The Cambridge History Of Christianity Volume 8 World Christianities C 1815 C 1914

This is the first scholarly treatment of nineteenth-century Christianity to discuss the subject in a global context. Part I analyses the responses of Catholic and Protestant Christianity to the intellectual and social challenges presented by European modernity. It gives attention to the explosion of new voluntary forms of Christianity and the expanding role of women in religious life. Part II surveys the diverse and complex relationships between the churches and nationalism, resulting in fundamental changes to the connections between church and state. Part III examines the varied fortunes of Christianity as it expanded its historic bases in Asia and Africa, established itself for the first time in Australasia, and responded to the challenges and opportunities of the European colonial era. Each chapter has a full bibliography providing guidance on further reading.

This is the first scholarly treatment of nineteenth century Christianity to discuss the subject in a global context. In addition to exhaustive chapters on European Christendom, it deals with the expansion of Christianity in the Americas, Asia, Australasia and Africa, covering both Catholic and Protestant traditions. Major themes include the churches' response to modern ideas, Christianity and nationalism, the expanding role of women in religious life and the explosion of new voluntary forms of Christianity.

A comprehensive history of Christianity in the century when it truly became a global religion.

This book analyzes violence involving Catholics in the nineteenth-century world – revealing the motives for violence, showing the link between religious and secular grievances, and illuminating Catholic pluralism. Catholics and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Global World is the first study to systematically analyze the link between faith and violent action in modern history. Focusing on incidents involving members of the Roman Catholic Church across the globe, the book offers a kaleidoscopic overview of situations in which physical or symbolic violence attended inner-Catholic, Catholic-secular, and interreligious conflicts. Focusing especially on the role of agency, the authors explore the motives behind, perceptions of, and legitimation strategies for religion-related violence, as well as evaluating debates about conflict and discussing the role of religious leadership in violent incidents. Additionally, they illuminate the complex ways in which religious grievances interacted with secular differences and highlight the plurality of Catholic standpoints. In doing so, the book brings to light the variety of ways in which religion and violence have interacted historically. Showing that the link between faith and violence was more nuanced than theoreticians of ‘religious violence’ suggest, the book will appeal to historians, social scientists, and religious scholars.

The power of modernity to secularise has been a foundational idea of the western world. Both social science and church history understood that the Christian religion from 1750 was deeply vulnerable to industrial urbanisation and the Enlightenment. But as evidence mounts that countries of the European world experienced secularising forces in different ways at different periods, the timing and causes of de-Christianisation are now widely seen as far from straightforward. Secularisation in the Christian World brings together leading scholars in the social history of religion and the sociology of religion to explore what we know about the decline of organised Christianity in Britain, Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. The chapters tackle different strands, themes, comparisons and territories to demonstrate the diversity of approach, thinking and evidence that has emerged in the last 30 years of scholarship into the religious past and present. The volume includes both new research and essays of theoretical reflection by the most eminent academics. It highlights historians and sociologists in both agreement and dispute. With contributors from eight countries, the volume also brings together many nations for the first consolidated international consideration of recent themes in de-Christianisation. With church historians and cultural historians, and religious sociologists and sociologists of the godless society, this book provides a state-of-the-art guide to secularisation studies.

"A one-volume history of Christianity for undergraduate students, written from a Catholic perspective"--