The leitmotif of Freedom in Response, as the title suggests, is a reasoned exposition of the nature of freedom, as it is presented in the Bible and developed by such later theologians as Martin Luther. Oswald Bayer considers Luther's teachings on pastoral care, marriage, and the three estates, bringing in Kant and Hegel as conversation partners, together with Kant's friend and critic, the innovative theologian and philosopher Johann Georg Hamann.
Oswald Bayer is a major contemporary Lutheran theologian, but so far little of his work has been translated from German into English. This selection of essays indicates the depth and range of his thought on issues relating to theological ethics.

Some of the sons and grandsons of the English Reformation, the 'hotter sort', were known to their contemporaries as 'puritans', but they called themselves 'the godly'. This career-spanning collection of essays by Patrick Collinson, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University, deals with numerous aspects of the religious culture of post-Reformation England and its implications for the politics, mentality, and social relations of the Elizabethans and Jacobeans.

This book presents a comprehensive account of the historical development of the Charismatic Movement in Taiwan, placing it within the context of Taiwan's religious and political history. Judith C. P. Lin unearths invaluable sources of the Japan Apostolic Mission, the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International Formosa Chapter, and Jean Stone Willans' short stay in Taiwan in 1968. Lin describes and analyzes how the efforts of 1970s charismatic missionaries in Taiwan-including Pearl Young, Nicholas Krushnisky, Donald Dale, Allen J. Swanson, and Ross Paterson-shaped the theological convictions of later Taiwanese charismatic leaders. She also explores significant developments in the Taiwanese Church which contributed to the gradual and widespread recognition of the Charismatic Movement in Taiwan from 1980 to 1995. Lin offers a thorough treatment of history, reconfigures historiography from a Taiwanese perspective, and challenges the academic circle to take seriously the "Taiwanese consciousness" when engaging Taiwan's history.

Beauty, bodily knowledge, and desire have emerged in late modern Christian theology as candidates to reorient and reinvigorate reflection. In this book, Kathryn Reklis offers a case study of how those three elements converge in the work of Jonathan Edwards to escape the false dichotomies of early modernity. She studies Edwardss work in the context of the eighteenth-century colonial and European revivals known as the Great Awakening and the series of theological debates over the unruly bodies of revivalists. Seized by the new birth, these people convulsed, wept, shouted, fainted, leapt, and even levitated. For pro-revivalist Jonathan Edwards, these bodily manifestations were signs of a divine and supernatural light infused in the soulfor his opponents, clear proof of irrationality and dangerous enthusiasm. Bodily ecstasy was at the heart of a theological system marked by consummation in Gods overwhelming sovereignty, which Edwards described as being swallowed up in God. Reklis describes the theological meaning of the bodys ecstasy as kinesthetic imagination, a term which extends beyond the Great Awakening to trace the way bodily ecstasy continues to be coded as the expression of a primitive, hysterical, holistic, or natural self almost always in contrast to a modern, rational, fragmented, or artificial self. Edwards, she shows, is an excellent interlocutor for the exploration of kinesthetic imagination and theology, especially as it relates to contemporary questions about the role of beauty, body, and desire in theological knowledge. He wrote explicitly about the role of the body in theology, the centrality of affect in spiritual experience, and anchored all of this in a theological system grounded in beauty as his governing concept of divine reality. This book offers an innovative reading of one of the most widely known American theologians and offers this reading as provocation for debates within contemporary conversations.

The introduction of hymns and hymn-singing into public worship in the seventeenth century by dissenters from the Church of England has been described as one of the greatest contributions ever made to Christian worship. Hymns, that is metrical compositions which depart too far from the text of Scripture to be called paraphrases, have proved to be one of the most effective mediums of religious thought and feeling, second only to the Bible in terms of their influence.
This comprehensive collection of essays by specialist authors provides the first full account of dissenting hymns and their impact in England and Wales, from the mid seventeenth century, when the hymn emerged out of metrical psalms as a distinct literary form, to the early twentieth century, after which the traditional hymn began to decline in importance. It covers the development of hymns in the mid seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the change in attitudes to hymns and their growing popularity in the course of the eighteenth century, and the relation of hymnody to the broader Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and Unitarian cultures of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries.
The chapters cover a wide range of topics, including the style, language, and theology of hymns; their use both in private by families and in public by congregations; their editing, publication and reception, including the changing of words for doctrinal and stylistic reasons; their role in promoting evangelical Christianity; their shaping of denominational identities; and the practice of hymn-singing and the development of hymn-tunes.

