What's wrong with Calvinism? Since the Reformation, Calvinism has dominated much of evangelical thought. It has been so well established that many Christians simply assume it to be the truest expression of Christian doctrine. But Calvinism has some serious biblical and theological weaknesses that unsettle laypeople, pastors and scholars alike. God is sovereign. All evangelical Christians--whether Arminians or Calvinists--have no doubt about this fundamental truth. But how does God express his sovereignty? Is God a master puppeteer, pulling our strings? Or has he graciously given his children freedom to respond to his love? In this eminently readable book, Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell explore the flaws of Calvinist theology.Why I Am Not a Calvinist is a must-read for all who struggle with the limitations of this dominant perspective within evangelical theology.

This book examines the beliefs, practices and arguments surrounding the ritual of infant baptism and the raising of children in Geneva during the period of John Calvin's tenure as leader of the Reformed Church, 1536-1564. It focuses particularly on the years from 1541 onward, after Calvin's return to Geneva and the formation of the Consistory. The work is based on sources housed primarily in the Genevan State Archives, including the registers of the Consistory and the City Council. While the time period of the study may be limited, the approach is broad, encompassing issues of theology, church ritual and practices, the histories of family and children, and the power struggles involved in transforming not simply a church institution but the entire community surrounding it. The overarching argument presented is that the ordinances and practices surrounding baptism present a framework for relations among child, parents, godparents, church and city. The design of the baptismal ceremony, including liturgy, participants and location, provided a blueprint of the reformers' vision of a well ordered community. To comprehend fully the development and spread of Calvinism, it is necessary to understand the context of its origins and how the ideas of Calvin and his Reformed colleagues were received in Geneva before they were disseminated throughout Europe and the world. In a broad sense this project explores the tensions among church leaders, city authorities, parents, relatives and neighbours regarding the upbringing of children in Reformed Geneva. More specifically, it studies the practice of infant baptism as manifested in the baptism ceremony in Geneva, the ongoing practices of Catholic baptism in neighbouring areas, and the similarities and tensions between these two rituals.

A study of the history and contribution of the Huguenots in Britain. It is characterized by a blend of scholarship with lucidity, balance and humour. Originally published in 1985, this second edition takes into account new research and writings since the first edition. All referencing material has been updated in the light of new findings. The plate section has also been expanded to include recently available pictures of Huguenot artefacts and scenes.

This book offers a unique approach to Calvin by introducing the individuals and groups who, through their opposition to Calvin's theology and politics, helped shape the Reformer, his theology, and his historical and religious legacy. Respected church historian Gary Jenkins shows how Calvin had to defend or rethink his theology in light of his tormentors' challenges, giving readers a more nuanced view of Calvin's life and thought. The book highlights the central theological ideas of the Swiss Reformation and introduces figures and movements often excluded from standard texts.

Leading Reformed pastors and scholars reflect on the importance of John Calvin's life and teaching for the church today.

This book surveys developments in sacramental and liturgical discourse and discord, exploring the writings of English and Scottish divines, and focusing on baptism and the Lord's Supper. The reigns of James I and Charles I coincided with divergence and development in teaching on the sacraments in England and Scotland and with growing discord on liturgical texts and the ceremonial. Uniquely focusing on both nations in a single study, Bryan Spinks draws on theological treatises, sermons, catechisms, liturgical texts and writings by Scottish theologians hitherto neglected. Exploring the European roots of the churches of England and Scotland and how they became entwined in developments culminating in the Solemn League and Covenant and Westminster Directory, this book presents an authoritative study of sacramental and liturgical debate, developments, and experiments during the Stuart period.

