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Volume 60 of Studies in Church History examines the theme of hypocrisy in the Church. This theme touches upon tensions at the heart of Christian teaching and experience: the distance between ideal and lived practice, and conflicts between sincerity of faith and the demands of society and the state. To explore the place of hypocrisy in Christian thought is to highlight issues of deception, dissimulation and double standards - rich themes in Christian history and discourse, encompassing a wide range of topics such as casuistry and priestcraft. The articles in this volume raise questions about the importance of external ritual in relation to internal belief and of dualist approaches to religion in which evil has no conceivable place in the good. They highlight anxieties around the discernment of sin and virtue and explore historical responses to the ethical question of whether lies and deception can ever be deployed for good ends.
List of contents
Preface; List of Contributors; List of Abbreviations; List of Illustrations; Introduction Catherine Cubitt; 1. The Devil as 'Father of Lies': Ideas of Diabolical Deceit in the Donatist Controversy Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe; 2. 'In Defiance of his Cloth': Monastic (Im)piety in Late Antique Egypt (President's Prize) Paula Tutty; 3. Ostriches, Spiders' Webs and Antichrist: Hypocrisy in Writings of Pope Gregory the Great and Archbishop Wulfstan II of York (Presidential Address) Catherine Cubitt; 4. Cannibal, Scorpion, Horse, Owl: Institutional Hypocrites and the Early Fourteenth-Century Church John Sabapathy; 5. False Religion and Hypocrisy in Signorelli's Antichrist Konstantinos Gravanis; 6. 'God really hated the hypocrites': Hypocrisy and Anti-clerical Rhetoric in the Early Lutheran Reformation Charlotte Methuen; 7. Hypocrisy and Humour in the English Reformation Ethan H. Shagan; 8. Prudentes sicut serpentes: Dissimulation and Concealment in Japanese and Chinese Missions in the Seventeenth Century Iveta Nakládalová; 9. Hypocrisy, 'Prudence', 'Conscience' in Administration: The Congregation of Bishops and Regulars in Seventeenth-Century Italy Simone Maghenzani; 10. 'See sincerity sparkle in thy practice': Antidotes to Hypocrisy in British Print Sermons, 1640-95 Anna Pravdica; 11. Providence and Puritan Deceit: John Davenport's Forgery Revisited Christy Wang; 12. 'A Herd of snivelling, grinning Hypocrites': Religious Hypocrisy in Restoration Drama David Fletcher; 13. Laughing at Hypocrisy: The Turncoats (1711), Visual Culture and Dissent in Early Eighteenth-Century England Adam Morton; 14. The Problems of Performing Piety in some Exeter Dissenting Sermons c.1660-1745 David Parry; 15. The Rev. John Stainsby and the 'diffusion of Gospel truth' in Early Nineteenth-Century Jamaica (Kennedy Prize) Alice Kinghorn; 16. Dissimulation as an Editorial Strategy in the Life of William Wilberforce Mark Smith; 17. Bishops, Brothels and Byron: Hypocrisy and the 1844 Brothel Suppression Bill Emily Baylor; 18. Cavalier South vs Puritan North? Hypocrisy and Identity in the American Civil War Edward G. Manger; 19. Enjoying what comes naturally: The Church of England and Sexuality in the 1930s Mark D. Chapman; 20. Humanity Defined, Hypocrisy Defied: Sacralizing the Black Freedom Struggle, 1930-60 Dennis C. Dickerson; 21. Vocation, Hypocrisy and Secularization: Iris Murdoch and the Clergy of the Church of England Peter Webster; 22. OutRage! Hypocrisy, Episcopacy and Homosexuality in 1990s England William Whyte.
Summary
This volume offers fascinating insights into the understudied question of the role of hypocrisy in the Church, a theme that touches upon tensions at the heart of Christian teaching and experience: the distance between ideal and lived practice, and conflicts between sincerity of faith and the demands of society and the state.
