The larger-than-life image Abraham Lincoln projects across the screen of American history owes much to his role as the Great Emancipator during the Civil War. Yet this noble aspect of Lincoln's identity is precisely the dimension that some historians have cast into doubt. Redeeming the Great Emancipator enumerates Lincoln's anti-slavery credentials, showing that a deeply held belief in the God-given rights of all people steeled the president in his commitment to emancipation and his hope for racial reconciliation. Emancipation did not achieve complete freedom for American slaves, nor was Lincoln entirely above some of the racial prejudices of his time. Nevertheless, his conscience and moral convictions far outweighed political calculations in ultimately securing freedom for African Americans.

An account of the famous open-air 1858 Senate election debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln provides insight into their political rivalry while gauging mid-nineteenth-century issues and how they affected local and presidential campaigns.

An analysis of the Emancipation Proclamation addresses such issues as its unfavorable comparison to more eloquent Lincoln addresses and its questionable reflection of Lincoln's character.

This biography of the sixteenth president explores Lincoln's life and political career along with insights into his philosophy, religious views, and moral character.

American Episcopalians have long prided themselves on their love of consensus and their position as the church of American elites. They have, in the process, often forgotten that during the nineteenth century their church was racked by a divisive struggle that threatened to tear apart the very fabric of the Episcopal Church. On one side of this struggle was a powerful and aggressive Evangelical party who hoped to make the Episcopal Church into the democratic head of "the sisterhood of Evangelical Churches" in America; on the other side was the Oxford Movement, equally powerful and aggressive but committed to a range of Romantic principles which celebrated disillusion and disgust with evangelicalism and democracy alike.. The resulting conflict--over theology, liturgy, and, above all, culture--led to the schism of 1873, in which many Evangelicals left the church to form the Reformed Episcopal Church. For the Union of Evangelical Christendom tells this largely forgotten story using the case of the Reformed Episcopalians to open up the ironic anatomy of American religion at the turn of the century. Today, as the Episcopal Church once again finds itself enmeshed in cultural and religious crisis, the remembrance of a similar crisis a century ago brings an eerily prophetic ring to this remarkable work of cultural and religious history.

Product Description: For those who have known and loved the Reformed Episcopal Seminary, "Ambitious To Be Well-Pleasing" is a sampling from some of the men who have made it great. For those who are strangers to it, "Ambitious To Be Well-Pleasing" provides the perfect introduction to a seminary, whose one enthusiasm is to live up to its motto - "We are ambitious to be well-pleasing unto Him" (II Corinthians 5:9)...read more