Christianity Today Book Award ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award Apart from the doctrine of God, no doctrine is as comprehensive as that of creation. It is woven throughout the entire fabric of Christian theology. It goes to the deepest roots of reality and leaves no area of life untouched. Across the centuries, however, the doctrine of creation has often been eclipsed or threatened by various forms of gnosticism. Yet if Christians are to rise to current challenges related to public theology and ethics, we must regain a robust, biblical doctrine of creation. According to Bruce Ashford and Craig Bartholomew, one of the best sources for outfitting this recovery is Dutch neo-Calvinism. Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and their successors set forth a substantial doctrine of creation's goodness, but recent theological advances in this tradition have been limited. Now in The Doctrine of Creation Ashford and Bartholomew develop the Kuyperian tradition's rich resources on creation for systematic theology and the life of the church today. In addition to tracing historical treatments of the doctrine, the authors explore intertwined theological themes such as the omnipotence of God, human vocation, and providence. They draw from diverse streams of Christian thought while remaining rooted in the Kuyperian tradition, with a sustained focus on doing theology in deep engagement with Scripture. Approaching the world as God's creation changes everything. Thus The Doctrine of Creation concludes with implications for current issues, including those related to philosophy, science, the self, and human dignity. This exegetically grounded constructive theology contributes to renewed appreciation for and application of the doctrine of creation-which is ultimately a doctrine of profound hope.

This review brings together research in three areas of Anabaptist studies and the Radical Reformation. The first part focuses on 16th-century Anabaptism, re-examining the polygenesis model of Anabaptism articulated by Stayer, Packull and Depperman. The second part deals with the connections between Anabaptists and other Reformation dissenters, their marginalization as social groups and their relations with the intellectual movements of the age. The final section addresses historiographic and comparative issues of writing the history of marginalizaed groups, investigating some preconceptions which influence historians' approaches to Anabaptism and their implications for understanding other religious organizations.

This volume is a synthesis of the research articles of one of Europe's leading scholars of 16th-century exile communities. It will be invaluable to the growing number of historians interested in the religious, intellectual, social and economic impact of stranger communities on the rapidly changing nation that was Elizabethan and early Stuart England. Southern England in general, and London in particular, played a unique part in offering refuge to Calvinist exiles for more than a century. For the English government, the attraction of exiles was not so much their Reformed religion and discipline as their economic potential - the exiles were in the main skilled craftsmen and well-connected merchants who could benefit the English economy.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson is one of the most eminent public intellectuals in America today. In addition to literary elegance, her trilogy of novels (Gilead, Home, and Lila) and her collections of essays offer probing meditations on the Christian faith. Many of these reflections are grounded in her belief that the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformer John Calvin still deserves a hearing in the twenty-first century. This volume, based on the 2018 Wheaton Theology Conference, brings together the thoughts of leading theologians, historians, literary scholars, and church leaders who engaged in theological dialogue with Robinson's published work-and with the author herself.

A fundamental part of understanding one's ancestors is knowing when they were born, how long they lived, and when they died. Here in The Genesis Genealogies lies that crucial core information about the forebears of Christianity. Rev. Abraham Park has meticulously analyzed the information in The Book of Genesis. Taking the explicit date references in Genesis and performing math calculations forward and backward in time, he builds a complete chronological Biblical timeline from Adam to the Exodus, including the duration of construction of Noah's ark. With this Bible study of the cornerstone text of The Old Testament, we can more deeply understand the layers of meanings that Genesis offers. The Genesis Genealogies is a must-have for every Church Library. This title is part of The History of Redemption series which includes: Book 1: The Genesis Genealogies Book 2: The Covenant of the Torch Book 3: The Unquenchable Lamp of the Covenant Book 4: God's Profound and Mysterious Providence Book 5: The Promise of the Eternal Covenant

