Evidence of mainstream denominational decline virtually throws itself in our faces--growing religious pluralism in North America; the decline over the last half century in the salience, prestige, power, and vitality of Protestant denominational leadership; slippage in mainline membership and corresponding growth, vigor, visibility, and political prowess of conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist bodies; patterns of congregational independence, including loosening of or removal of denominational identity, particularly in signage, and the related marginal loyalty of members; emergence of megachurches, with resources and the capacity to meet needs heretofore supplied by denominations (training, literature, expertise); growth within mainline denominations of caucuses and their alignment into broad progressive or conservative camps, often with connections to similar camps in other denominations; widespread suspicion of, indeed hostility towards, the centers and symbols of denominational identity--the regional and national headquarters; migration of individuals and families through various religious identities, sometimes out of classic Christianity altogether. Denominationalism looks doomed and is so proclaimed. It may be. However, viewing the sweep of Anglo-American history, this volume suggests how much denominations and denominationalism have changed, how resilient they have proved, how significant these structures of religious belonging have been in providing order and direction to American society, and how such enduring purposes find ever new structural/institutional expression.

This timely collection of original papers explores the vital but largely unrecognized connections between leadership and dissent. In an era when leadership failures can mean homelessness and even death for countless flood victims, losses of life savings for employees of bankrupt corporations, civilian deaths and ravaged societies in the Middle East and incalculable suffering among refugees in central Africa, the studies presented here offer analysis and correctives based on new understandings of the dissent leadership relationship. The book examines how dissent is implicated in problems plaguing theory development in leadership studies. Topics explored within this framework include dissent in corporate discourses of control, real and manufactured crises, cross-generational perceptions, women leaders personal and work lives, the professionalization of journalism, religious institutions, activist public relations and fear-based cultures. It concludes with new proposals for legitimating dissent as a unique instrument for advancing social development and avoiding failures of leadership. Examining dissent as the critical factor that differentiates leadership failures and successes from interdisciplinary perspectives, this illuminating book will be of great interest to advanced students and teachers of leadership studies, as well as corporate executives, policymakers and other leaders aware of the need to improve leadership practices.

This book examines the translations carried out by Italian novelist Beppe Fenoglio, one of the most important Italian writers of the twentieth century. It stems from the acknowledgement that Beppe Fenoglio’s translations have not been examined in the political, cultural and ideological context in which they were produced, but have been dismissed as a purely linguistic exercise. The author examines Fenoglio’s translations as culturally and ideologically informed artistic expressions, in which Fenoglio was able to give voice to his dissent towards the mainstream ideology and poetics of his times, often choosing authors and characters with whom he identified, such as Shakespeare, Milton and Marlowe. The interaction between the theories of Translation Studies, Literary Theory and Adaptation Studies foregrounds the centrality of the role of the translator, showing how Fenoglio’s ideology and poetics were clearly visible both in the selection of the texts he translated and in his translation strategies.

While liberal-democratic states like America, Britain and Australia claim to value freedom of expression and the right to dissent, they have always actually criminalized dissent. This disposition has worsened since 9/11 and the 2008 Great Recession. This ground-breaking study shows that just as dissent involves far more than protest marches, so too liberal-democratic states have expanded the criminalization of dissent. Drawing on political and social theorists like Arendt, Bourdieu and Isin, the book offers a new way of thinking about politics, dissent and its criminalization relationally. Using case studies like the Occupy movement, selective refusal by Israeli soldiers, urban squatters, democratic education and violence by anti-Apartheid activists, the book highlights the many forms dissent takes along with the many ways liberal-democratic states criminalize it. The book highlights the mix of fear and delusion in play when states privilege security to protect an imagined ‘political order’ from difference and disagreement. The book makes a major contribution to political theory, legal studies and sociology. Linking legal, political and normative studies in new ways, Watts shows that ultimately liberal-democracies rely more on sovereignty and the capacity for coercion and declarations of legal ‘states of exception’ than on liberal-democratic principles. In a time marked by a deepening crisis of democracy, the book argues dissent is increasingly valuable.

Volume V extends the study of the Oxford History of Dissenting Protestant Traditions series into the twentieth century, following the spatial, cultural, and intellectual changes in dissenting identity and practice as these once European traditions globalized and settled down in other places.

The unique essays in this collection use the underlying allegiance to scripture in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity to underscore the deep affinities between the three monotheistic traditions while at the same time encouraging respect for the differences between the traditions to be preserved.

