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Written by one of the world's greatest authorities on Martin Luther, this is the definitive biography of the central figure of the Protestant Reformation. “A brilliant account of Luther’s evolution as a man, a thinker, and a Christian. . . . Every person interested in Christianity should put this on his or her reading list.”—Lawrence Cunningham, Commonweal “This is the biography of Luther for our time by the world’s foremost authority.”—Steven Ozment, Harvard University “If the world is to gain from Luther it must turn to the real Luther—furious, violent, foul-mouthed, passionately concerned. Him it will find in Oberman’s book, a labour of love.”—G. R. Elton, Journal of Ecclesiastical History
The question of evil presents a profound challenge to humanity—why do we do what we know to be wrong? This is especially a challenge to religious believers. Why doesn't an all-good and omnipotent God step in and put an end to evil? The Problem of Evil in the Western Tradition examines how Western thinkers have dealt with the problem of evil, starting in ancient Israel and tracing the question through post-biblical Judaism, Early Christianity (especially in Africa), the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and to the twenty-first century when science has raised new and important issues. Joseph Kelly covers the book of Job, the book of Revelation, Augustine of Hi...
The Ten Commandments condone slavery, and Deuteronomy 22 deems the rape of an unmarried woman to injure her father rather than the woman herself. While many Christians ignore most Old Testament laws as obsolete or irrelevant-with others picking and choosing among them in support of specific political and social agendas-it remains a basic tenet of Christian doctrine that the faith is contained in both the Old and the New Testament. If the law is ignored, an important aspect of the faith tradition is denied. In Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies, Cheryl B. Anderson tackles this problem head on, attempting to answer the question whether the laws of the Old Testament are authoritative f...
Protestant Christians should venerate the saints. This shocking claim lies at the heart of Great Cloud of Witnesses. In it, Jackson Lashier presents the practice's biblical foundations and highlights the Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead: those who have died in Christ are still living in hope of final resurrection, and in that state, they serve as witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), actively supporting modern Christians as they seek to live faithful lives of discipleship. Each chapter tells the story of a different saint--six men and six women from varying places, times, and traditions--both to connect them to readers as spiritual companions and to relate more practical lessons from the...
"Despite current academic claims that the establishment of the Reformation cannot have resulted from lay religious understanding, this study offers evidence that theological ideas did reach beyond religious elites to promote various popular responses to the Reformation."--Jacket
James Kearney engages with recent work in the history of the book and the history of religion to investigate the crisis of the book occasioned by the Reformation's simultaneous faith in text and distrust of material forms.
Martin Luther's lectures on Genesis, delivered at the University of Wittenberg during the last decade of his life and later published by his students, allow modern readers to view a sixteenth-century professor engaging his students with the text of scripture and using that text to form them spiritually. The lectures show how Luther attempted to form in his students a new identity, an Evangelical identity, enabling them to make sense of the rapidly changing society and church in which they were being prepared to serve, primarily as pastors in the developing territorial churches of the Reformation. This study uses the text of the lectures to outline the contours of the new identity that Luther...
This book looks at the influential metaphor of sinful humanity as 'homo incurvatus in se' (humanity curved in on itself), from its origins in Augustine to Luther, Barth and the Feminist theology.
The issue of clerical celibacy has played a long and profound role in the history of the Christian church. From the first Christian centuries to the present day, the question of whether clergy should be allowed to marry has attracted a vast amount of theological attention and debate. Yet despite the acknowledged importance of this issue, there have been few attempts to present an objective and historical study of the origins and development of clerical celibacy.In order to address this lacuna, Dr Parish offers a reassessment of the history of sacerdotal celibacy, examining the emergence and evolution of the celibate priesthood in the Latin church from the beginning of the twelfth to the end of the seventeenth centuries. Around this core area of study, the book also considers the influence of the early apostolic church and the example of the Greek church.
Søren Kierkegaard denounced nineteenth-century Danish Lutheranism for exploiting Martin Luther's doctrine of justification "without works" as justification for an antinomian easy life. Kierkegaard saw his own writing as a corrective: “I have wanted to prevent people in ‘Christendom’ from existentially taking in vain Luther and the significance of Luther's life.” In 1847, Kierkegaard began an eight-year reading of Luther’s sermons, forking through them for extracts to confirm his theological corrective rather than to comprehend the breadth of Luther’s thought. While he found much to laud, Kierkegaard also found much to lance, privately commenting that Luther was partially respons...