International Religious Networks

The international religious networks explored in this volume range from the cults of early medieval saints to the ecumenical networks and friendships which developed in the twentieth century. The essays reveal the diversity of religious networks over the centuries and engage with enduring questions that transcend national, geographical and sectarian boundaries. Networks could be of ideas or of people but most commonly involved both. They could be supported through formal organizations, institutions and bureaucracies or through more informal personal ties, such as friendships and acquaintances. Some international networks sustained a particular interest group, sect or denomination; others aspired to be ecumenical and all-encompassing. Networks might be created by, or around, a single individual; they could span an entire institutionally organized church; or, potentially, they could hope to include the whole of Christendom or even aim to connect a range of different world religions. Networks might be made up of largely like-minded individuals sharing largely similar perspectives, or they could bring diverse individuals and groups together to focus on a specific religious issue, concern or personality.
The book offers answers to the following questions. How far has religion, both in terms of the ideas it creates and in terms of its practitioners and adherents, been especially good at forming international networks? What is it about religion that gives it such leverage and such an ability to transcend national and regional boundaries and divides? These questions have some relevance for our understanding of the networks sustained by different religious faiths at the present time, as well as for understanding the strains in keeping international religious networks intact.

Jeremy Gregory is Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Manchester; Hugh McLeod is Emeritus Professor of Church History at the University of Birmingham.

Details

First Published: 16 Sep 2012
13 Digit ISBN: 9780954681005
Pages: 314
Size: 21.6 x 13.8
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: Ecclesiastical History Society
Series: Studies in Church History: Subsidia
Subject: History of Religion
BIC Class: HRAX

Details updated on 24 May 2013

Contents

• 1  Introduction
• 2  Medieval Saints' Cults as International Networks: The Example of the Cult of St Katherine of Alexandria
• 3  St Sabas and the Palestinian Monastic Network under Crusader Rule
• 4  Religious Networks in Action: The European Expansion of the Cult of St Thomas of Canterbury
• 5  Networking to Orthodoxy: The Case of Durán of Huesca
• 6  Networks of Ideas, Networks of Men: Clerical Reform, Parisian Theologians and the Movement to Reform Prostitutes in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century France
• 7  From Frontier to Mission: Networking by Unlikely Allies in the Church International, 1198-1216
• 8  An Archival Network: The Teutonic Knights between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century
• 9  John Knox's International Network
• 10  Scottish Catholic Correspondence Networks in Eighteenth-Century Europe
• 11  Transatlantic Anglican Networks, c.1680 - c.1770: Transplanting, Translating and Transforming the Church of England
• 12  International Religious Networks: Methodism and Popular Protestantism, c.1750 - 1850
• 13  Revivalism, Emigration and Religious Networks in Nineteenth-Century Norway
• 14  Transatlantic Visitors and Evangelical Networks, 1829-61
• 15  An Englishman Abroad: The International Networks of a Nineteenth-Century Congregationalist
• 16  A Female Force despite Mockery and Contempt: Women's Mission Groups in Norway as Social, Religious and International Network Builders
• 17  A Glocal Knitwork: Sewing Circles in the Church of Sweden as a Global Women's Network
• 18  The International Religious Network of Yun Chi-ho (1865-1965): Mission or Dialogue?
• 19  Global Visions and Patriotic Sentiments: The Rise and Fall of Ecumenical Reputations, 1890-1922
• 20  The Ecumenical Network, 1920-48
• 21  The International Horizon and the National Crisis: Hal Koch's International Intellectual Network, Experience and Influences during the 1930s
• 22  Bureaucratic or Personal Networks? Formation of the Ecumenical Movement during the Second World War
• 23  The Nordic Network shows its Weakness as the Cold War sets in: The Visit of the Rev. A. Cotter to the Nordic Lutheran Churches of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, 1946