The five-volume 'Oxford History of Dissenting Protestant Traditions' series is governed by a motif of migration ("out-of-England"). It first traces organized church traditions that arose in England as Dissenters distanced themselves from a state church defined by diocesan episcopacy, the 'Book of Common Prayer', the 'Thirty-Nine Articles', and royal supremacy, but then follows those traditions as they spread beyond England -and also traces newer traditions that emerged downstream in other parts of the world from earlier forms of Dissent. Secondly, it does the same for the doctrines, church practices, stances toward state and society, attitudes toward Scripture, and characteristic patterns of organization that also originated in earlier English Dissent, but that have often defined a trajectory of influence independent ecclesiastical organizations. 'The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions', Volume III considers the Dissenting traditions of the United Kingdom, the British Empire, and the United States in the nineteenth century. It provides an overview of the historiography on Dissent while making the case for seeing Dissenters in different Anglophone connections as interconnected and conscious of their genealogical connections. The nineteenth century saw the creation of a vast Anglo-world which also brought Anglophone Dissent to its apogee.

The Record of Great Doubts emphasizes the role of qi in achieving a life of engagement with other humans, with the larger society, and with nature as a whole. Rather than encourage transcendental escapism or quietism, Ekken articulates a philosophy of material force as a basis of living a life of commitment to the world. In this spirit, moral cultivation is not an isolated or a self-centered preoccupation, but an activity that occurs within the dynamic forces of nature and amid the rigorous demands of society. In this context, a vitalism of qi is an emergent force, not only providing the philosophical grounding for this vibrant interaction but also giving a basis for an investigation of the natural world that plumbs the principle within things. Ekken thus aimed to articulate a creative and dynamic milieu for moral education, political harmony, social coherence, and agricultural sustainability. The Record of Great Doubts embodies Ekken's profound commitment to Confucian ideas and practices as a method for establishing an integrative ethical vision, one he hoped would guide Japan through a new period of peace and stability. A major philosophical treatise in the Japanese Neo-Confucian tradition, The Record of Great Doubts illuminates a crucial chapter in East Asian intellectual history.

For the past four hundred years, theological debate has been dominated by a fundamental divide: between the liberals, with strong loyalties to the secularity of the secular state and university on the one hand, and the neo-orthodox, insisting on the absolute priority of a proper loyalty to the church community itself, on the other. God and Modernity strikes off in a fundamentally new directionAndrew Shanks boldly calls for a new and better way to do theology. Shanks argues that God is most present in a culture where public debate over ethical issues flourishes best. Social movements such as feminist movements, peace movements, and green movements have emerged to challenge both Church and State. These new movements are no longer confined to a particular confessional religious identity and are independent of state sponsorship. These social movements already made an individual impact on theology. What would a theology look like, systematically trying to reconcile older divisions in the theological debate with a new loyalty to such movements common ethos? Anyone wishing to gain a refreshing insight into a new way of understanding theology and politics will welcome this ground-breaking book.

The five-volume Oxford History of Dissenting Protestant Traditions series is governed by a motif of migration ('out-of-England'). It first traces organized church traditions that arose in England as Dissenters distanced themselves from a state church defined by diocesan episcopacy, the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and royal supremacy, but then follows those traditions as they spread beyond England -and also traces newer traditions that emerged downstream in other parts of the world from earlier forms of Dissent. Secondly, it does the same for the doctrines, church practices, stances toward state and society, attitudes toward Scripture, and characteristic patterns of organization that also originated in earlier English Dissent, but that have often defined a trajectory of influence independent ecclesiastical organizations. The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume II charts the development of protestant Dissent between the passing of the Toleration Act (1689) and the repealing of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828). The long eighteenth century was a period in which Dissenters slowly moved from a position of being a persecuted minority to achieving a degree of acceptance and, eventually, full political rights. The first part of the volume considers the history of various dissenting traditions inside England. There are separate chapters devoted to Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Quakers—the denominations that traced their history before this period—and also to Methodists, who emerged as one of the denominations of 'New Dissent' during the eighteenth century. The second part explores that ways in which these traditions developed outside England. It considers the complexities of being a Dissenter in Wales and Ireland, where the state church was Episcopalian, as well as in Scotland, where it was Presbyterian. It also looks at the development of Dissent across the Atlantic, where the relationship between church and state was rather looser. Part three is devoted to revivalist movements and their impact, with a particular emphasis on the importance of missionary societies for spreading protestant Christianity from the late eighteenth century onwards. The fourth part looks at Dissenters' relationship to the British state and their involvement in the campaigns to abolish the slave trade. The final part discusses how Dissenters lived: the theology they developed and their attitudes towards scripture; the importance of both sermons and singing; their involvement in education and print culture and the ways in which they expressed their faith materially through their buildings.