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Family Worship, Prayer Meetings, and Lay Involvement in Church Life

Andrew R. Holmes

in The Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian Belief and Practice, 1770-1840

This chapter describes the opportunities for fellowship and spiritual development that existed alongside public worship by assessing family worship and the development of prayer and fellowship ... More

This chapter describes the opportunities for fellowship and spiritual development that existed alongside public worship by assessing family worship and the development of prayer and fellowship meetings. It offers some comments about the impact of evangelicalism upon lay involvement in religious life in general, and Presbyterian church life in particular.Less

Preaching

Andrew R. Holmes

in The Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian Belief and Practice, 1770-1840

This chapter examines the various traditions and changes within Ulster Presbyterian preaching. The first section provides an overview of Old Light and Seceder preaching, drawing attention to the ... More

This chapter examines the various traditions and changes within Ulster Presbyterian preaching. The first section provides an overview of Old Light and Seceder preaching, drawing attention to the ‘free offer of the gospel’ and its importance to the development of evangelicalism within Presbyterianism. Section two begins with some general comments about the influence of Enlightenment ideas upon Presbyterian preaching, as mediated through university education and presbytery trials, before examining New Light preaching. Section three assesses lay attitudes towards preachers and their sermons. The final section examines the development of an evangelical style of preaching in the 19th century that was influenced by the prevailing cultural mood of the time, but was also deeply indebted to the Old Light and Seceder preaching of the previous century.Less

Pastoral Care and Public Worship in Ireland 1770–1850

Nigel Yates

in The Religious Condition of Ireland 1770-1850

This chapter examines the pastoral functions of the churches in Ireland. It considers the educational and social background of the clergy, the role of the laity, public worship, and the principle ... More

This chapter examines the pastoral functions of the churches in Ireland. It considers the educational and social background of the clergy, the role of the laity, public worship, and the principle elements of the programmes of religious reform in Ireland. The chapter is arranged thematically, and not on the basis of denominational divisions.Less

Ecclesiastical Reform in Action: Some Diocesan and Presbytery Case Studies

Nigel Yates

in The Religious Condition of Ireland 1770-1850

This chapter examines in detail, based on surviving documentary evidence, the reform programme in specific dioceses and presbyteries.

The Laity

Paul Lakeland

in From Trent to Vatican II: Historical and Theological Investigations

This chapter explores the role of the laity in the Catholic Church. The Trent and Vatican II councils' views about the laity are discussed. It is argued that a theological understanding of the laity ... More

This chapter explores the role of the laity in the Catholic Church. The Trent and Vatican II councils' views about the laity are discussed. It is argued that a theological understanding of the laity is an entire ecclesiology, and one that cannot be healthily constructed without honestly facing the problems that a cultic understanding of priesthood has bequeathed to the Church.Less

Continuing Family Quarrels and the Methodist Opinion of Charles Wesley

Gareth Lloyd

in Charles Wesley and the Struggle for Methodist Identity

The friction between the Wesley brothers reflected rising tensions within Methodism. Points of disagreement included the mutual dislike between Charles and John's wife, disputes over money, and ... More

The friction between the Wesley brothers reflected rising tensions within Methodism. Points of disagreement included the mutual dislike between Charles and John's wife, disputes over money, and Charles's gradual disengagement from the Methodist itinerancy. Charles also experienced increasingly difficult relations with some preachers, whom he suspected of disloyalty to the Church of England. This rash of problems resulted in Charles Wesley's controversial decision to retire from the Methodist itinerancy in 1756. His withdrawal from the itinerancy did not, however, result in Charles's complete isolation within the Methodist movement. He remained a popular figure with many of the laity and his loyalty to the Church was shared by a substantial body of Methodist opinion.Less

 Response of the Church and the Theological Academy to FAW

David W. Miller

in God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement

This chapter explores what the faith at work movement offers its participants, focusing on the inadequate response by the church and the academy to the questions and issues surrounding the ... More

This chapter explores what the faith at work movement offers its participants, focusing on the inadequate response by the church and the academy to the questions and issues surrounding the integration of faith and work. It identifies several reasons why clergy and religious professionals do not perceive and therefore do not respond to the needs that are driving the FAW movement. These include pejorative marketplace perceptions, liturgical narrowness, clericalism, language, and inexperience.Less

Catholic Action: A Twentieth‐Century Social Movement (1920s–1930s)

Gerd‐Rainer Horn

in Western European Liberation Theology: The First Wave (1924-1959)

