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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Calvinist, Reformed & Presbyterian Churches
Creation is the theater of God's glory. Scripture is like a pair of
glasses that clarifies our vision of God. Justification is the
hinge on which religion turns. These and other affirmations are
often associated with John Calvin, the 16th-century French
Protestant Reformer best known for his ministry in Geneva and his
authorship of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. Over the
course of his lifetime and through several editions, Calvin
expanded the Institutes from a brief study to a four-volume book
that covers the main doctrines of the Christian faith and continues
to shape the theology of the Reformed tradition. In this volume,
Reformed theologian Yudha Thianto guides readers through a careful
study of Calvin's Institutes. After setting Calvin and his writing
in their historical context, he outlines the most significant
aspects of Calvin's theology, guiding those who would know more
about his work and, through it, the God who inspired him. Books in
the Explorer's Guide series are accessible guidebooks for those
studying the great Christian texts and theologians from church
history, helping readers explore the context in which these texts
were written and navigate the rich yet complex terrain of Christian
theology.
Explore the Bible alongside daily insights from pastor-teacher Dr.
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Little known in America but venerated as a martyr in Iran, Howard
Baskerville was a twenty-two-year-old Christian missionary from
South Dakota who traveled to Persia (modern-day Iran) in 1907 for a
two-year stint teaching English and preaching the gospel. He
arrived in the midst of a democratic revolution-the first of its
kind in the Middle East-led by a group of brilliant young
firebrands committed to transforming their country into a fully
self-determining, constitutional monarchy, one with free elections
and an independent parliament. The Persian students Baskerville
educated in English in turn educated him about their struggle for
democracy, ultimately inspiring him to leave his teaching post and
join them in their fight against a tyrannical shah and his British
and Russian backers. "The only difference between me and these
people is the place of my birth," Baskerville declared, "and that
is not a big difference." In 1909, Baskerville was killed in battle
alongside his students, but his martyrdom spurred on the
revolutionaries who succeeded in removing the shah from power,
signing a new constitution, and rebuilding parliament in Tehran. To
this day, Baskerville's tomb in the city of Tabriz remains a place
of pilgrimage. Every year, thousands of Iranians visit his grave to
honor the American who gave his life for Iran. In this rip-roaring
tale of his life and death, Aslan gives us a powerful parable about
the universal ideals of democracy-and to what degree Americans are
willing to support those ideals in a foreign land. Woven throughout
is an essential history of the nation we now know as
Iran-frequently demonized and misunderstood in the West. Indeed,
Baskerville's life and death represent a "road not taken" in Iran.
Baskerville's story, like his life, is at the center of a whirlwind
in which Americans must ask themselves: How seriously do we take
our ideals of constitutional democracy and whose freedom do we
support?
Until recently the impact of the Lutheran Reformation has been
largely regarded in political and socio-economic terms, yet for
most people it was not the abstract theological debates that had
the greatest impact upon their lives, but what they saw in their
parish churches every Sunday. This collection of essays provides a
coherent and interdisciplinary investigation of the impact that the
Lutheran Reformation had on the appearance, architecture and
arrangement of early modern churches. Drawing upon recent research
being undertaken by leading art historians and historians on
Lutheran places of worship, the volume emphasises often surprising
levels of continuity, reflecting the survival of Catholic fixtures,
fittings and altarpieces, and exploring how these could be
remodelled in order to conform with the tenets of Lutheran belief.
The volume not only addresses Lutheran art but also the way in
which the architecture of their churches reflected the importance
of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. Furthermore
the collection is committed to extending these discussions beyond a
purely German context, and to look at churches not only within the
Holy Roman Empire, but also in Scandinavia, the Baltic States as
well as towns dominated by Saxon communities in areas such as in
Hungary and Transylvania. By focusing on ecclesiastical 'material
culture' the collection helps to place the art and architecture of
Lutheran places of worship into the historical, political and
theological context of early modern Europe.
