This eighth volume of Studies in Church History contains twenty-six papers read at two recent meetings of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Popular religion, in theory and practice, within established religious forms and outside them, against a background of acceptance or of controversy, is examined in studies ranging from Professor Momigliano's analysis of the attitude of the later Roman historians to Professor Latreille's discussion of popular piety in modern France. A number of papers focus on the attitudes to sanctity and relics in the central Middle Ages. There is also a significant and wide-ranging discussion centred on the theme of the Presidential Address: post-Reformation popular religion both in its local and general setting. These contributions clearly demonstrate the significance of current research into social and economic influences upon popular faith, practice and allegiance, and indicate the large areas and difficult problems which require further research.
The Ecclesiastical History Society devoted two meetings to the topical theme of 'The Mission of the Church' and this sixth volume of Studies in Church History contains eleven papers on widely varying aspects of the subject. The theme of foreign missions is comprehensively examined, with papers on both the conversion of Europe and the missions to Asia and Africa. A later development considered if the missionary situation facing the church at home after the Industrial Revolution. The volume concludes with a masterly survey of the literature of missionary history by Bishop Neill.
This classic work, previously edited by Ronald Jasper and Geoffrey Cuming, has been a staple source in teaching liturgy to generations of students in colleges, seminaries, and universities. It has now