From a historical point of view Sunday schools have immense significance. In the nineteenth century Sunday schools were part of general educational provision and represented the Christian philanthropic impulse to provide a basic education to the population at large and at low cost. In this book a range of experts assess different aspects of the history of the Sunday school movement. Contributors include Clyde Binfield Faith Bowers John Briggs Grayson Ditchfield Hugh McLeod Stephen Orchard Jack Priestley Geoffrey Robson and Doreen Rosman.

In the nineteenth century the dissenting Christian community fought for the civil rights of Roman Catholics nonChristians and even atheists on an issue of principle which had its flowering in the enthusiastic and undivided support which nonconformity gave to the campaign for Jewish emancipation. This book offers a case study of a theologically conservative group defending religious pluralism in the civic sphere showing that the concept of religious equality was a grand vision at the center of the political philosophy of the dissenters.

Discernment in the Desert Fathers is a study of discernment (Diakrisis) in the life and thought of the fourth- and fifth-century Egyptian Desert Fathers. Rich argues that their understanding of Diakrisis was based upon a practical application of biblical Diakrisis in general and not, as has been argued, primarily a development of the gift of "discernment of spirits." He begins with an examination of Scripture and goes on to consider the philosophical and theological background of the period as represented by Plotinus and Origen respectively. An examination of the works of the first...