Enchanted Calvinism's surprising central proposition is that Ghanaian Presbyterian communities have become more enchanted -- i.e., attuned to spiritual explanations of and remedies for suffering -- as they have become moreintegrated into capitalist modes of production. Enchanted Calvinism's central proposition is that Ghanaian Presbyterian communities, both past and present, have become more enchanted -- more attuned to spiritual explanations of and remedies for suffering -- as they havebecome integrated into capitalist modes of production. The author draws on a Weberian concept of religious enchantment to analyze the phenomena of spiritual affliction and spiritual healing within the Presbyterian Church of Ghana,particularly under the conditions of labor migration: first, in the early twentieth century during the cocoa boom in Ghana and, second, at the turn of the twenty-first century in their migration from Ghana to North America. Relying on extensive archival research, oral interviews, and participant-observation conducted in North America, Europe, and West Africa, this study demonstrates that the more these Ghanaian Calvinists became dependent on capitalist modes of production, the more enchanted their lives and, subsequently, their church became, although in different ways within these two migrations. One striking pattern that has emerged among Ghanaian Presbyterian labor migrants in North America, for example, is a radical shift in gendered healing practices, where women have become prominent healers while a significant number of men have become spirit-possessed. Adam Mohr is Senior Writing Fellow in Anthropology in the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

These chapters explore how a religious minority not only gained a toehold in countries of exile, but also wove itself into their political, social, and religious fabric. The way for the refugees' departure from France was prepared through correspondence and the cultivation of commercial, military, scholarly and familial ties. On arrival at their destinations immigrants exploited contacts made by compatriots and co-religionists who had preceded them to find employment. London, a hub for the "Protestant international" from the reign of Elizabeth I, provided openings for tutors and journalists. Huguenot financial skills were at the heart of the early Bank of England; Huguenot reporting disseminated unprecedented information on the workings of the Westminster Parliament; Huguenot networks became entwined with English political factions. Webs of connection were transplanted and reconfigured in Ireland. With their education and international contacts, refugees were indispensable as diplomats to Protestant rulers in northern Europe. They operated monetary transfers across borders and as fund-raisers, helped alleviate the plight of persecuted co-religionists. Meanwhile, French ministers in London attempted to hold together an exceptionally large community of incomers against heresy and the temptations of assimilation. This is a story of refugee networks perpetuated, but also interpenetrated and remade.

In The Pastor, Eugene H. Peterson, the translator of the multimillion-selling The Message and the author of more than thirty books, offers his life story as one answer to the surprisingly neglected question: What does it mean to be a pastor?

When Peterson was asked by his denomination to begin a new church in Bel Air, Maryland, he surprised himself by saying yes. And so was born Christ Our King Presbyterian Church. But Peterson quickly learned that he was not exactly sure what a pastor should do. He had met many ministers in his life, from his Pentecostal upbringing in Montana to his seminary days in New York, and he admired only a few. He knew that the job's demands would drown him unless he figured out what the essence of the job really was. Thus began a thirty-year journey into the heart of this uncommon vocation--the pastorate.

The Pastor steers away from abstractions, offering instead a beautiful rendering of a life tied to the physical world--the land, the holy space, the people--shaping Peterson's pastoral vocation as well as his faith. He takes on church marketing, mega pastors, and the church's too-cozy relationship to American glitz and consumerism to present a simple, faith-filled job description of what being a pastor means today. In the end, Peterson discovered that being a pastor boiled down to "paying attention and calling attention to 'what is going on right now' between men and women, with each other and with God." The Pastor is destined to become a classic statement on the contemporary trials, joys, and meaning of this ancient vocation.

This first complete history of Dr Williams's Trust and Library, deriving from the will of the nonconformist minister Daniel Williams (c.1643-1716) reveals rare examples of private philanthropy and dissenting enterprise. The library contains the fullest collection of material relating to English Protestant Dissent. Opening in the City of London in 1730, it moved to Bloomsbury in the 1860s. Williams and his first trustees had a vision for Protestant Dissent which included maintaining connections with Protestants overseas. The charities espoused by the trust extended that vision by funding an Irish preacher, founding schools in Wales, sending missionaries to native Americans, and giving support to Harvard College. By the mid-eighteenth century, the trustees had embraced unitarian beliefs and had established several charities and enlarged the unique collection of books, manuscripts and portraits known as Dr Williams's Library. The manuscript and rare book collection offers material from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, with strengths in the early modern period, including the papers of Richard Baxter, Roger Morrice, and Owen Stockton. The eighteenth-century archive includes the correspondence of the scientist and theologian Joseph Priestley. The library also holds several collections of importance for women's history and English literature. The story of the trust and library reveals a rare example of private philanthropy over more than three centuries, and a case study in dissenting enterprise. Alan Argent illuminates key themes in the history of nonconformity; the changing status of non-established religions; the voluntary principle; philanthropy; and a lively concern for society as a whole.