The role of architecture within the French Reformed tradition has
been of recent scholarly interest, seen in the work of Helene
Guicharnaud, Catharine Randall, Andrew Spicer, and others. Few,
however, have investigated in depth the relationship between
Reformed theology and architectural forms. In The Visual Theology
of the Huguenots, Randal Carter Working explores the roots of
Reformed aesthetics, set against the background of late medieval
church architecture. Indicating how demonstrably important the work
of Serlio is in the spreading of the ideas of Vitruvius, Working
explains the influence of classical Roman building on French
Reformed architecture. He follows this with an examination of five
important Huguenot architects: Philibert de l'Orme, Bernard
Palissy, Jacques-Androuet du Cerceau, Salomon de Brosse, and
Jacques Perret. The distinct language of Huguenot architecture is
revealed by his comparative analysis of three churches: St Pierre
in Geneva, a medieval church overhauled by the Reformers; St
Gervais-St Protais, a Parisian Catholic church whose facade was
completed by the French Reformed architect Salomon de Brosse; and
the temple at Charenton, a structure also designed and built by de
Brosse. These three buildings demonstrate how the contribution of
Huguenot architecture gave expression to Reformed theological ideas
and helped bring about the renewal of classicism in France.
This is a full-scale life of the controversial Reformation leader
and influential theologian. Even granted the present high level of
biographical writing, it stands out. - CP Snow, Financial Times.
John Calvin, the French Protestant theologian, had planned a life
of quiet, scholarly study. But while travelling to Strasbourg in
1536, a local war forced him to make a detour through Geneva. Here
he stayed, apart from a short period of exile, until the end of his
life. His time in Geneva was marked by long, bitter struggles over
the independence of the Church from the State and the rules Calvin
tried to impose on Geneva as a whole. Calvin's reputation as a
controversialist is strong even today. In this major biography, he
is seen against the background of the turbulent times in which he
lived. By putting Calvin in his context, the book brings to life
the quiet, 'timid scholar' whose ideas took Europe by storm.
How freely can salvation be offered to people? How do Law and Grace
find balance? What influence does federal theology have on the
overall theological enterprise? How does a confessional church
interact with both the civil government and other religious
communions? These are the questions roiling the
twenty-first-century church; these were the questions threatening
to splinter the Scottish church in the early eighteenth century. In
those earlier days of mounting theological confrontation within the
Scottish church, Ebenezer Erskine - a parish minister renowned for
his evangelistic zeal - had a major role to play. Through this
examination of the theology and ministry of Erskine, one therefore
gains not only a deeper understanding of a man critically important
within Presbyterian history, but also insight into the pressing
theological disputes of the day. By analysing Erskine's
contributions to ongoing theological discussion, greater clarity is
gained on the development of federal theology; on the root causes
of the Marrow controversy; and on the challenges involved as
increasing religious diversity penetrated lands once dominated by
national churches. In these areas and more, Erskine serves both to
illuminate an obscure era and to refine modern understandings of
still controversial theological issues.
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Calvin
(Hardcover)
Michael Mullett
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R3,895
Discovery Miles 38 950
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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In this lucid and readable study, Michael Mullet explains the
historical importance of a man and a movement whose influence are
still felt in the modern world. The pamphlet locates John Calvin in
the context of early 16th-century France and then charts his
emergence as an influential theologian and civic religious leader
in the 'second generation' of reformers following Luther. After
exploring the main lines of Calvin's theology, set out in the
Institutes, the central section deals with the difficult process by
which his authority was imposed on, or accepted by, Geneva.
Finally, the long-term impact of John Calvin is evaluated,
including the hypothesis that Calvinism has assisted the economic
development of Europe.
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.
'The Identity and the Life of the Church' is a study of John
Calvin's ecclesiology that argues that Calvin's idea of the twofold
identity of the Church - its spiritual identity as the body of
Christ and its functional identity as the mother of all believers -
is closely related to his understanding of Christian identity and
life, which are initiated and maintained by the grace of the triune
God. The anthropological basis of Calvin's idea of the Church has
not been examined fully, even though Calvin presents the important
concepts of his ecclesiology in the light of his anthropological
ideas. Yosep Kim provides an overall evaluation of Calvin's
ecclesiology, arguing that it is ultimately Calvin's pastoral
concern for the Christian and the Church under affliction that
governs his theological understanding of the Church and shapes his
proposals for establishing and sustaining the life of the Church in
the world.
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.
Andrew Melville is chiefly remembered today as a defiant leader of
radical Protestantism in Scotland, John Knox's heir and successor,
the architect of a distinctive Scottish Presbyterian kirk and a
visionary reformer of the Scottish university system. While this
view of Melville's contribution to the shaping of Protestant
Scotland has been criticised and revised in recent scholarship, his
broader contribution to the development of the neo-Latin culture of
early modern Britain has never been given the attention it
deserves. Yet, as this collection shows, Melville was much more
than simply a religious reformer: he was an influential member of a
pan-European humanist network that valued classical learning as
much as Calvinist theology. Neglect of this critical aspect of
Melville's intellectual outlook stems from the fact that almost all
his surviving writings are in Latin - and much of it in verse.
