This thesis examines the relationship between the Africa Inland Mission (AIM) and the Africa Inland Church (AIC) in Kenya between 1939 and 1975. AIM began laying plans for an African denomination in Kenya in 1939 and established the Africa Inland Church in 1943. The mission did not clearly define the nature of its relationship with the church it founded. The arrangement was informal, and evolved over time. In addition, the relationship between the AIM and the AIC between 1939 and 1975 was often troubled. African independent churches were formed in the 1940s because of dissatisfaction over AIM policies. The mission opposed devolution in the 1950s, even when other mission societies were following this policy in preparation for independence in Kenya. AIM continued to resist a mission church merger in the 1960s and did not hand over properties and powers to the church until 1971. The study focuses on how the mission’s relationship with the church it founded evolved during this period. It considers how mission principles and policies created tension in the relationship with the church it founded. First, it examines how mission policy contributed to significant schisms in the 1940s, giving rise to African independent churches. Second, it looks at how AIM interpreted and responded to post-war religious, political and social changes in Kenya. Third, it explores the reasons for AIM’s rejection of a proposed mission-church merger in the late 1950s. Fourth, this study investigates mission motives for resisting increased African pressure for devolution after independence in Kenya even while it helped establish the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and Madagascar. Fifth, it considers what happened to the mission and the church in the aftermath of a merger in 1971.

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Creating moralistic societies was a concern of the churches and the governments of Scotland and the American colonies of New York and New Jersey in the eighteenth century. However, church and state relations in Scotland and the American colonies were dissimilar and the differences manifested themselves in the various approaches taken by each body to suppress the immoral behaviour that existed in both countries. By examining the disciplinary procedures and cases in the parishes of the Presbytery of St Andrews and the Presbyterian churches in the colonies of New York and New Jersey, these divergences emerge and illuminate the relationship between church and state. The Church of Scotland was recognized as the established church by the state and was allowed to implement its own Presbyterian system of government and discipline according to its ecclesiastical doctrines and theological beliefs. The state utilized its legal systems to punish and correct immoral behaviour. In Scotland, the two systems had defined boundaries and complemented one another in their efforts to suppress immorality. However, not only did the American colonies lack a centralized state until 1776, but the colonies also lacked an established church. Alternatively, each colony had its own governing bodies, judicial systems, and a variety of church denominations. The Presbyterian Church, one of the many churches in the colonies of New York and New Jersey, utilised a Presbyterian system of ecclesiastical discipline in order to supplement the judicial systems' attempts to suppress immorality within the colonies.

This thesis examines the impact in mid- to later-seventeenth century England of the major contemporary religious controversy in France. The debates associated with this controversy, which revolved around the formal condemnation of a heresy popularly called Jansenism, involved fundamental questions about the doctrine of grace and moral theology, about the life of the Church and the conduct of individual Christians. In providing an analysis of the main themes of the controversy, and an account of instances of English interest, the thesis argues that English Protestant theologians in the process of working out their own views on basic theological questions recognised the relevance of the continental debates. It is further suggested that the theological arguments evolved by the French writers possess some value as a point of comparison for the developing views of English theologians. Where the Jansenists reasserted an Augustinian emphasis on the gratuity of salvation against Catholic theologians who over-valued the powers of human nature, the Anglican writers examined here, arguing against Protestant theologians who denied nature any moral potency, emphasised man's contribution to his own salvation. Both arguments have been seen to contain a corrosive individualism, the former through its preoccupation with the luminous experience of grace, the latter through its tendency to elide grace and moral virtue, and reduce Christianity to the voluntary ethical choices of individuals. These assessments, it is argued here, misrepresent the theologians in question. Nevertheless, their thought did encourage greater individualism and moral autonomy. For both groups, their opponents' theological premises were deficient to the extent that they vitiated morality; and in both cases their responses, centring on the transformation of the inner man by love, privileged the moral responsibility of the individual. Their moral 'rigorism', it is suggested, focusing on the affective experience of conversion, represented in both cases an attempt to provide a sound empirical basis for Christian faith and practice in the fragmented intellectual context of post-reformation Europe.