The "Complete Edition" of the works of Johann Staupitz clearly reveals his significance as a key figure in the transition from late mediaeval reform to the Reformation. Previously unpublished writings and corrupt texts are presented in a critical edition for the first time, together with important new research findings. The edition of the "Consultatio" (1523) refutes the view that Staupitz became a persecutor of heretics in Salzburg. The rediscovery of the records of the heresy trial against Stephan Kastenpauer (known as Agricola), which went missing in 1896, makes it possible to contextualize the "advice" of the pastoral theologian Staupitz, to elucidate it with a detailed commentary, and to clarify the process of this unusual trial for heresy. Further evidence of Staupitz' "interest in pastoral direction" (Wolfgang Gunter) is provided by the "Decisio", which was printed six times between 1500 and 1517, and in which Staupitz, although member of a mendicant order himself, took the side of parish clergy in the dispute between mendicants and secular clergy. The Franciscan Kaspar Schatzgeyer and his (as yet unpublished) opposing text probably influenced Leo X's surprising decision in this matter. The painstaking edition and commentary of the "Constitutiones" of the German Reform Congregation of the Augustinian Hermits (which Staupitz helped to compose, and then took responsibility for, promulgating it in 1506) has recourse not only to the as yet unresearched constitutions of the Italian Reform Congregations but also to the early years of the order and the genesis of its legal constitution. In the view of Kaspar Elm ("Zum Geleit") this process is of interest not only for research into religious orders but also for all disciplines dealing with problems of the institutionalization of unorganized movements.

Offers a portrait of Luther's solid contribution to evangelical missiology.

Introducing university students to the academic discipline of Christian theology, this book serves as an orientation to "fundamental theology" from a Protestant perspective by addressing issues that are preliminary and foundational to the discipline in the context of a liberal arts university. The book also sets forth what has traditionally been called a "theological encyclopedia," that is, a description of the parts of Christian theology that together form the discipline into a unified academic subject. Finally, the book examines the relation of Christian theology to the arts and sciences within the university and underscores the need for critical and positive interaction with these other academic disciplines.

Till now history has neglected the utterly radical nature of Luther's thought. In bringing together the political, theological, conceptual and cultural dimensions of Luther's work, Montover brings his readers to an awareness of their truly radical nature. Luther's understanding of the universal priesthood of believers was not simply another evangelical concept that dealt only with the office of ministry. In serving as a means for reordering the concepts of temporal authority and the temporal order it challenged the cosmological foundations of the political structure of his day. A compelling work that can only serve to revive the study of this monumental figure of theology.

`A major contribution to our understanding of the English Revolution.' Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History, Keele University. John Goodwin [1594-1665] was one of the most prolific and controversial writers of the English Revolution; his career illustrates some of the most important intellectual developments of the seventeenth century. Educated at Queens'College, Cambridge, he became vicar of a flagship Puritan parish in the City of London. During the 1640s, he wrote in defence of the civil war, the army revolt, Pride's Purge, and the regicide, only to turn against Cromwell in 1657. Finally, repudiating religious uniformity, he became one of England's leading tolerationists. This richly contextualised study, the first modern intellectual biography of Goodwin, explores the whole range of writingsproduced by him and his critics. Amongst much else, it shows that far from being a maverick individualist, Goodwin enjoyed a wide readership, pastored one of the London's largest Independent congregations and was well connected tovarious networks. Hated and admired by Anglicans, Presbyterians and Levellers, he provides us with a new perspective on contemporaries like Richard Baxter and John Milton. It will be of special interest to students of Puritanism,the English Revolution, and early modern intellectual history. JOHN COFFEY is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Leicester.

This work challenges the common consensus that Luther, with his commitment to St. Paul's articulation of justification by faith, leaves no room for the Letter of St. James. Against this one-sided reading of Luther, focused only his criticism of the letter, this book argues that Luther had fruitful interpretations of the epistle that shaped the subsequent exegetical tradition. Scholarship's singular concentration on Luther's criticism of James as "an epistle of straw" has caused many to overlook Luther's sermons on James, the many places where James comes to full expression in Luther's writings, and the influence that Luther's biblical interpretation had on later interpretations of James. Based primarily on neglected Lutheran sermons in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this work examines the pastoral hermeneutic of Luther and his theological heirs as they heard the voice of James and communicated that voice to and for the sake of the church. Scholars, pastors, and educated laity alike are invited to discover how Luther's theology was shaped by the Epistle of James and how Luther's students and theological heirs aimed to preach this disputed letter fruitfully to their hearers.

Ernst Troeltsch is widely recognized as having played an important role in the development of modern Protestant theology, but his contribution is usually understood as largely critical of traditional modes of theological inquiry. He is best known for his historicist critique of dogmatic theology, and seen either as the closing chapter of nineteenth-century liberalism, or as a proto-postmodernist. Central to this pivotal period in modern theology stands the problem: how can we articulate a doctrine of ultimate reality such that a meaningful and coherent account of the world is available without our understanding of God thereby becoming conditioned by the world itself? Evan Kuehn demonstrates that historiographical assumptions about twentieth-century religious thought have obscured the coherence and relevance of Troeltsch's understanding of God, history, and eschatology. An eschatological understanding of the Absolute, Kuehn contends, stands at the heart of Troeltsch's theology and the problem of historicism with which it is faced. Troeltsch's eschatological Absolute must be understood in the context of questions that were being raised at the turn of the twentieth century both by research on New Testament apocalypticism, and by modern critical methodologies in the historical sciences. His theory of the Absolute is central to his views on religion and religious ethics and provides practitioners of constructive studies in religion with important resources for engaging with sociological and historical studies, where Troeltsch's status as a classical figure is widely recognized.

