while the Scottish Reformation still emerges as an ultimately successful transformation, the path to religious change was more complicated than has been appreciated by historians.

Stigand occupied a place in or near power for at least fifty years and yet has only been studied very peripherally and in reference to others. He has been vilified or lauded by historians ever since the Conquest. His wealth and methods of acquisition of wealth as well as his political activity have been used to paint him as an ambitious prelate interested only in power and motivated by greed. His unusual advancement to the see of Canterbury and apparent disregard for papal strictures caused him to be used as representative of all of the faults of the Anglo-Saxon Church. Other commentators took the opposite approach and portrayed him as a hero and patriot who resisted the Conqueror until he could no longer put off defeat. Neither of these interpretations is likely to be accurate and neither is wholly supported by the surviving evidence. Much of Stigand’s early life is undocumented and must be inferred within reasonable limits. Most of the sources in which extensive comment about Stigand can be found are post-Conquest and contribute their own particular challenges to discovering the facts about a largely pre-Conquest life. Based on monastic chronicles, Domesday Book, legal documents and the writings of Mediæval historians and commentators, in order to define the context in which he lived and worked including the politics of the English church, the kingdom, the Apostolic See and his lay associates this study is an attempt to clarify the life and career of Stigand, the last and extremely controversial Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury.

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.

The subject of Scottish lay religious faith in the eighty years prior to the Reformation of 1559-60 is one in which a variety of concepts and concerns emerge. The choice which has been made reflects the constraints of time and space. Some attempt has also been made to address those areas which have been overlooked by historians, or rarely discussed, such as the role of Mary in lay religious faith. It was necessary to explain lay images of the afterlife in order to understand the path which laypeople chose to attain salvation, so chapters on the Day of Judgement, heaven, hell and purgatory should be seen as the context for understanding the chapters on God, Mary and Jesus. The first chapters discusses the Day of Judgement, an event which must be understood in order to interpret all lay religious attitudes and actions. The basic assumption of the Scots was that all people would be judged at the Day of Judgement, so decisions were made on earth in terms of their understanding of God's expectations on this final day. There were, in effect, two "Days of Judgement", a particular and a general one. An understanding of the nature of these two Days of Judgement illuminates understanding of the laity's conception of the function of purgatory, in particular, and also the importance to salvation of church rituals such as the Eucharist, as well as saintly and human intercession after death. Part of the thesis discusses heaven, hell and purgatory, those states of being which were the laity's future after death.