George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety

George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety PDF Author: Ceri Sullivan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198906838
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Contemporary nudge theory points out that people make good choices over issues where they have had past experience of similar circumstances, where there is reliable, substantial, and relevant information about the situation, and where they will get prompt feedback about the effect of their decision. Yet none of these conditions apply to the most vital choice of action facing early modern Protestants: how can they be saved? In George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety, Ceri Sullivan uses nudge theory to show how practical divinity disregards the doleful conclusions of predestination--that salvation cannot be earned--to supply readers with suggestions on how to prepare to act, regardless of their final destiny. Such texts create cognitive niches to support cheerful, godly thought and action, in a way which is far from being despairing or compulsive. Their nudges were repeatedly put into practice by Herbert's friends, the Ferrars, who tried to form an ideal religious community at Little Gidding. These prescriptions and examples illustrate how George Herbert's The Temple (1633) is a compendium of the techniques of choice architecture. Herbert's poems are full of the humour emerging from a life of faith which is willing to guard high ideals by low cunning, stooping to use the least little things to change a self. George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety initially calls on theories of the extended mind to ask what sort of minor physical and social structures scaffold decisions, then examines a selection of nudges used by Herbert: contracts with the self, building a mind, cleaning a heart, conversing with God, making to-do lists, and working on working well.

George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety

George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety PDF Author: Ceri Sullivan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198906838
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contemporary nudge theory points out that people make good choices over issues where they have had past experience of similar circumstances, where there is reliable, substantial, and relevant information about the situation, and where they will get prompt feedback about the effect of their decision. Yet none of these conditions apply to the most vital choice of action facing early modern Protestants: how can they be saved? In George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety, Ceri Sullivan uses nudge theory to show how practical divinity disregards the doleful conclusions of predestination--that salvation cannot be earned--to supply readers with suggestions on how to prepare to act, regardless of their final destiny. Such texts create cognitive niches to support cheerful, godly thought and action, in a way which is far from being despairing or compulsive. Their nudges were repeatedly put into practice by Herbert's friends, the Ferrars, who tried to form an ideal religious community at Little Gidding. These prescriptions and examples illustrate how George Herbert's The Temple (1633) is a compendium of the techniques of choice architecture. Herbert's poems are full of the humour emerging from a life of faith which is willing to guard high ideals by low cunning, stooping to use the least little things to change a self. George Herbert and the Business of Practical Piety initially calls on theories of the extended mind to ask what sort of minor physical and social structures scaffold decisions, then examines a selection of nudges used by Herbert: contracts with the self, building a mind, cleaning a heart, conversing with God, making to-do lists, and working on working well.

Evangelical Balance Sheet

Evangelical Balance Sheet PDF Author: B. Anne Wood
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1554588235
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Using the journals of W. Norman Rudolf (1835-1886), a Victorian merchant, Evangelical Balance Sheet: Character, Family, and Business in Mid-Victorian Nova Scotia explores the important role of character ideals and evangelicalism in mid-Victorian culture. Rudolf’s diary, with its daily weather observations, its account of family matters, of social and business happenings, and of his own experiences, as well as occasional literary or naturalistic forays, attempts to follow a disciplined regime of writing, but also has elements of a Bildungsroman. The diary reveals an obvious and significant tension between his inner, spiritual search for meaning in his life (evangelical inwardness) and his outward stewardship duties. Rudolf’s concept of character, then, involved a type of balance sheet of his evangelical service record, to his God, his family, his business, and his community. Needing God’s help to transform his will and to interpret the world in a constructive, rational manner, the underlying intent of his daily journal writing was to keep his commitment to an ethic of benevolence and of the affirmation of the goodness of human beings. Wood elucidates the cultivation of civic-minded masculinity in the context of Victorian Maritime Canada, analyzing the multiple facets of the character ideal and emphasizing its important role in Victorians’ understanding of their life experiences. In the process Wood reveals many underlying assumptions about social change and about civic discourse. The book also describes how the tremendous economic upheavals experienced by many entrepreneurs in the late 1860s to 1880s tempered their evangelical zeal and made it increasingly difficult for them to achieve a balanced and humane perspective on their own lives. Evangelical Balance Sheet will appeal to a broad audience interested in social history, imperial studies, gender studies (especially changing ideas of masculinity and manhood), Atlantic Canada studies, and local history of the Pictou region.

The Spectator

The Spectator PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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The Living Age

The Living Age PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Littell's Living Age

Littell's Living Age PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Littell's Living Age

Littell's Living Age PDF Author: Eliakim Littell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 634

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The Modern Churchman

The Modern Churchman PDF Author: Henry Dewsbury Alves Major
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Liberalism (Religion)
Languages : en
Pages : 822

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Book Description
Vols. for 1926/27-1954 include papers read at the annual conference of Modern Churchmen.

The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer

The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 740

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The Ecclesiastical gazette, or, Monthly register of the affairs of the Church of England

The Ecclesiastical gazette, or, Monthly register of the affairs of the Church of England PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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A History of Christian Conversion

A History of Christian Conversion PDF Author: David W. Kling
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195320921
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 853

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Book Description
In this first in-depth and wide-ranging history of Christian conversion, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach and engaging recent methods and theories in conversion studies, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Although conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming), when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest.