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Professor Alec Ryrie's Outputs (51)

Two Ways to Read the Bible in the (Very) Long Reformation (2023)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2023). Two Ways to Read the Bible in the (Very) Long Reformation. In A. French (Ed.), Reading the Reformations: Theologies, Cultures and Beliefs in an Age of Change (308-326). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004521247

In the 1630s, William Chillingworth famously and misleadingly claimed that ‘the Bible only is the religion of Protestants’. This chapter asks: in what sense? Plainly the Bible was central to Protestantism, but in what way? Against the positions advan... Read More about Two Ways to Read the Bible in the (Very) Long Reformation.

Seven conceptualisations of the English Reformation (2022)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2022). Seven conceptualisations of the English Reformation. In K. von Greyerz, & A. Schubert (Eds.), Reformation und Reformationen: Kontinuitäten, Identitäten, Narrative. Gütersloher Verlag (De Gruyter)

Acknowledging that ‘the English Reformation’ was a composite event without a single master-narrative, this essay offers seven different perspectives which collectively may be used to provide a rounded view of religious change in sixteenth-century Eng... Read More about Seven conceptualisations of the English Reformation.

The Ecumenical Council of Dordt (2022)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2022). The Ecumenical Council of Dordt. In H. van der Belt, K. W. de Jong, & W. van Vlastuin (Eds.), A Landmark in Turbulent Times: The Meaning and Relevance of the Synod of Dordt (1618–1619) (23-36). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

This article examines the Synod of Dordt by comparing it to the historic model of General or Ecumenical Councils. This was a category of church assembly which Reformed Protestants venerated and often aspired to, but which also posed vexing ecclesiolo... Read More about The Ecumenical Council of Dordt.

Four axes of mission: Conversion and the purposes of mission in Protestant history (2022)
Journal Article
Ryrie, A., & Trim, D. (2022). Four axes of mission: Conversion and the purposes of mission in Protestant history. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 32, 113-133. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0080440122000020

This article offers a framework for historical analysis of the goals of Protestant missionary projects. ‘Conversion’ in Protestantism is not clearly defined, is liable to be falsified and may (in some missionary views) require preparatory work of var... Read More about Four axes of mission: Conversion and the purposes of mission in Protestant history.

The Myth of the Church of England (2021)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2021). The Myth of the Church of England. In E. Gebarowski-Shafer, A. Null, & A. Ryrie (Eds.), Contesting Orthodoxies in the History of Christianity: essays in honour of Diarmaid MacCulloch. Boydell & Brewer

This essay considers an example of how shifting orthodoxies can be disguised as continuities by the use of linguistic ambiguities, and also at how the universal claims of orthodoxy can clash with the particular claims of nationalism. Henry VIII legit... Read More about The Myth of the Church of England.

Seeking the Seekers (2021)
Journal Article
Ryrie, A. (2021). Seeking the Seekers. Studies in Church History, 57, 185-209. https://doi.org/10.1017/stc.2021.10

The Seekers, a supposed sect which flourished in late 1640s England, have been generally neglected by historians, with the exception of Quaker historiography, in which the Seekers play a pivotal but supporting role. This article argues that the Seeke... Read More about Seeking the Seekers.

The Liturgical Commemoration of the Reformation, 1534-1625 (2020)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2020). The Liturgical Commemoration of the Reformation, 1534-1625. In A. Walsham, B. Wallace, C. Law, & B. Cummings (Eds.), Memory and the English Reformation. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108900157

This chapter considers how the English Reformation was, or, mostly, was not recalled in official liturgical documents. The first section surveys the evolution of calendars of saints from the 1530s to the version that became fixed in the Book of Commo... Read More about The Liturgical Commemoration of the Reformation, 1534-1625.

The Missionary Problem in Early Modern Protestantism: British, Irish and Scandinavian Perspectives (2020)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2020). The Missionary Problem in Early Modern Protestantism: British, Irish and Scandinavian Perspectives. In J. E. Kelly, H. Laugerud, & S. Ryan (Eds.), Northern European Reformations: Transnational Perspectives (377-403). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54458-4_15

Alec Ryrie considers why, despite rhetorical commitment to the enterprise, British and Scandinavian Protestants were so slow to engage in cross-cultural mission. After surveying the lacklustre efforts made, the chapter briefly considers the theologic... Read More about The Missionary Problem in Early Modern Protestantism: British, Irish and Scandinavian Perspectives.

Protestants (2019)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2019). Protestants. In A. French (Ed.), Early Modern Childhood: An Introduction. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315177380

Some pioneering works have looked at the role of Protestantism in certain exceptional categories of children, such as martyrs, those involved in cases of witchcraft or possession, or—a category which embraced almost all children at some point—those f... Read More about Protestants.

Facing Childhood Death in English Protestant Spirituality (2017)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2017). Facing Childhood Death in English Protestant Spirituality. In K. Barclay, C. Rawnsley, & K. Reynolds (Eds.), Death, emotion and childhood in premodern Europe (109-127). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57199-1_6

This chapter examines seventeenth-century English Puritan discussions of childhood death, notably those of Nehemiah Wallington and James Janeway, in order to argue that Puritan and Calvinist theology offered important resources to parents and childre... Read More about Facing Childhood Death in English Protestant Spirituality.

Reformations (2017)
Book Chapter
Ryrie, A. (2017). Reformations. In K. Wrightson (Ed.), A social history of England, 1500-1750 (107-128). Cambridge University Press

The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603 (2017)
Book
Ryrie, A. (2017). The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603. (2nd ed.). Routledge

The Age of Reformation charts how religion, politics and social change were always intimately interlinked in the sixteenth century, from the murderous politics of the Tudor court to the building and fragmentation of new religious and social identitie... Read More about The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603.