Preaching, Word and Sacrament: Scottish Church Interiors 1560-1860

(Hardback)

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This study follows on from Yate's standard work Buildings, Faith and Worship: the Liturgical Arrangement of Anglican Churches 1600-1900 (OUP 1991, revised edition 2000) and Liturgical Space in Western Europe since the Reformation (Ashgate, 2008) to provide the first detailed study of Scottish post-Reformation church interiors for fifty years.

In the intervening period many of the buildings described by George Hay have been demolished, converted to non-ecclesiastical use or liturgically reordered. However, this study goes further to include many surviving examples not noted by Hay, and extends his work further into the nineteenth century, with a detailed study of buildings up to 1860, and with a more general consideration of later nineteenth and early twentieth century church architecture in Scotland. The detailed study of developments in Scotland, especially those in the Presbyterian churches, are set in the context of comparative developments in other parts of Britain and Europe, especially those in the Reformed churches of the Netherlands and Switzerland to create a groundbreaking new study by an established author.

Reviews

In this attractively illustrated volume, Professor Yates, a distinguished historian of modern British and Irish religious history, explores the neglected theme of Scottish church interiors as expressions of Scottish Christian worship and devotion between the Reformation and the nineteenth-century liturgical revival. Based on both an impressive command of Scottish religious history and an extensive study of surviving pre-1860 church interiors, the book considers worship in the different denominations that have shaped Scotland's Christianity. It demonstrates that post-Reformation Scottish traditions of public worship, especially among the Presbyterian churches, were far richer and more diverse than many have believed. This is the first study of Scottish church interiors and worship since the path-breaking work of George Hay in the 1950s, and it will be warmly welcomed by all with an interest in Scottish religion and culture.' Stewart J Brown, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Edinburgh, UK -- Stewart Brown
Reviewed in Northern History, XLVII (2), (UK)The volume ... provides valuable discussions of continuity and change in the Churches together with a useful reference section'
Yates did not intend to replace the very rare Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches by George Hay (1957), but he wanted to complete Hay's work in the light of more specific ecclesiastic and liturgical research. This book, for Scotland, is indispensable.- Bernard Reymond, Etudes Theologiques et Religieuses
With this in their hands, no students will fail to find their way round these remarkable records in built form.' -- Ecclesiology
As it meshes together perspectives on ecclesiastical history and church interior design, this book exists within a very particular niche. However, its appeal far exceeds a niche market... For his painstaking research into church buildings in obscure villages across Scotland, Yates has left behind a valuable book. -- Journal of Reformed Theology 4
[Preaching, Word and Sacrament] has the potential to raise awareness, both amongst the people of Scotland and those who visit the country, of the importance of the churches and their furnishings for understanding both the highly distinctive natures of Christian Worship in Scotland over the four post-Reformation centuries, and the wider national culture they have helped to shape. -- Ecclesiology Today

Author Bio

Nigel Yates is Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK. Previous books include Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain 1830-1910 (1999), Buildings, Faith and Worship: the Liturgical Arrangement of Anglican Churches 1600-1900 (revised edition 2000), The Religious Condition of Ireland 1770-1850 (2006) and Liturgical Space in Western Europe since the Reformation (forthcoming 2008).