This Companion offers an introduction to Reformed theology, one of the most historically important, ecumenically active, and currently generative traditions of doctrinal enquiry, by way of reflecting upon its origins, its development, and its significance. The first part, Theological Topics, indicates the distinct array of doctrinal concerns which gives coherence over time to the identity of this tradition in all its diversity. The second part, Theological Figures, explores the life and work of a small number of theologians who have not only worked within this tradition, but have constructively shaped and inspired it in vital ways. The final part, Theological Contexts, considers the ways in which the resultant Reformed sensibilities in theology have had a marked impact both upon theological and ecclesiastical landscapes in different places and upon the wider societal landscapes of history. The result is a fascinating and compelling guide to this dynamic and vibrant theological tradition.

In On Time, Punctuality and Discipline in Early Modern Calvinism, Max Engammare explores how the sixteenth-century Protestant reformers of Geneva, France, London, and Bern internalized a new concept of time. Applying a moral and spiritual code to the course of the day, they regulated their relationship with time, which was, in essence, a new relationship with God. As Calvin constantly reminded his followers, God watches his faithful every minute. Come Judgement Day, the faithful in turn will have to account for each minute. Engammare argues that the inhabitants of Calvin's Geneva invented the new habit of being on time, a practice unknown in antiquity. It was also fundamentally different from notions of time in the monastic world of the medieval period and unknown to contemporaries such as Erasmus, Vives, the early Jesuits, Rabelais, Ronsard, or Montaigne. Engammare shows that punctuality did not proceed from technical innovation. Rather, punctuality was above all a spiritual, social, and disciplinary virtue.

Originally published in 1938, this book gives an engaging account of the main controversies within Dutch Calvinism between 1600 and 1650. Although the relation of Church and state was debated throughout the seventeenth century in the Netherlands, two disputes in the first half were most significant because both began in the Calvinist Church itself. The first of these disputes arose out of the Arminian challenge in the Calvinist Church and lasted from 1609 to 1618, when the Synod of Dort expelled the Arminians from the Church and Maurice the Stadholder drove the leaders out of the Netherlands. The second dispute began in 1637 when Vedelius taught at Deventer a theory of the Christian magistracy which was alien to the Calvinist tradition since 1618. Detailed information is provided on both of these controversies and the surrounding historical context.

Andrew Reed (1787-1862) was a Congregational minister, an energetic philanthropist and a highly successful fundraiser. He began to study theology at Hackney Academy in 1807 and was ordained minister in 1811, serving in this role until 1861. He helped to found numerous charitable institutions, most notably the London Orphan Asylum, the Asylum for Fatherless Children, the Asylum for Idiots, the Infant Orphan Asylum, and the Hospital for Incurables. In addition to his charitable work, he found time to write. He compiled a hymn book, and published sermons, devotional books and an account of his visit to America in 1834, when he received a Doctorate of Divinity from Yale. This biography of Reed, compiled by two of his sons, was first published in 1863. It describes his many achievements, using selections from Reed's own journals, and includes a list of his publications.

The author of this 1930 volume maintains that the first two and a half years of the pontificate of Pius IV, during which the continuation of the Council of Trent and the maintenance of its earlier decrees were secured against strong French and German opposition, constituted the critical period which finally determined the ultimate orientation of the Counter-Reformation. This thesis is worked out in detail in regard to the French efforts to prevent the continuation of the Tridentine Council and to force the Counter-Reformation into different channels from those desired by Rome, efforts which were largely inspired by the Cardinal of Lorraine around whom the narrative is hung. In addition, an attempt is made to appreciate the Cardinal's personality and to understand his ecclesiastical standpoint.