Practical Theology

Follow

• 

  The Seventeenth-Century Resolve: A Historical Anthology of a Literary Form

  Among the literary innovations of the seventeenth century—a period of rich development in English prose—was the resolve. Generally of religious inspiration, the resolve was intended as the instrument of reform of private and public morals to assist in attaining individual perfection and in establishing the ideal Christian state.

  John L. Lievsay has brought together an anthology of resolves from the pens of eighteen writers, some —like Bishop Joseph Hall and Owen Feltham—familiar names to students of English literature, and others virtually unknown. Despite its popularity as a literary form during the seventeenth century the resolve quickly declined in influence and ...Read More

• 

  The Great Revival: Beginnings of the Bible Belt

  Drawing upon the religious writings of southern evangelicals, John Boles asserts that the extraordinary crowds and miraculous transformations that distinguished the South's First Great Awakening were not simply instances of emotional excess but the expression of widespread and complex attitudes toward God. Converted southerners were starkly individualistic, interested more in gaining personal salvation in a hopelessly evil world than in improving society. As Boles shows in this landmark study, the effect of the Revival was to throw over the region a conservative cast that remains dominant in contemporary southern thought and life.

  John B. Boles is William P. Hobby Professor ...Read More