Sacred Scotland

Tour Sacred Scotland

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.