REFERENCE BOOKS
A Selection
John Baigent, Declare his Glory: A fresh look at our congregational worship, Christian Brethren Review, no 39, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1988. Six useful chapters about the renewal of open worship.
Brethren magazines are also a useful source. The oldest of these, The Witness, ceased publication in 1985, but The Harvester continues publication in England. In Australia Tidings is important, and of course The Treasury is the magazine in New Zealand. Missionary work has always produced significant magazines, including Echoes of Service in England.
Alan Bamford (ed.), Where do we go from here? The future of the Brethren, Worthing: H.E. Walter Ltd., 1979. The talks given at the annual Swanwick conference of Brethren in September 1978, including blunt addresses by Roy Coad, Victor Jack and Michael Griffiths.
Graham Brown & Brian Mills, "The Brethren" Today: a factual survey, Exeter: Paternoster Press & C.B.R.F., 1980. The results of a careful survey. For some comparable N.Z. figures see the N.Z. C.B.R.F. Journal, No 103 (October 1985.
F. Roy Coad, A history of the Brethren movement: its origins, its worldwide development and its significance for the present day, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1968. Unlike Rowdon this book seeks to take a world wide perspective over the whole period, and mentions New Zealand.
Donald F. Durnbaugh, The Believers' Church: The history and character of radical Protestantism, 1 edn, New York: Macmillan, 1968; 2 edn, Scotdale, PA.: Herald Press, 1985. A study of restorationist denominations, including the Waldensians, Moravians, Baptists, Quakers, Memnonites, Methodists, Churches of Christ and the [Plymouth] Brethren, which gives an interesting context to the Brethren view of the church.
David J. Ellis & W. Ward Gasque (ed.), In God's community: the church and its ministry , London & Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 1978. A broad range of papers from open English assemblies, written for G.C.D. Howley, and seen as a successor to the Watson collection.
H.L. Ellison, The household church, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1963. The first of the modern books which explained and defended the nature of the Brethren, fresh and readable.
Peter J. Lineham, "The significance of J.G. Deck 1807-1884", C.B.R.F. Journal, no 107 (November 1986).
Peter J. Lineham, "The state of the Brethren in New Zealand today", C.B.R.F. Journal, no 93 (April 1982).
Peter J. Lineham, There we found Brethren: A history of assemblies of Brethren in New Zealand, Palmerston North: G.P.H. Society, 1977. The standard New Zealand history.
Peter J. Lineham, "Tongues must cease", C.B.R.F. Journal, no 96 (December 1982), and also in "Cautionary tales from Brethren history" Christian Brethren Review no 34, Paternoster, 1983. About the Brethren and the charismatic movement in New Zealand.
Les A. Marsh, In his name: a record of assembly missionary outreach from New Zealand, Palmerston North: G.P.H., 1974. Brief biographies of all Brethren missionaries from N.Z.
Les A. Marsh & Harry D. Erlam, In his name: a record of assembly missionary outreach from New Zealand, Palmerston North: G.P.H., 1987. This so called "second edition" is in fact a wholly new book, covering the missionary work of the New Zealand Brethren since 1974.
B. Howard Mudditt, The new fellowship, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1975. Brief (21 pages) and superb introduction to the worship meeting and other aspects of Brethren assemblies.
Harold H. Rowdon, The origins of the Brethren 1825-1850, London: Pickering & Inglis, 1967. The fruit of doctoral research, this is the key work on the emergence of the Brethren in England to the point of the 1848 split.
Harold H. Rowdon (ed.), Servants of God: papers on the use of full time workers in Brethren churches, Christian Brethren Research Journal No 37, April 1986. Exeter: Paternoster Press. A range of useful papers.
Harold H. Rowdon, Who are the Brethren and does it matter?, Exeter: Paternoster Press for C.B.R.F, 1986. A concise (48 page) explanation and defence by the clearest of the recent writers.
Nathan Delynn Smith, Roots, renewal and the Brethren, Pasadena: Hope Publishing Co., 1986. A study of those who had left the Brethren in America.
Neil Summerton, A noble task: eldership and ministry in the local church, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1987. Defence and advice on oversight in Brethren assemblies from an English perspective.
Frederick A. Tatford, That the world may know, Bath: Echoes, 1980s. An 8 volume study of the expansion of Brethren missions.
John Williams, Living churches: a reconsideration of their basis of life and leadership, Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1972. An excellent look from an "open" point of view of the nature of the Brethren.
F. Roy Coad, Prophetic developments, with particular reference to the early Brethren movement, [British] Christian Brethren Research Fellowship Occasional Paper No 2, 1966.
Peter Cousins, The Brethren, Christian denominations series, Exeter: Religious Education Press of Pergamon Press, 1982. Brief (63 page) study for British religious education classes.
Alfred P. Gibbs, Scriptural principles of gathering, or why I meet among those known as Brethren, 1935. (Many editions). A well known clear fairly conservative defence of the Brethren.
Edmund Gosse, Father and son: a study of two temperaments, London: 1907. Penguin Modern Classics, 1949 ... 1973. The most famous appearance of the Brethren in literature, from a fairly jaundiced point of view.
Henry Hitchman, Some scriptural principles of the Christian assembly, or things which are most surely believed among us, Kilmarnock: John Ritchie Ltd., ca 1929. A fine conservative defence of the Brethren position.
William Hoste, Bishops, priests and deacons, Kilmarnock: John Ritchie Ltd., n.d. An older very clear defence of the Brethren view of ministry.
G.H. Lang, The churches of God, Exeter: Paternoster. A provocative and interesting "congregationalist" defence of the Open Brethren stance, by one of the most independent Brethren leaders.
Andrew Miller, "The Brethren" (commonly so called): a brief sketch of their origin, progress and testimony, London: G. Morrish, n.d. An account by an Exclusive Brethren leader.
W. Blair Neatby, A history of the Plymouth Brethren, 2 edn., London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1902. You are unlikely to come by this book, read it if posible for it is a witty and interesting account of the Brethren by an ex member with a shrewd understanding of it.
Henry Pickering, Chief men among the Brethren, London: Pickering & Inglis, 1918, 2 edn., 1931.
Timothy F.C. Stunt, Early Brethren and the Society of Friends, [British] Christian Brethren Research Fellowship Occasional Paper No 3, 1970.
W.T. Stunt, A. Pulling, A. Pickering et al., Turning the world upside down: a century of missionary endeavour, Bath: Echoes of Service, 1973.
Frederick A. Tatford, That the world may know, Bath: Echoes, 1983-6. A 10 volume study of the expansion of Brethren missions.
Thomas S. Veitch, The story of the Brethren movement, London & Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, n.d. Short account with illustrations.
J.B. Watson (ed.), The church: a symposium, Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 1949. A superb collection of British essays.
B.R. Wilson (ed.), Patterns of sectarianism: organisation and ideology in social and religious movements, London: Heinemann, 1967. Essays by secular sociologists Wilson, Embling & Williams examine the exclusive Brethren.
Do not neglect to look at biographies of famous brethren notably John Nelson Darby (by W.G. Turner) Anthony Norris Groves (H. Groves or G.H. Lang), George Muller (by A.T. Pierson), Robert Cleaver Chapman (by Frank Holmes) and from New Zealand, Norman Hyde (by Ern Edwards) and R.A. Laidlaw (autobiography - >The Story of the Reason Why). Also remember the great biblical writings of earlier Brethren, J.N. Darby, William Kelly, C.H. Mackintosh, and more recent Brethren, including F.F. Bruce.