George Herbert (1593-1633) was an Anglican priest, poet and essayist--truly one of the most profound spiritual masters in the English tradition. His spirituality was a synthesis of Evangelical and Catholic piety.

First published 1982 in the U.K. by Hodder and Stoughton, London, under the title "I Believe in Preaching."

This book is a major new contribution to the study of cultural identities in Britain and Ireland from the Reformation to Romanticism. It provides a fresh perspective on the rise of interest in British vernacular (or “folk”) cultures, which has often been elided with the emergence of British Romanticism and its Continental precursors. Here the Romantics’ discovery of and admiration for vernacular traditions is placed in a longer historical timeline reaching back to the controversies sparked by the Protestant Reformation. The book charts the emergence of a nuanced discourse about vernacular cultures, developing in response to the Reformers’ devastating attack on customary practices and beliefs relating to the natural world, seasonal festivities, and rites of passage. It became a discourse grounded in humanist Biblical and antiquarian scholarship; informed by the theological and pastoral problems of the long period of religious instability after the Reformation; and, over the course of the eighteenth century, colored by new ideas about culture drawn from Enlightenment historicism and empiricism. This study shows that Romantic literary primitivism and Romantic social thought, both radical and conservative, grew out of this rich context. It will be welcomed by historians of early modern and eighteenth-century Britain and those interested in the study of religious and vernacular cultures.

From the middle ages to the present day the houses of local clergy – parsonages, vicarages and rectories – have been among the most significant buildings in parishes throughout England. Architecturally some of the best and most fully documented domestic buildings, their history is that of the small and medium sized house, from medieval vernacular to the bespoke designs of leading Victorian architects and the more modest homes of today's clergy. The lives lived in the parsonage, factual and fictional (from Austen to Trollope and the televised struggles of 'Rev' in London's East End in the 2010s) reveal not just a building, but a hub of spiritual and secular activity, at the heart of local life and linking it to wider, national history. In this engaging introduction, Kate Tiller brings together the architectural and social histories of the parsonage, drawing on the evidence of buildings, archival and literary accounts, and contemporary and modern images, to depict parsonages, their occupants and how their histories may be traced.

This highly readable book explains the scope and detail of the newly revised Guidelines for the professional conduct of the clergy, which shape and define how clergy should act and behave. The book brings together a number of experts in the field, who draw on the Ordinal (as the basis of the Guidelines), writing engagingly on key elements in the life of clergy today. Paula Gooder wrestles with the exhilaratingly tricky question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ John Pritchard responds with characteristic humour and wisdom to the challenge of remaining ‘white hot in our desire for God year after year’. Robert Innes draws on his unexpected call to the ministry while meditating on Jesus’ self-sacrificial pastoral leadership. Paul Butler writes with authority and compassion about the complexities of safeguarding. Jamie Harrison reflects on the humility, cost and joy of ‘telling the story of God’s love’. Russ Parker finds that blessing others means being vulnerable and empathetic to the pain common to us all. Stephen Cherry offers witty yet powerful insights on giving leadership. Kate Bruce writes captivatingly on imagination as indispensable to the life of faith. Magdalen Smith illuminates the creative tension of living faithfully in public and private. David Walker assures us that the very wounds we bear from our journeys so far enable us to minister to others. ‘Faithful relationships are fundamental to maintaining and improving the life of the Church. It is my fervent desire that increasing trust, particularly that which flows from trustworthy clergy, will transform God’s world.’ Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, from the Foreword