Conflicts between protestants and Catholics intensified as the Cromwellian invasion of 1649 inflamed the blood-soaked antagonism between the English and Irish. In the ensuing decade, half of Ireland's landmass was confiscated while thousands of natives were shipped overseas - all in a bid to provide safety for English protestants and bring revenge upon the Irish for their rebellion in 1641. Centuries later, these old wounds linger in Irish political and cultural discussion. In his new book, Crawford Gribben reconsiders the traditional reading of the failed Cromwellian invasion as he reflects...

This volume documents the evolution and impact of one of the most enduring sources and symbols of sectarian conflict in Ireland - Protestant millennialism. Its chapters chart the development of Irish evangelicalism from the 1798 rebellion to the end of the 'troubles', paying particular attention to its apocalyptic commitments. The volume explores new sources and offers new conclusions, setting a new research agenda and emphasizing the vitality of religious discourse in Irish studies.

Puritanism was an intensely eschatological movement. From the beginnings of the movement, Puritan writers developed eschatological interests in distinct contexts and often for conflicting purposes. Their reformist agenda emphasized their eschatological hopes. In a series of readings of texts by John Foxe, James Ussher, George Gillespie, John Rogers, John Milton and John Bunyan, this book provides an interdisciplinary exploration of Puritan thinking about the last things.

This volume of essays offers a detailed account of the impact of evangelical millennialism in nineteenth century Britain and Ireland and includes a comprehensive bibliography and essay charting recent trends in the study of millennialism.

For the past twenty years, evangelical prophecy novels have been a powerful presence on American bestseller lists. Emerging from a growing conservative culture industry, the genre dramatizes events that many believers expect to occur at the end of the age - the rapture of the saved, the rise of the Antichrist, and the fearful tribulation faced by those who are "left behind."
Seeking the forces that drove the unexpected success of the Left Behind novels, Crawford Gribben traces the gradual development of the prophecy fiction genre from its eclectic roots among early...

This book offers the first complete overview of the intellectual history of one of the most significant contemporary cultural trends the apocalyptic expectations of European and American evangelicals in an account that guides readers into the origins, its evolution, and its revolutionary potential in the modern world."

Left Behind - twelve novels that dramatize one evangelical perspective on the end of the world - is now established as the best-selling fictional series in American literary history. But it has been met with a range of critical receptions. This volume gathers essays by new and established critics of the series to interrogate the series' significance and its cultural and commercial success, and includes, for the first time, a response to these criticisms written on behalf of one of the series' authors. Mark S. Sweetnam considers the challenge that the organically theological nature of Left...

John Owen was a leading theologian in seventeenth-century England. Closely associated with the regicide and revolution, he befriended Oliver Cromwell, was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, and became the premier religious statesman of the Interregnum. The restoration of the monarchy pushed Owen into dissent, criminalizing his religious practice and inspiring his writings in defense of high Calvinism and religious toleration. Owen transcended his many experiences of defeat, and his claims to quietism were frequently undermined by rumors of his involvement in...