This chapter points to the crucial role played by Catholic Action in the fashioning of progressive European Catholicism. In the process of attempting to win back lapsed Catholics, whose numbers had ... More

This chapter points to the crucial role played by Catholic Action in the fashioning of progressive European Catholicism. In the process of attempting to win back lapsed Catholics, whose numbers had swelled in rough proportion to industrialization, innovative methods were applied by ‘specialised Catholic Action’ to regain rapid access to secularized working class communities. However, Joseph Cardijn's stress on the self‐organisation of Catholic working class youth organizations engendered an unintended dynamic. Organisations such as the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne instilled a growing sense of self‐empowerment within their membership and occasionally facilitated a political radicalization which far outpaced the missionary motivations which lay at the origins of Catholic Action. The rise of Catholic Action in the age of Mussolini and Pius XI is seen as a consequence of the growing power of the laity within the Catholic Church.Less

Theology and Philosophy in the Age of Fascism, Communism, and World War

Gerd‐Rainer Horn

in Western European Liberation Theology: The First Wave (1924-1959)

This chapter concentrates on new departures in the realm of Catholic theology and philosophy in the age of fascism, communism and world war. In a concentrated effort to overcome the stifling effects ... More

This chapter concentrates on new departures in the realm of Catholic theology and philosophy in the age of fascism, communism and world war. In a concentrated effort to overcome the stifling effects of neo‐Thomist scholasticism, the latter a by‐product of the crisis of modernism within the Catholic Church, progressive Catholic thinkers promoted a return to the sources (ressourcement), which allowed them to revalidate the original dynamism characteristic of Thomism. At first careful to introduce new theologies in traditional garb, the cataclysm of fascism and world war liberated the energies of progressive thinkers and cast aside their inhibitions. A theology of the laity, for example, finally saw the light of day, no longer needing to hide behind murky definitions of the Church as the ‘mystical body of Christ.’ Brief summaries of Jacques Maritain's Christian humanism, Emmanuel Mounier's personalism and the theology of labor by Marie‐Dominique Chenu round off this chapter.Less

Potential Catholic Learning Around Lay Participation in Decision‐making

Paul Lakeland

in Receptive Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning: Exploring a Way for Contemporary Ecumenism

This chapter considers the issue of the participation of Roman Catholic laity in church governance from a theological, ecumenical, and political perspective. On the historical path, it looks at where ... More

This chapter considers the issue of the participation of Roman Catholic laity in church governance from a theological, ecumenical, and political perspective. On the historical path, it looks at where the question of lay governance had generally arrived with the Second Vatican Council's seminal work on the laity. On the theological path, it examines recent developments in thinking on ordained and baptismal priesthood within Catholicism, partially inspired by ecumenical learning. On the political path, it turns to developments in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States in the last five years.Less

From Missions to Churches

Ian Breward

in A History of the Churches in Australasia

British and French missions and colonization were closely related. The pace of Christianization varied, for Pacific Islanders and Aborigines were not just passive recipients, but actively sought ... More

British and French missions and colonization were closely related. The pace of Christianization varied, for Pacific Islanders and Aborigines were not just passive recipients, but actively sought advantages from conversion and formed adjustment cults. As migration increased, settler churches were formed. Lay participation was stronger than in their homelands. Resistance to the principle of establishment was considerable, though government subsidies to churches were important in certain Australian colonies.Less

Choosing God's People

Philip N. Mulder

in A Controversial Spirit: Evangelical Awakenings in the South

Laity in the audiences and congregations embraced the message of the preachers all too well during the Great Awakenings. Accounts show that men, women, Anglo‐, and African‐Americans accepted not only ... More

Laity in the audiences and congregations embraced the message of the preachers all too well during the Great Awakenings. Accounts show that men, women, Anglo‐, and African‐Americans accepted not only the general need for salvation, but also the denominations’ prescriptions for conversion. True conversion required selecting the particular beliefs of one denomination and specifically rejecting those of the others. The reborn had to turn away from false churches and teachings just as they cast aside their sinfulness. Choice, the celebrated feature of evangelical religion, emboldened laity and helped the democratization of American Christianity, but it also assured that a spirit of distinction would hover over the quarreling faithful of the South. Baptists’ oppositional religion steadily displaced Methodists’ universal faith.Less

