Sacred
Scotland

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Sacred
Scotland
A
Time for Trumpets: Scottish Church Movers and Shakers of the
Twentieth Century
This celebration of the great church visionaries of the twentieth
century digs deep below the sound-bite culture that pervades
so much of today's discussions about the place of Church in
today's society. Through a series of short, personal, pieces
by some of today's most valued commentators, we learn about
the men and women who were the great movers and shakers of the
twentieth century. We admire the profusion of gifts, clarity
of vision, depth of commitment, and springs of endless inspiration
that characterised them. The book includes pieces on the founder
of the Iona Community, ecumenists, missionaries, theologians
and pioneers of many kinds. The legacy of these inspiring people
is highly relevant to the present and future of the Churches
in the 21st century. So many ideas surfaced that were before
their time. So many themes then relating to Church and society
persist to this day. Now is the time to look at the thoughts
of these key people afresh and to strengthen those working for
the future with a reinforcing knowledge of the foundations of
today's struggles.
Land, Faith and the Crofting Community: Christianity and Social Criticism in the Highlands of Scotland 1843-1893 (Scottish Historical Review Monographs) The role of the churches in the Highlands and Islands in the aftermath of the Clearances. This book probes the deep-rooted links between the land, the people and the religious culture of the Scottish Highlands and Islands in the nineteenth century. The responses of the clergy to the social crisis, which enveloped the region, have often been characterised as a mixture of callous indifference, cowering deference or fatalistic passivity. Allan MacColl's pioneering research challenges such stereotypical representations of Highland ministers head-on. "Land, Faith and the Crofting Community" is the first full-scale examination of Christian social teaching in the nineteenth-century Gaidhealtachd and addresses a major gap in the historical understanding of Gaelic society. Seeking to lay bare the existing myths by a wide-ranging analysis of all the denominational, theological and social factors at play, this study boldly overturns the received scholarly and popular interpretations. A ground-breaking work, it explores a substantial but under-utilised field of evidence and questions whether or not Highland Christians, both clergy and laity, were committed to land reform as an engine of social improvement and conciliation. The Christian contribution to the development of a distinctively Highland identity, which found expression during the Crofters' War of the 1880s, is delineated, while wider links between theology and social philosophy are examined from beyond the perspective of the Highlands.
St.
Nynia
Over the years important archaeological discoveries have been
made at Whithorn, his Galloway shrine. This book is a study
of the written record of the saint, a record which is as full,
and in many ways as fascinating, as the archeological. Included
is the first ever English translation of a Latin narrative poem
of the life of Nynia, the Miracula Nynie Episcopi, composed
at Whithorn in the late eighth century and translated here by
Winifred MacQueen. This has an importance quite distinct from
that of the apparently more factual account in Bede's Ecclesiastical
History, written earlier in the eighth century. A new introduction
sets the subject in the current context. In this reissued edition
there are 16 additional plates, enhancing the reader's knowledge
of St Ninian's life even further. Includes a supplement which
brings research on St Ninian completely up to date.
The
Stone Puzzle of Rosslyn Chapel
Rosslyn Chapel has fuelled controversy and debate, both recently
in several best-selling books as well as in past centuries.
Revered by Freemasons as a vital part of their history, believed
by some to hold evidence of pre-Columbian voyages to America,
assumed by others to hold important relics, from the Holy Grail
to the Head of Christ, the Scottish chapel is a place full of
mystery. This book will guide you through the theories, showing
and describing where and what is being discussed; what is impossible,
what is likely, and what is fact. At the same time, the book
will virtually guide you around all enigmatic and important
aspects of the chapel. The history of the chapel, its relationship
to freemasonry and the family behind the scenes, the Sinclairs,
is brought to life, incorporating new, forgotten and often unknown
evidence. Finally, the story is placed in the equally enigmatic
landscape surrounding the chapel, from Templar commanderies
to prehistoric markings, from an ancient kingly site to the
South, to Arthur's Seat directly north from the Chapel, before
its true significance and meaning is finally unveiled: that
the Chapel was a medieval stone book of esoteric knowledge,
'written' by the Sinclair family, one of the most powerful and
wealthy families in Scotland, chosen patrons of Freemasonry.

