Text 3: The briefe summe of our judgment and desires about Church Government

This chapter chronicles shifts in political assumption in late 1643 and early 1644, pointing towards the later revolutionary outcome of 1649. The chapter demonstrates a strain of intensifying hostility towards Charles I, often accompanied by casual discussion of the dethronement or deposition of the king. Alongside this, some partisans began to sharpen expansive visions of parliamentary supremacy, yoking them to tendentious claims for expansive religious and discursive liberty. Simultaneously, there emerged rising challenges to the constitutional status of the House of Lords. By 1644, proponents of these militant positions began to rally behind a nascent “independent” leadership, helping to explain the emergence of an “independent” political coalition (which counterintuitively included many people who were not personally committed to congregational or sectarian forms of church government).

Download Full-text

Samson Agonistes and the “Tragedy” of the Apocalypse

PMLA ◽

10.2307/1261546 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 85 (5) ◽

pp. 1050-1062 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Barbara K. Lewalski

Keyword(s):

Book Of Revelation ◽

Samson Agonistes ◽

End Of History ◽

God's People ◽

The World ◽

The End Of History ◽

New Perspective ◽

Wrath Of God ◽

Church Government

Milton's references in the preface to Samson Agonistes and in The Reason of Church Government to the Book of Revelation as tragedy have great significance for his drama. His cited authority, David Pareus, and several other Protestant commentators identified the Book of Revelation as tragedy on the basis of form (the alternation of dramatic episodes and Choruses) and subject—the spiritual combat of the Elect with Antichrist and their torment and suffering at his hands throughout all time, reversed only at the end of history when they share Christ's Apocalyptic victory over him. Protestant exegates often linked the Samson story typologically with the Book of Revelation, presenting Samson as type of the suffering Elect and the exercise of Samson's vocation as Judge (deliverer of God's people and executor of the wrath of God upon His enemies) as type of the Elect judging the world with Christ at the last day. This context assists the interpretation of Milton's Samson, bringing into focus its treatment of Samson's judgeship. The Samson Apocalypse link also brings a new perspective to certain moot questions: the date of the play, the interpretation of Samson's character, the presence of contemporary political reference, the nature of the drama's tragic effect.

Download Full-text

Local Church Government among the iKalahan

Practical Anthropology ◽

10.1177/009182967201900201 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol os-19 (2) ◽

pp. 49-58

Author(s):

Delbert Rice

Keyword(s):

Public Relations ◽

Social Control ◽

Local Church ◽

United Church Of Christ ◽

The Philippines ◽

Church Of Christ ◽

Powerful Means ◽

Task Oriented ◽

Civic Mindedness ◽

Church Government

Traditionally, decisions among the iKalahan (North Luzon, Philippines) are made by the entire community in open conference. Elders, chosen for maturity, civic-mindedness, activity, memory, good public relations, cooperativeness, and dependability, formulate community decisions and assist in settling disputes. Mutual moral support is strong, and community disapproval and removal of support is a powerful means of social control. When the United Church of Christ in the Philippines came on the scene (1954), it brought its own Western-type Book of Government. But the prescribed representative structures were rejected by the iKalahan in favor of open congregational meetings; church officers are task oriented and do not exercise much authority. Congregational nurture, as distinct from making decisions, is the province of specialists, which is in accord with tradition. Means of social control are also being evolved along traditional lines.

Download Full-text