‘Practical Divinity’ : The Works and Life of Revd Richard Greenham

Name: ‘Practical Divinity’:The Works and Life of Revd Richard Greenham
ISBN: 9781315264158

doi:10.4324/9781315264158

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ABSTRACT

Richard Greenham was one of the most important and respected figures among the Elizabethan clergy. His contemporaries described him as the founder of a previously unknown pastoral art: the cure of cases of conscience. Despite his fame in the Elizabethan period as a model pastor, pioneer in reformed casuistry, and founder of one of the first rectory seminaries, scholars have made little use of his life and works in their study of Elizabethan religious life. This study restores Richard Greenham to the central place he held in the development of Elizabethan Reformed parochial ministry. The monograph-length introduction includes a biography, an analysis of his pastoral style, and a study of his approach to curing cases of conscience. The transcription of Rylands English Manuscript 524, cross-referenced with the published editions of the sayings, offers a useful source to scholars who wish to study the collecting and ’framing’ process of the humanist pedagogical tradition. The selection of early published works includes Greenham’s (unfinished) catechism, treatises on the Sabbath and marriage, and advice on reading scripture and educating children.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents: Part One: Greenham’s Life and Legacy: Introduction; A biographical sketch of Greenham’s life; Greenham’s legacy; The Greenham sayings in their literary and historical context; Greenham’s pastoral ministry; The cure of afflicted consciences; The theological foundations of Greenham’s cure of afflicted consciences; Another comment concerning the name ’puritan’; Part Two: The Sayings of Richard Greenham: Ryland’s English Manuscript 524, folios 1-72; Part Three: Selected Texts from Greenham’s Works (1599): Selected texts: an editor’s introduction; ’A Short Forme of Catechising’; ’A large Treatise of the Sabboth’; ’A Treatise of a Contract before Marriage’; ’A profitable treatise containing a direction for the reading and understanding of the holy Scriptures’; ’Of the good education of children’; Appendix 1: Bibliography of the published works of Richard Greenham; Appendix 2: Comparison of ’Grave Counsels’ (1st edn, 1599) and Rylands English Manuscript 524; Select bibliography; Index.