Reprint of the original, first published in 1881.

The claim that the Bible was 'the Christian's only rule of faith and practice' has been fundamental to Protestant dissent. Dissenters first braved persecution and then justified their adversarial status in British society with the claim that they alone remained true to the biblical model of Christ's Church. They produced much of the literature that guided millions of people in their everyday reading of Scripture, while the voluntary societies that distributed millions of Bibles to the British and across the world were heavily indebted to Dissent. Yet no single book has explored either what the Bible did for dissenters or what dissenters did to establish the hegemony of the Bible in British culture. The protracted conflicts over biblical interpretation that resulted from the bewildering proliferation of dissenting denominations have made it difficult to grasp their contribution as a whole. This volume evokes the great variety in the dissenting study and use of the Bible while insisting on the factors that gave it importance and underlying unity. Its ten essays range across the period from the later seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century and make reference to all the major dissenting denominations of the United Kingdom. The essays are woven together by a thematic introduction which places the Bible at the centre of dissenting ecclesiology, eschatology, public worship and 'family religion', while charting the political and theological divisions that made the cry of 'the Bible only' so divisive for dissenters in practice.

Historians have tended to create a dualistic paradigm, which excludes a mediating biblical criticism in America. For polemical reasons, it has been easier for both conservatives and liberals to polarize moderates as the opposition or to ignore them altogether. Rather than the common modernist/fundamentalist paradigm, which is dualistic, a more accurate way to interpret the biblical criticism of late nineteenth century America is to construe a theological spectrum extending from right to left.

Philosophy Made Simple will be of particular interest to students beginning degree courses in philosophy and to those who are studying it as an ancillary subject within courses such as sociology, education, linguistics, theology and psychology. It will, in addition, be useful for a variety of liberal arts courses in adult education. The book also provides a valuable basis for an introductory self-study course. Avrum Stroll is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, USA. Richard H. Popkin is presently Professor Emeritus, Washington University, St Louis and Adjunct Professor, History and Philosophy at UCLA, USA.

Persuaded of the singular vision of the Pentateuch, Old Testament professor John Sailhamer searches out clues left by the author and the later editor of the Pentateuch that will disclose the meaning of this great work. By paying particular attention to the poetic seams in the text, he rediscovers a message that surprisingly brings us to the threshold of the New Testament gospel.

This collection of John Barton's work engages with current concern over the biblical canon, in both historical and theological aspects; with literary reading of the Bible and current literary theory as it bears on biblical studies; and with the theological reading and use of the biblical text. John Barton's distinctive writing reflects a commitment to a 'liberal' approach to the Bible, which places a high value on traditional biblical criticism and also seeks to show how evocative and full of insight the biblical texts are and how they can contribute to modern theological concerns. This invaluable selection of published writings by one of the leading authorities on biblical text and canon, also includes new essays and editorial introductions from the author.