Cultures of Conversions

Cultures of Conversions
Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2006
Genre: Conversion
ISBN: 9789042917538

In the terms of Durkheimian sociology, conversion is a fait social. Although they are rarely treated as a cultural phenomenon, conversions can obviously be examined for the norms, values and presuppositions of the cultures in which they take place. Thus conversion can help us to shed light on a particular culture. At the same time, the term evokes a dramatic appeal that suggests a kind of suddenness, although in most cases conversion implies a more gradual process of establishing and defining a new - religious - identity. From 21-24 May, 2003, the University of Groningen hosted an international conference on 'Cultures of Conversion'. The contributions have been edited in two volumes, which pay special attention to the modes of language and idiom in conversion literature, the meaning and sense of religious-ideological discourse, the variety of rhetorical tropes, and the effects of the conversion narrative with allusions to religious or political conventions and idealizations. The present volume offers in-depth studies of conversion that are mainly taken from the history of India, Islam and Judaism, ranging from the Byzantine period to the new Muslimas of the West. The other volume, Paradigms, Poetics and Politics of Conversion, in addition to stimulating case studies, contains theoretical contributions on the theory of conversion, with special attention to the rational choice theory and to the history of research into conversion.

Abraham Kuyper

Abraham Kuyper
Author: Abraham Kuyper
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 522
Release: 1998
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802843210

Abraham Kuyper (1837 - 1920) is a significant figure in the history of the Netherlands and one of the most remarkable figures in the annals of Calvinism. Kuyper celebrated the Reformed founders, subscribed heart and soul to their teachings, and worked ceaselessly to restore their authority in an age that had either forgotten them or contradicted their word. From their theology, Kuyper extruded a whole worldview, and by that worldview he hoped to refashion the politics, scholarship, art, and social arrangements of his time. "Calvinism" was his soul and system, the purest form of Christianity, the treasure of the past, the hope of the future. This anthology, published in the centennial year of Kuyper's famous Stone Lectures, gathers sixteen key writings by Kuyper never before available in English. Included are his definitive statements on politics, education, culture, and the religious currents and social problems of his time. Also included are Kuyper's own conversion narrative, his critiques of Modernism and of Holiness theology, his proposals on common grace and Calvinist politics, his reflections on a culture in thrall to pantheism and evolution, and his classic address on "sphere sovereignty." In his introduction, editor James Bratt sets Kuyper's work in its 19th century context and shows the relevance of his ideas to contemporary debates on modernism, evangelicalism, and fundamentalism. Bratt also provides helpful explanatory notes and a brief introduction to each piece. Photographs, cartoons, and short excerpts from some of Kuyper's better-known works make this an attractive volume that will stand as the definitive Kuyper anthology for years to come.

Dutch Calvinism in Modern America

Dutch Calvinism in Modern America
Author: James D. Bratt
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2002-12-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 159244122X

In this scholarly yet entertaining book, James D. Bratt takes a look at the Dutch in America from the late 19th century to the present. A comprehensive study of an ethnic subculture, the book is in large part a study of the group's religious history as well, since, as Bratt points out, the contours of the Dutch presence in America have been overwhelmingly shaped by the church and its subsidiary organizations. Although the book is extensively and scrupulously documented, Bratt has infused his scholarship with a considerable amount of anecdote that is by turns poignant and tragic and hilarious. In Bratt's analysis of the fitful progress of Americanization that this close-knit religious community has undergone, we are treated to the sharp insights of a bemused and sometimes disaffected insider. Included is a chapter on novelists Arnold Mulder, David Cornel DeJong, Frederick Manfred, and Peter DeVries - four sons of the Dutch who fled the subculture only to reflect upon it almost obsessively from the outside. Well written, scholarly, and highly readable, 'Dutch Calvinism In Modern America' will have wide appeal among both academic and general readers.

Protestant Theology and Modernity in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands

Protestant Theology and Modernity in the Nineteenth-Century Netherlands
Author: Arie L. Molendijk
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2021-12-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0192652885

Protestant Theology and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century Netherlands examines how Dutch Protestant thinkers and theologicans met the challenges of the rapidly modernizing world around them. It shows that the nineteenth-century saw theology fundamentally transformed and reinvented in a variety of ways. Enlightenment values were fiercely attacked by orthodox Pietists but embraced by 'modern' theologians. Positions were not fixed and theologians had to work hard to maintain their intellectual integrity. Jewish Isaac da Costa converted to Christianity and fulminated against the Zeitgeist. Allard Pierson, who in his youth had been under the spell of Da Costa, resigned from his ministry and adopted an 'agnostic' stance. Abraham Kuyper modernized theology and politics, by laying the foundations of 'pillarization' (the segmented social structures based on differences in religion and worldview) of Dutch society. Abraham Kuenen revolutionized the study of the Old Testament, and Protestant theologians made ground-breaking contributions to the emerging science of religion. This book used in-depth studies of a small number of significant and influential Protestant thinkers to analyse how they addressed specific modern transformation processes such as political modernization, the pluralization of world views, and the emergence of critical historical scholarship. It also considers the significant Dutch contribution to the historical-critical study of the Bible, and the emergence of the modern comparative study of religion.

Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion

Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion
Author: Herman Bavinck
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1496472225

“In writing this Guidebook,” Bavinck says in his preface, “I had in mind, the pupils in the highest classes of our Christian gymnasium, public schools, in the education of teachers, and in normal schools, etc. and moreover those who desire to understand the main content of our Christian, Reformed confession of faith through a not too comprehensive or expensive book.” Herman Bavinck completed Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion in 1913 and reprinted it in the Netherlands in 1931. He originally intended it for high school students and Christians of every confession. Bavinck’s goal was to make Christians more familiar with the rich, deep thoughts of Scripture as universally expressed in the Christian faith. Guidebook for Instruction in the Christian Religion is an introductory systematic theology by one of the foremost theologians of the past century. Alongside The Sacrifice of Praise, this is Bavinck at his best doing catechetical theology. To this end, Bavinck sets off to explain in a simplified manner the main contents of the Christian religion, even giving it a title that is a tip of the hat to John Calvin’s Institute of the Christian Religion. While Bavinck’s lengthy Reformed Dogmatics is an academic work, Guidebook for Instruction serves a more egalitarian aim. It is a theological guide for the everyday person in the pew. In this one—and much shorter—volume, Bavinck walks Christian readers through all the major topics covered in Reformed Dogmatics with theological depth and insight.