In The Reformation of Historical Thought, Mark Lotito re-examines the development of Western historiography by concentrating on Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) and his universal history, Carion's Chronicle (1532). With the Chronicle, Melanchthon overturned the medieval papal view of history, and he offered a distinctly Wittenberg perspective on the foundations of the "modern" European world. Through its immense popularity, the Chronicle assumed extraordinary significance across the divides of language, geography and confession. Indeed, Melanchthon's intervention would become the point of departure for theologians, historians and jurists to debate the past, present and future of the Holy Roman Empire. Through the Chronicle, the Wittenberg reformation of historical thought became an integral aspect of European intellectual culture for the centuries that followed.

This book is the first history in English of the Lutheran Church in Germany and Scandinavia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A period of fundamental and lasting change in the political landscape-with the separation of the old twin monarchies of Sweden-Finland and Denmark-Norway in Scandinavia (1809, 1814), and the unification of Germany (1866-71), this was also a time of particular unease and upheaval for the Church. Attempts to emulate the spiritual community of the early church, reform of the church establishment, and steps taken to enlighten parishioners were almost held back by the anomalous structural legacy of the Reformation, tradition, and parish habit, sacred and profane. However, the birth of the modern nation-state and its market economy posed a fundamental challenge to the structure and ethos of the Reformation churches, as it did to the Catholic Church. The First World War deepened the crisis further: German Protestants (and the Scandinavians were not immune either, although they remained neutral), who bracketed modernity with crisis and religious with national renewal, and who saw national loyalty as a higher value than the faith, fellowship, and moral order of the Church, were swept up into the maw of a modern national war machine which threatened to wipe out Protestantism altogether.

This book provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the challenges faced by pastoral ministry in South African Pentecostalism as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as some interventions being made to manage these challenges. Contributors present descriptive approaches to churches' reactions to lockdown measures, and especially the adaptations generated within Pentecostalism in South Africa. Through a variety of approaches-including pastoral care, virtual ecclesiology, social media, and missiology-contributors offer intervention techniques which can help readers to understand the unique role of Christian ministry during the pandemic, in South Africa and beyond.

The Early Reformation on the Continent offers a fresh look at the formative years of the European Reformation and the origins of Protestant faith and practice. Taking into account recent work on Erasmus and Luther, Owen Chadwick provides a balanced view of the raison d'être for the changes which the reforming communities sought to introduce and the difficulties and disagreements concerning these. The reader is taken back to the origins and development of each topic examined and given an authoritative, accessible, and informative account.

Luther stands out as the defender of his understanding of the Christian faith in this volume. What he had said and written was attacked by leaders of the Roman Church and the Holy Roman Empire. Though friends and enemies sought to deflect him from his purpose, he remained steadfast so that what took place at the Diet of Worms has a become a watershed in the history of Christendom.

This volume investigates Paul Tillich's relationship to Asian religions and locates Tillich in a global religious context. It appreciates Tillich's heritage within the western and eastern religious contexts and explores the possibility of global religious-cultural understanding through the dialogue of Tillich's thought and East-West religious-cultural matrix.

This interdisciplinary volume represents the first comprehensive English-language analysis of the development of Protestant Christianity in Xiamen from the nineteenth century to the present. This important regional study is particularly revealing due to the unbroken history of Sino-Christian interactions in Xiamen and the extensive ties that its churches have maintained with global missions and overseas Chinese Christians. Its authors draw upon a wide range of foreign missionary and Chinese official archives, local Xiamen church publications, and fieldwork data to historicize the Protestant experience in the region. Further, the local Christians' stories demonstrate a form of sociocultural, religious and political imagination that puts into question the Euro-American model of Christendom and the Chinese Communist-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement. It addresses the localization of Christianity, the reinvention of local Chinese Protestant identity and heritage, and the Protestants' engagement with the society at large. The empirical findings and analytical insights of this collection will appeal to scholars of religion, sociology and Chinese history.

Protestant reformers found the prophet and biblical prophecy to be exceptionally effective for framing their reforming work under the authority of Scripturefor the true prophet speaks the Word of God alone and calls the people, their worship, and their beliefs and practices back to the Word of God. The Reformation of Prophecy uses the prophet and biblical prophecy as a powerful lens through which to view many aspects of the reformers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. G. Sujin Pak argues that these prophetic concepts served the substantial purposes of articulating a theology of the priesthood of all believers, a biblical model of the pastoral office, a biblical vision of the reform of worship, and biblical processes for discerning right interpretation of Scripture. Pak demonstrates the ways in which understandings of the prophet and biblical prophecy contributed to the formation of distinct confessional identities. She goes on to demonstrate the waning of explicit prophetic terminology, particularly among the next generation of Protestant leadership. Eventually, she shows, the Protestant reformers concluded that the figure of the prophet carried with it as many problems as it did benefits, though they continued to give much time and attention to the exegesis of biblical prophetic writings.