Why is so little heard about John Cotton, who was acknowledged in his own lifetime as the greatest Puritan preacher in America? Why has he alone remained an enigma among the founding fathers of American protestantism? Professor Ziff examines Cotton's career as a teacher and preacher, both in England and New England; comparing Cotton's preaching and theology with that of his contemporaries in both the established church and the various Puritan sects, he shows Cotton as a significant man of his own time. Yet his influence, although of great importance to the crucial early beginnings of the protestant churches in America, could not extend itself beyond his generation. In this study, Cotton emerges clearly as a vital stabilizing influence between the separatist extremists and those who sought to re-establish the old order in the new world. Originally published in 1962. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book sets out the importance of charity in Scottish Reformation studies. Based on extensive archival research involving more than thirty parishes, it sheds new light on the practice of poor relief in the century following the Reformation. John McCallum challenges the assumption that charitable activity was weak and informal in Scotland by uncovering the surviving records of welfare work carried out by the church. And he skilfully demonstrates that kirk sessions were key welfare providers in early modern Scotland and provided effective relief to a range of people who struggled in poverty. In addition to the analysis of specific parish activities, readers gain a rare insight into the lives of the poor Scots who looked to the church for assistance in the early modern era.

Although John Calvin often likened sacramental confession to butchery, the Council of Trent declared that for those who approached it worthily, it was made easy by its "great benefits and consolations." Thomas Tentler describes and evaluates the effectiveness of sacramental confession as a functioning institution designed "to cause guilt as well as cure guilt," seeing it in its proper place as a part of the social fabric of the Middle Ages. The author examines the institution of confession in practice as well as in theory, providing an analysis of a practical literature whose authors wanted to explain as clearly as they safely could what confessors and penitents had to believe, do, feel, say, and intend, if sacramental confession were to forgive sins. In so doing he recreates the mentality and experience that the Reformers attacked and the Counter-Reformers defended. Central to his thesis is the contention that Luther, Calvin, and the Fathers of Trent regarded religious institutions as the solution to certain social and psychological problems, and that an awareness of this attitude is important for an assessment of the significance of confession in late medieval and Reformation Europe. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

For years, scholars have attempted to understand the powerful hold that the sermon had upon the imagination of New England Puritans. In this book Emory Elliott puts forth a complex and striking thesis: that Puritan religious literature provided the myths and metaphors that helped the people to express their deepest doubts and fears, feelings created by their particular cultural situation and aroused by the crucial social events of seventeenth-century America. In his early chapters, the author defines the psychological needs of the second- and third-generation Puritans, arguing that these needs arose from the generational conflict between the founders and their children and from the methods of child rearing and religious education employed in Puritan New England. In the later chapters, he reveals how the ministers responded to the crisis in their society by reshaping theology and constructing in their sermons a religious language that helped to fulfill the most urgent psychological needs of the people. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The reforms begun by Luther and Calvin became two of the largest and most influential movements to arise in the sixteenth century, but frequently, these two movements are seen and defined as polar opposites - one's theology is Reformed or Lutheran, one is a member of a Reformed or Lutheran congregation. Historically, these were two very separate movements - but more remains to be understood that can best be analyzed in the context of the other. Just as surely as the historical question of the boundaries between Calvin and Luther, or Lutheranism and Calvinism must be answered with a resounding yes, the ongoing doctrinal questions offer a different picture. In the more systematic doctrinal articles, an argument is forwarded that the broad confessional continuity between Luther and Calvin on the soteriological theme of union with Christ offers still-unexplored avenues to both deeper understandings of soteriology. Through such articles, we begin to see the possibility of a rapprochement between Calvin and Luther as sources, though not as historical figures. But that insight allows the conversation to extend, and bear far greater fruit. Contributors are, J.T. Billings, Ch. Helmer, H.P. Jurgens, S.C. Karant-Nunn, R. Kolb, Th.F. Latini, G.S. Pak, J. Watt, T.J. Wengert, P. Westermeyer, and D.M. Whitford.

Traditional views of puritan social thought have done a great injustice to the intellectual history of the sixteenth century. They have presented puritans as creators of a disciplined, progressive, ultimately revolutionary theory of social order. The origins of modern society and politics are laid at the feet of zealous English protestants whose only intellectual debts are owed to Calvinist theology and the Bible. Professor Todd demonstrates that this view is fundamentally ahistorical. She places puritanism back in its own historical milieu, showing puritans as the heirs of a complex intellectual legacy, derived no less from the Renaissance than from the Reformation. The focus is on puritan social thought as part of a sixteenth-century intellectual consensus. This study traces the continuity of Christian humanism in the social thought of English protestants.

In partnership with the Dutch Reformed Translation Society, Baker Academic is proud to offer in English for the very first time all four volumes of Herman Bavinck's complete "Reformed Dogmatics." This masterwork will appeal not only to scholars, students, pastors, and laity interested in Reformed theology but also to research and theological libraries.

