The early Salvation Army professed its commitment to sexual equality in ministry and leadership. In fact, its founding constitution proclaimed women had the right to preach and hold any office in the organization. But did they?Women in God’s Army is the first study of its kind devoted to the critical analysis of this central claim. It traces the extent to which this egalitarian ideal was realized in the private and public lives of first- and second-generation female Salvat...

Terrorism. Same-sex marriage. Debt cancellation. The AIDS pandemic. These are just some of the critical contemporary issues addressed in this book.Issues Facing Christians Today helps thinking Christians sift through and respond to a sweeping array of complex and pressing topics. Thoroughly revised and updated by Roy McCloughry and fully endorsed by John Stott, this fourth edition continues a two-decades-plus legacy of bringing important current issues und...

Nowadays we believe that consenting adults have the freedom to do what they like with their own bodies. We publicise and celebrate sex; we discuss it endlessly; we are obsessed with the sex lives of celebrities. We think it wrong that in other cultures people suffer for their sexual orientation, that women are treated as second-class citizens, or that adulterers are put to death. Yet until quite recently our own society was like this too. For most of western history, all sex outside marria...

I don't know why you're spending all your time on this. Theyre only animalsfor heaven's sake! That was the reaction of one of Andrew Linzey's fellow students at Kings College, London, when he was studying theology in the 1970s. Since then, the now Rev. Dr. Andrew Linzey has been arguing that animals aren't only anything, but rather that they matter to God, and should do so to us. In this collection of essays, Linzey counters with his customary wit, erudition, and insight, some contemporary (...

"As Canadian as the maple leaf" is how one observer summed up the United Church of Canada after its founding in 1925. But was this Canadian-made church flawed in its design, as critics have charged? A Church with the Soul of a Nation explores this question by weaving together the history of the United Church with a provocative analysis of religion and cultural change.The story begins in the aftermath of Confederation, when the prospects of building a Christian nation persu...

John Wesley's model of the church. The book offers a guideline for Christians to work out their theology in day-to-day life. This analysis of Wesley's strategy for renewing the church offers inspiration to those working to bring about that renewal.

Domesticity is generally treated as an aspect of women’s history. In this fascinating study of the nineteenth-century middle class, John Tosh shows how profoundly men’s lives were conditioned by the Victorian ideal and how they negotiated its many contradictions.Tosh begins by looking at the experience of boyhood, married life, sex, and fatherhood in the early decades of the nineteenth century—illustrated by case studies representing a variety of backgrounds—and then contrasts th...

"BACK IN PRINT WITH A NEW INTRODUCTIONThe turn of the last century saw a great wave of moral fervour among Protestant social reformers in English Canada. Their targets for moral reform were various: sex hygiene, immigration policy, slum clearance, prostitution, and “white slavery.”Mariana Valverde's groundbreaking The Age of Light, Soap, and Waterexamines the work and the ideas of moralist clergy, social workers, politicians, and bureaucrats who sought to m...

At a time when Canadians were arguing about the merits of a new flag, the birth-control pill, and the growing hippie counterculture, the leaders of Canada's largest Protestant church were occupied with turning much of English-Canadian religious culture on its head. In After Evangelicalism, Kevin Flatt reveals how the United Church of Canada abruptly reinvented its public image by cutting the remaining ties to its evangelical past. Flatt argues that although United Church leaders had alread...

This book examines encounters between the Christian church and Maori. Christian faith among Maori changed from Maori receiving the missionary endeavours of Pakeha settlers, to the development of indigenous expressions of Christian faith, partnerships between Maori and Pakeha in the mainline churches, and the emergence of Destiny Church. The book looks at the growth, development and adaptation of Christian faith among Maori people and considers how that development has helped shape New Zeal...

Lydia Emelie Gruchy was the first woman ordained to ministry in a main-line Christian Church in Canada at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in 1936. This story, well-researched and coloured by numerous anecdotes and tales from those who knew her, will bring back memories for readers who lived those days, and open the eyes of those who wonder what life was like.  Her story: Traces her life journey from Paris, France to London England; immigr...

This second edition of Richard P. Heitzenrater's groundbreaking survey of the Wesleyan movement is the story of the many people who contributed to the theology, organization, and mission of Methodism. This updated version addresses recent research from the past twenty years; includes an extensive bibliography; and fleshes out such topics as the means of grace; Conference: "Large" Minutes: Charles Wesley: Wesley and America; ordination; prison ministry; apostolic church; music; children; Su...