The Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland. General AssemblyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.4
Word count
1.1M words
Chapters
115

Tags

English Originals Historical ClassicsReligion Institutional ChangeHistorical DocumentsChurch AssemblyCivic AwarenessLegal CompilationScottish Religion

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of ScotlandAuthor: Church of Scotland. General Assembly,Language: English, Class: BX: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements, Release Date: May 24, 2009

Editor's review

This book is a documentary compilation of the acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, a primary source for the study of religious and institutional history. Its value lies not in narrative readability but in showing, through specific provisions, the forms of church governance, doctrinal rulings, and church-state relations, allowing researchers to trace institutional change and terminological usage. The Project Gutenberg electronic edition is easy to search and cite, making it suitable as a base text for academic writing and thematic reading. It is best read with a questioning mind, as an archive rather than a general history; pairing it with related works of church history will make the context and impact of the provisions easier to understand. For general readers, the book is more of a reference work, to be consulted as needed rather than read through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read introductory works of church history first to establish a chronological framework, then consult specific acts.
  2. Organize entries by theme or period and read by searching rather than straight through.
  3. Note terms and institutional names as you read, to facilitate cross-comparison of provisions from different periods.
  4. When citing the original text, verify the edition and page numbers to avoid taking passages out of context.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  3. 3
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  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
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  71. 71
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  80. 80
  81. 81
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  90. 90
  91. 91
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  100. 100
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  102. 102
  103. 103
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  111. 111
  112. 112
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  114. 114
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FAQ

Is this book suitable for reading from cover to cover? Not really. It is essentially a compilation of assembly acts, with little narrative connection between entries, so reading it straight through can be tiring. A more effective approach is to first understand the basic outlines of Scottish church history, then search for relevant provisions by period or theme, using the book as a tool for consultation and citation.
What level of English is needed to read this book? The provisions are mostly in the legal and religious style of early modern English, with long sentences and dense terminology, requiring good English reading ability. It is advisable to become familiar with basic concepts such as Presbyterianism and the assembly system, and to consult dictionaries and church history sources for unfamiliar terms, in order to understand the provisions accurately.
Is the electronic edition suitable for academic citation? The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and copy, suitable for preliminary consultation and locating the original text. For formal citation, however, attention should be paid to edition information and page numbers; it is best to check the print or authoritative critical edition, and to note in the citation the source of the electronic edition used, to ensure citation standards are met.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Church of Scotland. General Assembly Author

The Church of Scotland. General Assembly is the highest governing body of the Church of Scotland (the Presbyterian church in Scotland), responsible for matters of doctrine, church order, and church policy. One work by this body is held in the collection, The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, a compilation of the acts and resolutions passed at the Assembly's sessions and a typical example of ecclesiastical assembly records. Such texts consist mainly of articles and resolutions, written in a solemn and precise style with an emphasis on procedure and regulation, serving the practical needs of church governance. Because public information is limited, this entry does not speculate on the body's specific historical development or the biographies of individual members. Judged by the nature of the work, it is both a primary source for studying the institutional operation of the Church of Scotland and a basis for understanding its doctrinal positions and policy orientations, offering reference value for research on religious history and church law.