Melville did not pen any substantial prose treatise on theology,
ecclesiology or political theory. His poetry, however, reveals his
views on all these topics and offers new insights into his life and
times. The main concerns of this volume, therefore, are to provide
the first comprehensive listing of the range of poetry and prose
attributed to Melville and to begin the process of elucidating
these texts and the contexts in which they were written. While the
volume contributes to an on-going process that has seen Melville's
role as an ecclesiastical politician and educational reformer
challenged and diminished, it also seeks to redress the balance by
opening up other dimensions of Melville's career and intellectual
life and shedding new light on the broader cultural context of
Jacobean Scotland and Britain.
John Knox has suffered in this century from that trick of the
popular imagination that seizes on one aspect of a historical
figure and elevates it into the whole man. At one time he was the
foremost Scottish genius, but in our day there have been those who
would have us believe that he was a ranter, an iconoclast and
perhaps a hypocrite. The Author of this classic biography has
sought to find the truth between these two extremes. He shows us
Knox against the disturbed currents of the Continent, where
mediaeval Christendom was at an end and no new order had yet
emerged from the chaos of creeds and philosophies. No man could
stem these currents, but John Knox in his own country gave them a
direction. He became, if not the leader, at least the inciter of a
revolution. He set his mark indelibly on history, and not only that
of his native land; his influence upon the English court was
considerable, but he also became a figure of European significance.
"No grander figure can be found, in the entire history of the
Reformation in this island, than that of John Knox" wrote the
historian Froude. The Author has given us a balanced assessment of
the life and times of this remarkable man.
Until recently the impact of the Lutheran Reformation has been
largely regarded in political and socio-economic terms, yet for
most people it was not the abstract theological debates that had
the greatest impact upon their lives, but what they saw in their
parish churches every Sunday. This collection of essays provides a
coherent and interdisciplinary investigation of the impact that the
Lutheran Reformation had on the appearance, architecture and
arrangement of early modern churches. Drawing upon recent research
being undertaken by leading art historians and historians on
Lutheran places of worship, the volume emphasises often surprising
levels of continuity, reflecting the survival of Catholic fixtures,
fittings and altarpieces, and exploring how these could be
remodelled in order to conform with the tenets of Lutheran belief.
The volume not only addresses Lutheran art but also the way in
which the architecture of their churches reflected the importance
of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. Furthermore
the collection is committed to extending these discussions beyond a
purely German context, and to look at churches not only within the
Holy Roman Empire, but also in Scandinavia, the Baltic States as
well as towns dominated by Saxon communities in areas such as in
Hungary and Transylvania. By focusing on ecclesiastical 'material
culture' the collection helps to place the art and architecture of
Lutheran places of worship into the historical, political and
theological context of early modern Europe.
Traditional historiography has always viewed Calvin's Geneva as the
benchmark against which all other Reformed communities must
inevitably be measured, judging those communities who did not
follow Geneva's institutional and doctrinal example as somehow
inferior and incomplete versions of the original. Adaptations of
Calvinism in Reformation Europe builds upon recent scholarship that
challenges this concept of the 'fragmentation' of Calvinism, and
instead offers a more positive view of Reformed communities beyond
Geneva. The essays in this volume highlight the different paths
that Calvinism followed as it took root in Western Europe and which
allowed it to develop within fifty years into the dominant
Protestant confession. Each chapter reinforces the notion that
whilst many reformers did try to duplicate the kind of community
that Calvin had established, most had to compromise by adapting to
the particular political and cultural landscapes in which they
lived. The result was a situation in which Reformed churches across
Europe differed markedly from Calvin's Geneva in explicit ways.
Summarizing recent research in the field through selected French,
German, English and Scottish case studies, this collection adds to
the emerging picture of a flexible Calvinism that could adapt to
meet specific local conditions and needs in order to allow the
Reformed tradition to thrive and prosper. The volume is dedicated
to Brian G. Armstrong, whose own scholarship demonstrated how far
Calvinism in seventeenth-century France had become divided by
significant disagreements over how Calvin's original ideas and
doctrines were to be understood.
Auguste Lecerf, was one of the ablest "reformed" theologians of the
20th century. His lectures at the University of Paris were praised
for their succinctness, controversial skill and deep learning. His
"Reformed Dogmatics" was never incomplete at the time of his death.
