The relation of the Church to the State and that of science to religion were at the core of the bitter religious controversies raging in Victorian England. The purpose of this book is to present as many as possible of the basic texts (and in particular those that are comparatively inaccessible) necessary to their understanding. The volume opens with William Wilberforce's eloquent appeal for Evangelical religion (1797), followed by two selections from the writings of the great precursor of the Oxford Movement, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. From Newman's Tracts for the Times, Mr. Cockshut has chosen two 1833 tracts--No. 1, which distinguishes between the constitutional position of the Church on the one hand and its essential spiritual authority on the other; and No. XI, in which Newman argues that the plain sense of the Bible points to the authority of the Church--and sections from the famous Tract XC (1841), Newman's attempt to reconcile the Thirty-Nine Articles with Roman doctrines. The position of the Broad Church school, which was more concerned with the moral and educational influence of Christianity on the nation as a whole than with the drama of individual salvation, is suggested in two sermons by Thomas Arnold. Subsequent groups of selections deal with three "full-dress Victorian controversies." In 1847, Lord John Russell's nomination of Dr. Hampden as bishop of Hereford was challenged on the ground that the Church was entitled to be consulted before it had bishops imposed on it by the Crown, and raised the question: Was the Church of England a part of Christ's church or was it a department of State? Fifteen years later the Colenso case--the trial for heresy of the bishop of Natal--raised an even more intractable problem: What was the relation of Church and State overseas? In the meanwhile the publication of Essays and Reviews (1860) and the prosecution for heresy of two of the contributors saw a lay court deciding doctrinal questions. In the concluding selections, the impact of Darwin's Origins of Species on contemporaneous religious thought is reflected in A. P. Stanley's sermon at the funeral of the geologist Sir Charles Lyell (whose work anticipated in part Darwin's Descent of Man) and in Frederick Temple's 1884 lecture "The Relations between Religion and Science." A general introduction by the editor puts the documents in context and each selection is preceded by a brief discussion.

This book shows how, through a series of fierce battles over Sabbath laws, legislative chaplains, Bible-reading in public schools and other flashpoints, nineteenth-century secularists mounted a powerful case for a separation of religion and government. Among their diverse ranks were religious skeptics, liberal Protestants, members of minority faiths, labor reformers and defenders of slavery. Drawing on popular petitions to Congress, a neglected historical source, the book explores how this secularist mobilization gathered energy at the grassroots level. The nineteenth century is usually seen as the golden age of an informal Protestant establishment. Timothy Verhoeven demonstrates that, far from being crushed by an evangelical juggernaut, secularists harnessed a range of cultural forces—the legacy of the Revolutionary founders, hostility to Catholicism, a belief in national exceptionalism and more—to argue that the United States was not a Christian nation, branding their opponents as fanatics who threatened both democratic liberties as well as true religion.

In her novels and short stories, May Laffan Hartley (1849?1916) depicts the religious and political controversies of late nineteenth-century Ireland. Eire's own Helena Kelleher Kahn reintroduces us to Laffan's vivid, witty fiction, rich in political and social commentary. Laffan did not offer clear-cut approval to one side or the other of the social and religious divide but weighed both and often found them wanting. She adds a missing dimension to the Irish world of Wilde, Shaw, and Joyce. A woman of the age subtly embroiders the acute challenges and divisions of middle-class Ireland. As Kahn says, ?she chose to write about the alcoholic ex-student, the impecunious solicitor, the farmer or merchant turned politician, and their often resentful wives and children. On the whole her world view was pessimistic. Rural Ireland was a beautiful intellectual desert. Dublin was a place to leave, not to live in.' This account of her life and work will be of interest to students of Anglo-Irish literature and history, as well as women's studies. On the ELT Press website we will simultaneously publish an e-book version of Laffan's novel, Hogan MP, available free of charge.

An ambitious and timely look at the role of religion in New York State's early public schools.

This volume offers the first book-length consideration of American religious freedom advocacy from a rhetorical perspective. In it, fifteen scholars consider twelve contemporary controversies with attention to arguments, evidence, and strategy.

Bridges the gap between Plutarch Studies and Achaemenid Studies through analysis of key texts.