Iona
(Historic Scotland S.) Set at the western tip of Mull in
the Inner Hebrides, the small island of Iona is the burial place
of kings and the kernel from which Christianity took root among
the pagan Picts, as well as being a symbol of Scottish independence.
The island was also St Columba's choice for his spiritual base
in 563. This book tells the archaeological story of Iona, from
Columba's monastery to the island's restoration and renewal
in the late-1870s, assessing the many excavations on the island
itself within the wider context of Pictland and Northumbria.
Mary
Slessor (Scots' Lives S.)
One of the most remarkable women of her generation, Mary Slessor
is achieving increasing recognition for her amazing life story.
A hard-working mill girl and unorthodox Sunday school teacher
in Dundee, Mary had a fierce spirit and ability to stand her
ground. This determination served her well when, inspired by
missionary and explorer David Livingstone, she became a missionary
herself in a notorious part of Africa. There her feisty character
and solid belief in God saw her through illness and constant
danger as she ventured into areas where no European had gone
before. Mary lived with different tribes around Calabar, Nigeria,
respecting their traditions but also inspiring their people
and offering much-needed care. She put an end to barbaric tribal
practices and adopted many African children who would otherwise
have been left to die. Mary also, during Southern Nigeria's
transition to a British Protectorate, proved to be a skillful
and diplomatic emissary. Dedication, courage, fortitude and
faith.
Pilgrimage
in Medieval Scotland (Historic Scotland S.)
Looking at pilgrimages at all levels from local holy wells to
sites such as St Andrews Whithorn. The individual associations
of saints and places is examined along with reasons why pilgrimages
are made. Includes a guide to the principal places of pilgrimage
in Scotland. Publisher: B.T. Batsford Ltd.

Iona
(Island Guides) The second title in the Colin Baxter Island
Guides series of handbooks on the islands of Scotland, in which
the author draws on her knowledge of Iona's history, folklore
and landscape to provide a portrait of a Hebridean island which
is steeped in religious history.

The
Isle of Iona: Sacred, Spectacular,... This is a very fine
book and most beautifully illustrated with many colour photographs,
drawings, maps and diagrams. If you have visited Iona and would
like a memory this is ideal; if you have never visited then
this will whet your appetite. The text runs to some 20,000 words
and covers the sacred history and the people of the island both
past and present, the wildlife, surrounding area, and even touches
on the geology. There does not seem to be any aspect of the
island and its life, which has been omitted. The text is direct
and very well written by someone who clearly loves the island
and has expressed that in research and much hard work to do
justice to a very special place to the Church in Britain.
Holy
Fairs: Scotland and the Making of American Revivalism
Winner of the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the
American Society of Church History, Holy Fairs traces the roots
of American camp-meeting revivalism to the communion festivals
of early modern Scotland. New paperback edition of Leigh Eric
Schmidt's seminal work features updated material, a dozen illustrations,
and a new preface by the author.

Iona:
The Living Memory of a Crofting... Community. The Hebridean
island of Iona has been the focus of intense outside interest
for over 1400 years, from the time of St Columba's monastery
in the sixth century through to the transfer of its renowned
monuments into the care of Historic Scotland in the year 2000.
Yet the people who lived and worked alongside its sacred sites
have been largely overshadowed until now. This book aims to
redress the balance, taking an in-depth look at Iona's economic
and social history during the 18th and 19th centuries, a period
that saw profound change across the Highlands and Islands. It
charts the agricultural reorganization that led to a crofting
system, follows the islanders through the harsh decade of the
potato famine and records their worship and education, their
crafts and customs, and the ties of kinship that underpinned
their community. A broad range of sources are woven together
- documentary, material, topographical and photographic, along
with oral testimony handed down the generations - to create
a vivid picture of Iona's past.
The Second Disruption: The Free Church in Victorian Scotland and the Origins of the Free Presbyterian Church (Scottish Historical Review Monograph) The Victorian period in Scotland was remarkable, with rapid changes and immense wealth coexisting alongside entrenched conservatism and great poverty. For the churches also, the Victorian period was a time of transformation, with every assumption being challenged and tested. In this context it is not surprising that some churches fragmented, and the Free Church was one of them. Founded at the Disruption of 1843, the Free Church was to be one of the dominant forces in Victorian Scotland, and yet even as it exercised this power it began to unravel. Fifty years after its birth, the Free Church experienced its own disruption. Thousands of people, mostly Gaelic-speaking highlanders, deserted the Free Church to form the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893. This book analyzes the events leading up to the Second Disruption. The author places this event in its ecclesiastical context, arguing that the Second Disruption was a product of the Liberalization of attitudes towards the creed and theology in the Free Church. He also argues that the split of 1893 was a result of the fundamental divided in Scottish society between highlands and lowlands, and that the fashionable pseudo-science of race played an important role in forming opinions among significant sections of the lowland Free Church.
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