Charles University in Prague, Catholic Theological Faculty Thesis, Prague 2013 ABSTRACT Ecclesiology of Tomáš Bavorovský († 1562) Jaroslav Havrlant Catholic preacher Tomáš Bavorovský (Thomas of Bavorov) is still a quite unknown personality of Bohemian renaissance. He is the representative of the Church loyal to the Pope in Rome shortly before the end of the Trident council and the arrival of Jesuits to Prague. The result of my study aimed at his ecclesiological approach is my thesis, which contains five chapters. The first three chapters are concerned with common historical facts of his time as well as with life and work of the preacher. The others focus on his interpretation of the Church and the Kingdom of God. The first chapter describes specific situation of Bohemian reformation, which was different from the neighboring countries because of its Hussite tradition and Utraquistic Church. Tomáš Bavorovský worked mostly in Catholic south and west Bohemian towns (Bavorov, Český Krumlov, Jindřichův Hradec, Plzeň). Therefore I describe in short also their religious history in this chapter. The part concerning the personality of the preacher starts with describing him as a writer. In chronological sequences it presents the writers who have written about him. Even though Tomáš Bavorovský was quite famous author...

This study addresses eighteenth-century English-speaking evangelicals' understandings of church history, through the lens of published attempts to represent preceding Christian centuries panoramically or comprehensively. Sources entail several short reflections on history emerging in the early years of the transatlantic Revival (1730s-1740s) and subsequent, more substantial efforts by evangelical leaders John Gillies, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Joseph and Isaac Milner, and Thomas Haweis. Little scholarly analysis exists on these sources, aside from the renaissance of interest in recent decades in Edwards. This is surprising, considering the acknowledged prominence of history-writing in the eighteenth century and the influence attributed, then and now, to the works of authors such as Gibbon, Hume, and Robertson. The aim is, first, to elucidate each of the above evangelicals' interpretations of the Christian past, both in overview and according to what they said on a roster of particular historical events, people and movements, and then to consider shared and divergent aspects. These aspects range from points of detail to paradigmatic theological convictions. Secondarily, evangelical church histories are analyzed in relation to earlier Protestant as well as eighteenth-century 'enlightened' historiography, in part through attention to evangelical authors' explicit engagement with these currents. This contextualization assists in determining the unique qualities of evangelical interpretations. Is there, then, evidence of a characteristically 'evangelical' perspective on church history? An examination of this neglected area illumines patterns and particulars of evangelicals' historical thought, and these in turn communicate the self-perceptions and the defining features of evangelicalism itself. Findings support the primary contention that evangelical leaders made use of a dynamic pattern of revival and declension as a means of accounting for the full history of Christianity. Beyond displaying the central place of 'revival' for evangelicals, these church histories demonstrate evangelicalism‘s complex relationship—involving both receptivity and critique—with Protestant and Enlightenment currents of historical inquiry.

