The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon 1689-1901

by Keith A. Francis (Editor), William Gibson (Editor)

Overview

The period 1689-1901 was 'the golden age' of the sermon in Britain. It was the best selling printed work and dominated the print trade until the mid-nineteenth century. Sermons were highly influential in religious and spiritual matters, but they also played important roles in elections and politics, science and ideas, and campaigns for reform. Sermons touched the lives of ordinary people and formed a dominant part of their lives. Preachers attracted huge crowds and the popular demand for sermons was never higher. Sermons were also taken by missionaries and clergy across the British empire, so that preaching was integral to the process of imperialism and shaped the emerging colonies and dominions. The form that sermons took varied widely, and this enabled preaching to be adopted and shaped by every denomination, so that in this period most religious groups could lay claim to a sermon style. The pulpit naturally lent itself to controversy, and consequently sermons lay at the heart of numerous religious arguments. Drawing on the latest research by leading sermon scholars, this handbook accesses historical, theological, rhetorical, literary and linguistic studies to demonstrate the interdisciplinary strength of the field of sermon studies and to show the centrality of sermons to religious life in this period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191612091
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	10/04/2012
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Keith Francis is a historian of religion in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is particularly interested in the development of the biological sciences and their impact on nineteenth-century Christianity. He is the Executive Secretary of the American Society of Church History and a visiting research fellow at Oxford Brookes University. William Gibson is a historian of religion in Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he has written widely on the Church of England in this period and is particularly interested in its role in politics and the emergence of an enlightenment culture. He is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford Brookes University and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History. He is co-editor of Wesley and Methodist Studies and reviews editor of Archives (the journal of the British Records Association). In 2011 he was visiting research fellow at Yale University. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Association and of the Royal Society of Arts.

Table of Contents

I: Introductory Essays1. The British Sermon 1689-1901: Quantities, Performance, and Culture, William Gibson2. Sermons: Themes and Developments, Keith A. FrancisII: Sermons: Communities, Cultures and Communication3. Parish Preaching in the Long Eighteenth Century, Jeffrey S. Chamberlain4. Parish Preaching in the Victorian Era: The Village Sermon, Frances Knight5. Preaching from the platform, Martin Hewitt6. The British Quaker Sermon, 1689-1901, Michael Graves7. The Sermons of the Eighteenth-Century Evangelicals, Bob Tennant8. Sermons in British Catholicism to the Restoration of the Hierarchy, Geoffrey Scott9. Preaching in the Churches of Scotland, Ann Matheson10. The Sermon and Political Controversy in Ireland, 1800-1850, Irene Whelan11. Sermons in Wales in the Established Church, John Morgan-Guy12. Preaching in the Vernacular: the Welsh sermon, 1689-1901, D. Densil Morgan13. Order and Uniformity, Decorum, and Taste: Sermons Preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Three Choirs, 1720-1800, Andrew PinkIII: Occasional Sermons14. The Sermon, Court and Parliament 1689-1789, Pasi Ihalainen15. The Defence of Georgian Britain, the Anti-Jacobite Sermon 1715-1746, James J. Caudle16. Preaching, National Salvation, Victories and Thanksgiving, 1689-1800, Warren Johnston17. Sermons in the Age of the American and French Revolutions, Grayson Ditchfield18. This Itching Ear d Age : Visitation Sermons and Charges in the Eighteenth Century, William Gibson19. Consecration Sermons, Colin Haydon20. The Protestant Funeral Sermon in England, 1688-1800, Penny Pritchard21. The Victorian Funeral Sermon, John WolffeIV: Sermons, Controversies and the Development of Ideas22. Hard Labour: Institutional Benevolence and the Development of National Education, Bob Tennant23. Sermons for End Times: Evangelicalism, Romanticism, and Apocalypse in Britain, Robert J. Surridge and Keith A. Francis24. Rationalism, the Enlightenment, and Sermons, Nigel Aston25. Preaching the Oxford Movement, Jeremy Morris26. Sermons and the Catholic Restoration, Melissa Wilkinson27. Paley to Darwin: Natural Theology versus Science in Victorian Sermons, Keith A. Francis28. Preaching the Broad Church Gospel: The Natal Sermons of Bishop John William Colenso, Gerald ParsonsV Sermons: Missions and Ideas of Empire29. From Barbarism to Civility, from Darkness to Light : Preaching Empire as Sacred History, Robert G. Ingram30. Eighteenth-Century Mission Sermons, Rowan Strong31. The Sermon in the British Colonies, Joanna Cruickshank32. Church of Ireland Missions to Roman Catholics c.1700-1800, Andrew Sneddon33. Go ye therefore and teach all nations : Evangelical and Mission Sermons, the Imperial Stage, Jessica A. Sheetz-NguyenVI: Sermons and Literature34. The Poet-Preachers, Kirstie Blair35. Tradition Preaching and the Gothic Revival, Stephen Prickett36. The Sermon and the Victorian Novel, Linda Gill VII: Conclusion37. Sermon Studies: Major Issues and Future Directions, Keith A. Francis

Editorial Reviews

"...[A] fascinating, well-researched, well-produced volume that is not only a skillful mapping-out of the great influence the sermon enjoyed in a dazzling array of contexts, but a triumph of balanced and imaginative synthesis. The editors have assembled a model collection of essays to which all students of English history, religion, criticism, and fiction will be deeply indebted." —The Weekly Standard

"This book provides acomprehensive and scholarly treatment of the sermon in the public life of Britain, from the Glorious Revolution to the death of Queen Victoria... the contributors have succeeded in demonstrating how an apparently commonplace and ephemeral aspect of the social and religious culture of Britain offers important insights into how that culture understood its own purposes and place in the world." —Journal of Church and State

From the Publisher