The Oxford History of Anglicanism, Volume II

Reviews / Votes

The Oxford History of Anglicanism thus supplies an invaluable study of the Anglican Church's importance and influence for any scholar of these periods, even those not directly engaged with ecclesiastical or religious history. This is especially important for volume II, which finally puts to rest the pervasive Victorian view of the eighteenth-century Church as spiritually lifeless and corrupt. * Alice J. Soulieux-Evans, Reformation * This multi-authored volume provides a very useful summation of the extensive renewal of research and scholarship on the eighteenth-century Church that has occurred in recent decades. Its major contribution is to build on studies of England itself to provide a rounded picture of the wider Anglican world in this, its early formative period. * John Wolffe, Journal of Ecclesiastical History * This volume should prove invaluable to anyone seeking to understand the complexities of the Church of England in the Long Eighteenth Century Church, and should go a long way toward overturning the charge that the church of this period was lifeless and uninteresting. * Robert D. Cornwall, Reading Religion * Oxford University Press and the editors are to be warmly congratulated for a resource long overdue to historians and which will no doubt be the authoritative source for exploring the 'question' of Anglicanism for decades to come. It may also provide for Anglicans worldwide that spur to 'patient listening and looking', commended as characteristically Anglican by Geoffrey Rowell, which the Communion requires if it is to endure and flourish. * Daniel Inman, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church * This series represents the most comprehensive study of Anglicanism to date. This series will take its place as a vital resource for scholarship and will serve as a milestone in the development of Anglican studies ... it is an extraordinary resource. It synthesizes a wide range of scholarship on Anglicanism. It ought to be the first point of reference for research on any aspect of Anglican history ... This is a collection that belongs in every library dedicated to the study of history and religion. * Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, Anglican and Episcopal History * This is a careful and well researched collection of essays which cohere well. Unlike some similar volumes the style is uniform and consistent and so very readable. Overall it is an important addition to the literature on an often overlooked period of Anglican history. * Kenneth Kearon, Bishop of Limerick * In many ways the final of the five volumes of the Oxford History of Anglicanism to be published is the most interesting. As a number of contributors have pointed out it covers a period in which the shortcomings and failures of the Church of England have received more attention from historians than its successes. * Paul Richardson, The Church of England Newspaper * ...superb...In [the] course of this thoroughly enjoyable volume there are many arresting glimpses to be had of a church hard at work according to its lights and of its time. * Paul Avis, Durham University and University of Exeter *