The first two volumes, translated here, entitled "De la Nature de
la Conaissance Religieuse" and "De Fondement et de la Specification
de la Conaissance Religieuse", stand on their own, however, and
form a major contribution to theology. Lecerf's work forms a
profound study of the nature and basis of religious knowledge and
offer a valuable critique of European philosophy from the
standpoint of orthodox Calvinism.
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Calvin
(Paperback)
Emanuel Stickelberger
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R584
Discovery Miles 5 840
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Few great men have been so consistently misunderstood as Calvin and
the eminent Swiss man of letters, Emanuel Stickelberger, throws a
vivid light upon both the man and his times. Stickelberger sees the
pale, frail man of Geneva against the background of the tumultuous
times in which he lived. His iron will, constant struggle with ill
health, utter dedication to his task, almost super-human capacity
for work and indifference to financial reward, are all arrestingly
portrayed. Stickelberger paints his portrait with a remarkable
economy of words and with a fine sense of drama. The result is a
vivid and fascinating study of a man and an epoch, that holds the
reader's attention from the first page to the last.
In the immediate years and months before the outbreak of religious
war in 1562 the growth of Protestantism in France had gone
unchecked, and an overriding sense of Protestant triumphalism
emerged in cities across the land. However, the wars unleashed a
vigorous Catholic reaction that extinguished Protestant hopes of
ultimate success. This offensive triggered violence across the
provinces, paralysing Huguenot communities and sending many
Protestant churches in northern France into terminal decline. But
French Protestantism was never a uniform phenomenon and events in
southern France took a rather different course from those in the
north. This study explores the fate of the Huguenot community in
the area of its greatest strength in southern France. The book
examines the Protestant ascendancy in the Huguenot stronghold of
Montauban through the period of the religious wars, laying open the
impact that the new religion had upon the town and its surrounding
locality, and the way in which the town related to the wider
political and religious concerns of the Protestant south. In
particular, it probes the way in which the town related to the
nobility, the political assemblies, Henry of Navarre and the wider
world of international Calvinism, reflecting upon the distinctive
cultural elements that characterised Calvinism in southern France.
Elsie Chamberlain was a leading figure in British broadcasting and
religious life. She was a pioneer in many areas: the first woman
chaplain to the armed forces; the first nonconformist minister to
marry an Anglican clergyman; the first woman producer in the
religious broadcasting dept of the BBC and the first woman to
present the daily service on the radio. Her broadcasting accustomed
many listeners to the idea of a woman leading public worship. And
she became the first woman to occupy the chair of the
Congregational Union of England and Wales and almost certainly the
first woman anywhere in the world to head a major denomination.
Elsie Chamberlain is the first full biography and a critical
appreciation of this exceptional woman. Using original church and
BBC archive sources, the book tells the story of a woman who did
more than any other to change the way Christian women ministers are
viewed.
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 this lucid and readable study, Michael Mullet explains the historical importance of a man and a movement whose influence are still felt in the modern world. The pamphlet locates John Calvin in the context of early 16th-century France and then charts his emergence as an influential theologian and civic religious leader in the 'second generation' of reformers following Luther. After exploring the main lines of Calvin's theology, set out in the Institutes, the central section deals with the difficult process by which his authority was imposed on, or accepted by, Geneva. Finally, the long-term impact of John Calvin is evaluated, including the hypothesis that Calvinism has assisted the economic development of Europe. eBook available with sample pages: 0203129695
Calvinist theology has been debated and promoted for centuries. But
is it a theology that should last? Roger Olson suggests that
Calvinism, also commonly known as Reformed theology, holds an
unwarranted place in our list of accepted theologies. In Against
Calvinism, readers will find scholarly arguments explaining why
Calvinist theology is incorrect and how it affects God s
reputation. Olson draws on a variety of sources, including
Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience, to support his
critique of Calvinism and the more historically rich, biblically
faithful alternative theologies he proposes. Addressing what many
evangelical Christians are concerned about today---so-called new
Calvinism, a movement embraced by a generation labeled as young,
restless, Reformed ---Against Calvinism is the only book of its
kind to offer objections from a non-Calvinist perspective to the
current wave of Calvinism among Christian youth. As a companion to
Michael Horton s For Calvinism, readers will be able to compare
contrasting perspectives and form their own opinions on the merits
and weaknesses of Calvinism."
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