BRETHREN IN SCOTLAND 1838 - 2000 PB

Through their gospel halls the Brethren were a pervasive presence in Scotland.

This book which principally concentrates upon their largest section, the `Open Brethren`, traces the origins of each of their independent congregations, mainly among the industrial working classes. It places their growth in the context of Scottish religion and society and examines their complex relationship to this setting: simultaneously rejecting and engaging with it. The distinctive spirituality of the Brethren, nourished by their publishers, hymns and theological writers, as well as their pronounced millennialism, is also discussed. By following the movement over its entire history it is possible to see how its tensions shaped it - female preaching, for example, being initially accepted and then rejected - and how it transumed against social and religious trends. The result is a study of a movement of popular Evangelicalism demonstrating the ways in which a religious body interacted with is social context.

'This deeply researched and finely written study of the Brethren in Scotland opens a fascinating window into the world of the gospel hall, into the structures and faith of this movement and its response, never unanimous, to the challenges of stress and change. They have had a bad press for their rigidity of doctrine and practice, and yet there is much more to this movement worthy of respect and recognition.'
Alistair Durie, Departement of Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow, UK.

'Neil Dickson possesses not only an encyclopedic grasp of his subject but also the rare ability to write about it with both sympathy and analytical rigour. This is a pioneering and noteworthy book.'
Mark A. Noll, McMains Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, USA.

'Here is scholarship at its best. Based on meticulous research, informed by perspective and judicious insight, and expressed in lucid prose, this will surely remain the definitive account of its subject for many years to come.'
Harold H. Rowdon, Former Lecturer in Church History, London Bible College, UK.

Neil Dickson is graduate of the universities of Aberdeen and Stirling who teaches English at Kilmarnock Academy. He has contributed articles to several books, journals and dictionaries and he has also written and edited An Island Shore; Selected Writings of Robert Rendall 1990.

Paperback: 538 pages
Publisher: Paternoster Press/Authentic Media (1 Sept. 2009)
Language: English

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