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There had been three different churches in Libštát for many years. This dissertation is covering the history of the Reformed church and the history of the Lutheran church. The group that had registered under the Reformed church after the issue of the Patent of the Tolerance was larger. Therefore, they were faster in getting their own minister. It was Jan Csomor, who came in 1783. They also managed to build their own church, which was consecrated in 1787. However, the Lutheran church was smaller in numbers, so they could not establish their independent church, thus they became a part of the church family with the seat in a remote village called Křížlice. They also did not manage to get the permission to build their own church, so they had been existentially struggling for quite a long time. In the end, they succeeded and built their own church in 1842. After that, they achieved independence from Křížlice in 1867 and got their first minister the very next year. The history of the whole community allows us to study the relations between the two churches and their following union in 1918. The last third of the 19th century seems to play the key role in the convergence of the two churches. The Reformed minister, Emanuel Havelka, and the Lutheran minister, Petr Marušiak, have probably played a crucial role in...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:48:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Flavio Antonio Alves da Costa.pdf: 1422026 bytes, checksum: 4ee98149d64f4898521b8594811b988a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-19 / Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie / The imolantation of the Protestantism, particularly of the Presbyterianism, in Brazil began in 1859, with the work of the Presbyterian missionary Rev. Ashbel Green Simonton. At that time, even though the Roman Catholicism was disorganized and almost abandoned by the Roman Catholicism, it was powerful. The Presbyterian Mission started to be an option for the natives in Brazil. The Presbyterianism, in its long implantation process, development and structuring, was marked by successes and internal schisms. In 1888, the Presbyterianism became administratively independent, giving origin to the Presbyterian Church of Brazil. However, the Presbyterianism did not remain as a homogeneous Protestant movement. In 1903 the first schism appears in the Brazilian national environment, giving rise to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Some years later, more precisely thirty seven years, a theological debate arouse inside of that church, which represented tendencies already existent. The essential issue that starts the rupture is The Doctrine of the Endless Punishment. Besides the above essential issue, this paper will present other aspects that indirectly contributed for the organization of the Conservative Presbyterian Church of Brazil; and as that Church consolidated herself in the national Protestantism environment. / A implantação do Protestantismo, particularmente do Presbiterianismo, em nossa Pátria foi iniciada pelo missionário Rev. Ashbel Green Simonton no ano de 1859. No quadro existente do século XIX, ainda que o Catolicismo romano estivesse desorganizado e quase na condição de abandono na Sé Romana, mesmo assim era a maior força religiosa. O Presbiterianismo de missão passa a ser um contraponto de opção para os patrícios. A trajetória do Presbiterianismo, no seu longo processo de implantação, desenvolvimento e estruturação, é marcada por sucessos e rupturas internas. Em 1888, o Presbiterianismo torna-se autônomo administrativamente, dando origem a Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil. Contudo, o Presbiterianismo não se mantém como um movimento protestante homogêneo. Em 1903, ocorre o primeiro cisma e assim surge, no cenário nacional brasileiro, a Igreja Presbiteriana Independente do Brasil. Passados alguns anos, mais precisamente trinta e sete anos, é deflagrado um debate teológico dentro daquela igreja. Os debates representam as tendências e as correntes já existentes ali. O elemento que desencadeia a ruptura é a chamada doutrina das Penas Eternas . Além da pedra de toque apresentada acima, a presente dissertação apresentará outros aspectos que indiretamente contribuíram para a organização da Igreja Presbiteriana Conservadora do Brasil; e como esta Igreja se consolidou no cenário do Protestantismo nacional.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:48:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Robson do Boa Morte Garcez.pdf: 1378287 bytes, checksum: 1f00e34724f63db4d5b8f50b63ce883e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-12 / The implantation of the Presbyterianism in Brazil began in 1859 with the arrival of the Presbyterian missionary Rev. Ashbel Green Simonton. The Presbyterianism, in its long implantation process, development and structuring, was marked by successes and internal schisms. In 1903 the first schism appears in the Brazilian national environment, giving rise to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil. Some years later, more precisely thirty seven years, a theological debate arouse inside that church, which represented tendencies that already existed. The essential issue that starts the rupture is The Doctrine of the Endless Punishment." Besides the above essential issue, this paper will present other aspects that indirectly contributed for the organization of the Igreja Cristã de São Paulo; at the same time, it intends to demonstrate the contribution of ICSP members for the Education and Teaching at São Paulo State University. / Implantado no Brasil em 1859, com a chegada de Ashbell Green Simonton, o Presbiterianismo, em sua histórica trajetória, passou por embates internos que não o fizeram soçobrar. Em 1903, um primeiro cisma fez surgir a Igreja Presbiteriana Independente do Brasil, que saía da Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil (Egreja Presbyteriana do Brasil). No final da década de 30 do século passado, um novo conflito, de ordem teológica, abalava o presbiterianismo nacional, dentro da IPIB. Desta feita, seu objeto e seus debates se centravam na doutrina das Penas Eternas , o que desembocaria, em fevereiro de 1942, em uma nova ruptura. No grupo de membros que agora deixava a IPIB havia duas facções: uma conservadora outra modernista ou liberal. Estes se organizaram a Igreja Cristã de São Paulo, de membresia intelectualizada e piedosa; aqueles formaram a Igreja Presbiteriana Conservadora do Brasil, naturalmente de cunho ortodoxo. Esta dissertação, após estudar estes atos e fatos, também trata da contribuição de alguns membros da ICSP à educação e cultura, especialmente como professores da Universidade de São Paulo.