Roles in Public Worship

Karen B. Westerfield Tucker

in American Methodist Worship

The leadership of Methodist worship has always involved men and women, lay and clergy, although there have been limitations placed upon certain categories of people at different times. Unordained ... More

The leadership of Methodist worship has always involved men and women, lay and clergy, although there have been limitations placed upon certain categories of people at different times. Unordained preachers served Methodism from its beginnings, and laity has always had roles as class leaders, exhorters, stewards, stewardesses, and song leaders. Deaconesses assisted or led in worship to the extent that any layperson could. The principal liturgical ministers were the elders and, to a much more limited extent in terms of sacramental presidency, the deacons. The only distinct liturgical role of the general superintendent or bishop came at services of ordination.Less

The Conciliar Movement

Hamilton Hess

in The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica

Church councils and synods (terms used in the West and the East, respectively) began as gatherings of leaders and representatives from several church congregations for the resolution of issues of ... More

Church councils and synods (terms used in the West and the East, respectively) began as gatherings of leaders and representatives from several church congregations for the resolution of issues of shared concern by discussion and collective decision‐making. From the evidence available to us, such gatherings first appeared during the latter part of the second century, but the practice may have begun earlier. By the third century, strong congregational leadership by bishops had become almost universally established; and, as fully evidenced by the letters of Cyprian of Carthage, councils and synods became occasions for the assembly of neighbouring bishops for deliberation together with the bishop, clergy, and people of the host congregation. The procedures employed at these gatherings were patterned on those of civil government, the most directly influential model having apparently been the Roman Senate. While the strength and effectiveness of episcopal leadership continued to increase, during the third century the clergy and laity of the local congregation where the council or synod was held retained a voice in the proceedings. Two other conciliar styles—dialogic discussion and judicial investigation—were also adopted from civil models to ecclesiastical use during the third and fourth centuries.Less

Forces for Change in Catholic Ministry

Richard A. Schoenherr

David Yamane (ed.)

in Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church

This chapter examines seven historical trends related to the Catholic Church that have been gaining strength over the latter half of the twentieth century. Each trend comprises two countervailing ... More

This chapter examines seven historical trends related to the Catholic Church that have been gaining strength over the latter half of the twentieth century. Each trend comprises two countervailing forces in a dialectical relationship. Together they compose a matrix that is creating tension toward change in the structure of Catholic ministry that will lead first to married priests and then to the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. The seven trends are the demographic transition to a shortage of priests documented in the USA; the shift from dogmatism to pluralism; the shift from a Western to a world Church; celibacy and the growing personalism of human sexuality; the feminist movement; the lay movement; and the liturgical movement. Part III of the book (Chs. 7–9) further examines this trend.Less

Hierarchy and Hierophany

Richard A. Schoenherr

David Yamane (ed.)

in Goodbye Father: The Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church

This chapter continues the discussion begun in the last two, in examining trends six and seven of the seven trends in the matrix of social forces affecting the Catholic Church. These belong to the ... More

This chapter continues the discussion begun in the last two, in examining trends six and seven of the seven trends in the matrix of social forces affecting the Catholic Church. These belong to the lay movement, which reflects the dynamic tension (conflict) between laity and clergy produced by the Catholic Church's division of labor and the liturgical movement, which reflects the tension between sacrament and Bible in Catholic worship. In other words, both the lay and liturgical movements draw their dynamism from the conflict between hierarchic and hierophanic power. Thus, the countervailing powers of hierarchy and hierophany are bound up in the tension between the forces of unity and diversity, and the tension between the forces of immanence and transcendence. Priest shortage (the first trend) brings these tensions to a head, and as the decline in the priest population continues, it is argued that it acts as a catalyst provoking a series of far‐reaching changes, most notably the loss of the sacrificial focus of the Mass.Less

Networks of Readers, Networks of Meaning

Amy Johnson Frykholm

in Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America

Argues that especially with religious fiction, reading cannot be understood as a private act but must be placed into a social context. Readers engage in reading Left Behind through a series of ... More

Argues that especially with religious fiction, reading cannot be understood as a private act but must be placed into a social context. Readers engage in reading Left Behind through a series of networks that contribute to the meaning they give the text. This chapter examines two contexts in which the reading of Left Behind occurs: the church “home” and the usually religiously divided family. Within these contexts, readers find that their beliefs and practices are contested by the dissent of other believers, by the disdain of clergy, and by family members who resist the Left Behind series’ call to faith. Readers use the books to build narratives of identity and belonging, but only in divided and complex contexts.Less