History Matters

A Festschrift in Honor of Stuart Macdonald

John A. Vissers, Ernest van Eck

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9798385276165
  9798385276172
• eBook ISBN:
  9798385276189
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

History Matters brings together distinguished scholars whose essays span diverse periods and contexts yet converge around enduring theological and historical questions. Across studies of witch trials in sixteenth-century Scotland; demonological debates in seventeenth-century England; moral reasoning about wartime bombing, secularization, and doctrinal development in Canadian Protestantism; and the formation of medieval church leaders, the contributors examine how Christian identity has been formed, contested, and reimagined over time. This volume attends closely to the dynamics of power and authority in both ecclesial and civic life and to the ongoing negotiation between tradition and transformation. It also insists that historical inquiry is never neutral. The questions historians ask, the sources they privilege, and the interpretive frameworks they employ shape how the past is understood. Rather than offering easy conclusions, these essays present history as complex, contested, and often unresolved. As a whole, History Matters demonstrates why careful historical study remains indispensable for rigorous theological reflection and for responsible engagement with the moral, social, and ecclesial challenges of the present.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Contributors
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• 1. Ecumenism and Denominational Identity in a Pluralistic World
• 2. The Church in Canada
• 3. Pastoral Ministry as Unfinished
• 4. Maintaining a Godly Society
• 5. What to Make of History in the Study of Mission?
• 6. The Formation of Pastoral Leaders in the Twelfth Century
• 7. Reading Reginald Scot in Scotland
• 8. Leaving Christianity Revisited
• 9. “Between Evil and Less Evil”
• 10. Two Calvinists’ Understandings of the Scripture and Administration of the Biblical Ceremonies and Missional Implications
• 11. Evangelism in a Quiet Voice
• 12. Ishmael as Insult
• 13. Death of Christian Canada?
• 14. “Reformulating the Faith”