Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Book: Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World

Five hundred years ago a stubborn German monk challenged the Pope with a radical vision of what Christianity could be. The revolution he set in motion toppled governments, upended social norms and transformed millions of people’s understanding of their relationship with God. In this dazzling history, Alec Ryrie makes the case that we owe many of the rights and freedoms we have cause to take for granted–from free speech to limited government–to our Protestant roots.

Fired up by their faith, Protestants have embarked on courageous journeys into the unknown like many rebels and refugees who made their way to our shores. Protestants created America and defined its special brand of entrepreneurial diligence. Some turned to their bibles to justify bold acts of political opposition, others to spurn orthodoxies and insight on their God-given rights. Above all Protestants have fought for their beliefs, establishing a tradition of principled opposition and civil disobedience that is as alive today as it was 500 years ago. In this engrossing and magisterial work, Alec Ryrie makes the case that whether or not you are yourself a Protestant, you live in a world shaped by Protestants.

Contents
Part I The Reformation Age  
Chapter 1 Luther and the Fanatics   p. 15
  The Call of Reform   p. 16
  An Accidental Revolutionary   p. 19
  "Captive to the Word of God"   p. 28
  The Fanatics' Reformation   p. 35
Chapter 2 Protectors and Tyrants   p. 40
  Taming the Reformation   p. 40
  The Two Kingdoms   p. 47
  Chaos and Order   p. 52
  Revolutionary Saints   p. 56
Chapter 3 The Failure of Calvinism   p. 61
  Parallel Reformations   p. 61
  Calvin's Contribution   p. 65
  Lutheranism in Search of Concord   p. 69
  Dreams of Union   p. 72
  The Unraveling of Calvinism   p. 78
Chapter 4 Heretics, Martyrs, and Witches   p. 84
  Martyrdom and Heresy   p. 85
  Turning the Tide   p. 90
  The Luxury of Intolerance   p. 95
  The Devil's Minions   p. 102
Chapter 5 The British Maelstrom   p. 107
  An Unlikely War   p. 108
  Winning the Peace   p. 113
  Journeys into the Unknown   p. 120
  Quakers and Anglicans   p. 127
Chapter 6 From the Waters of Babylon to a City on a Hill   p. 132
  An Age of Exiles   p. 133
  American Pilgrimages   p. 138
  Preaching to the Nations   p. 143
Part II The Modern Age    
Chapter 7 Enthusiasm and Its Enemies   p. 155
  The Pietist Adventure   p. 158
  Moravian Riders   p. 168
  Methodism: Pietism's English Stepchild   p. 171
  The Revivals' New World   p. 176
Chapter 8 Slaves to Christ   p. 183
  The Emergence of Protestant Slavery   p. 184
  Living with Slavery   p. 188
  The Road to Abolition   p. 195
  The Gospel of Slavery   p. 200
  Slavery's Lessons   p. 206
Chapter 9 Protestantism's Wild West   p. 209
  Big-Tent Protestantism   p. 210
  The Communitarian Alternative   p. 217
  The Narrow Way   p. 221
  Witnessing for Jehovah   p. 226
  Latter-Day Protestants   p. 231
Chapter 10 The Ordeals of Liberalism   p. 238
  The Liberal Project   p. 240
  God's Successive Revelations   p. 246
  The Book of Nature   p. 250
  Liberalism in the Trenches   p. 255
Chapter 11 Two Kingdoms in the Third Reich   p. 265
  Making Peace with Nazism   p. 268
  De-Judaizing Christianity   p. 273
  Shades of Opposition   p. 277
  The Limits of the Possible   p. 284
Chapter 12 Religious Left and Religious Right   p. 291
  Saving Civilization in the Age of World War II   p. 296
  The Gospel of Civil Rights   p. 304
  Prophetic Christianity in the 1960s   p. 309
  The Crisis of the Religious Left   p. 316
Part III The Global Age    
Chapter 13 Redeeming South Africa   p. 327
  Settlers and Missionaries   p. 328
  Blood River   p. 333
  "Separate Development"   p. 340
  The Trek to Repentance   p. 352
  The Independent Witness   p. 359
Chapter 14 Korea in Adversity and Prosperity   p. 362
  Missionary Beginnings   p. 363
  Revival and Nationalism   p. 368
  South Korea's Journey   p. 375
  Full Gospels   p. 380
  Northern Fears and Hopes   p. 385
Chapter 15 Chinese Protestantism's Long March   p. 391
  Dreams and Visions   p. 392
  Protestants and imperialists   p. 399
  Death and Resurrection in the People's Republic   p. 404
  Believing in Modern China   p. 413
  China's Protestant Future   p. 419
Chapter 16 Pentecostalism: An Old Flame   p. 425
  A Tangle of Origins   p. 426
  The Pentecostal Experience   p. 433
  Becoming a Global Faith   p. 443
  The Politics of Pentecostalism   p. 447
  Epilogue: The Protestant Future   p. 455
  Old Quarrels and New   p. 456
  Protestants in the World   p. 464

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