Martin Bucer (1491-1551) was one of the most important sixteenth century Reformers, who became leader of the Reformed Churches in Switzerland and South Germany after the death of Zwingli. To mark the 500th anniversary of his birth, an international team of specialists on Bucer highlight his contribution in thought and practice to building the community of the Church in England and Europe. The issues addressed also raise matters of contemporary significance, such as Church-state relations, Protestant-Catholic unity, and tensions between a church of true believers and a "people's" church.

In an eloquent defense of Calvinist theology, author and professor Michael Horton invites us to explore the teachings of Calvinism-also commonly known as Reformed theology-by showing how it is biblical and Christ-centered, leading us to live our lives for the glory of God. The system of theology known as Calvinism has been immensely influential for the past five hundred years, but it's often encountered negatively as a fatalistic belief system that confines human freedom and renders human action and choice irrelevant. Taking us beyond the caricatures and typical reactions, For Calvinism: Explores the historical roots of Reformed thought. Delivers the essence of Calvinism, examining its distinctive characteristics, such as election, atonement, effectual calling, and perseverance. Encourages us to consider its rich resources for faith and practice in the present age. As a companion to Roger Olson's Against Calvinism critique and response, readers will be able to compare contrasting perspectives and form their own opinions on the merits and weaknesses of Calvinism.

This revealing read will give you an opportunity to learn from history. How do strong confessional churches that seem to be doing all the right things drift inexorably from the truth?. What is clear from Ian Hamilton's fascinating study is that it doesn't happen over night but it is a gradual erosion of theological and doctrinal standards. Nineteenth century Scotland was seen as a Christian nation composed of church-going people. Among its churches, Presbyterianism was strongest, and within Presbyterianism there were several large denominations. The future looked bright and optimism marked many of the church leaders and congregations. Yet the sad fact is that most of them were blind to the presence of the warning signs that ultimately caused the decline and not the continued growth of the church in Scotland. To understand how this happened Ian Hamilton looks at the changes that took place within one of these large Presbyterian denominations - the United Presbyterian Church - and analyses the roots, developments and consequences of these changes, particularly the departure from the doctrines summarised in the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is a salutary lesson to observe that the movements for church unions and increased evangelism of the nineteenth century were not signs of spiritual health; instead they were inadequate sticking plasters that hid dangerous spiritual disease. This book also includes discussion on the nature of subscription to the Confession at time of 1733 secession, the atonement controversy 1841-45, the Union controversy 1863-1873 and 1879 United Presbyterian Church Declaratory Act.

Calvinism was the most dynamic and disruptive religious force of the later sixteenth century. Its emergence on the international scene shattered the precarious equilibrium established in the first generation of the Reformation, and precipitated three generations of religious warfare. This collection of essays probes different aspects of this complex phenomenon at a local level. Contributors present the results of their detailed work on societies as diverse as France, Germany, Highland Scotland and Hungary. Among wider themes approached are the impact of Calvin's writings, Calvinism in higher education, the contrasting fates of reformed preachers in town and country, Calvinist discipline and apocalyptic thought, and the shadowy affinity of merchants and scholars who formed a critical part of the 'Calvinist International'.

"Like Augustine, Calvin, and Edwards, Bavinck was a man of giant mind, vast learning, ageless wisdom, and great expository skill, and to have these volumes now in full English is a wonderful enrichment. Solid but lucid, demanding but satisfying, broad and deep and sharp and stabilizing, Bavinck's magisterial "Reformed Dogmatics" remains after a century the supreme achievement of its kind."--J. I. Packer, Regent College

"Finally Bavinck becomes available to the English-speaking world. The Dutch version has shaped generations of theologians and helped them to preach, think, and act on a fresh, Reformed basis. The strength of Bavinck's dogmatics is that it's neither conservative nor progressive, but its biblical character makes it constantly up-to-date. Baker Academic and the Dutch Reformed Translation Society deserve praise for this project, from which without doubt church and theology will profit for years to come."--Herman Selderhuis, Theologische Universiteit Appeldoorn

"What a wonderful gift to the English-speaking theological world! The topics explored by Bavinck are still of the utmost importance, and he addresses them here in a theological voice that is amazingly fresh."--Richard J. Mouw, president, Fuller Theological Seminary

"Pastors and theologians will welcome the historic first complete translation of Herman Bavinck's "Reformed Dogmatics," . . . This masterful theological work is now available to passionate students of theology."--R. Albert Mohler Jr., Preaching

"Arguably the most important systematic theology ever produced in the Reformed tradition. I have found it to be the most valuable. English-speaking theology throughout the twentieth century until now has beensingularly impoverished by not having at its disposal a translation of Bavinck's "Dogmatiek" in its entirety. The appearance of this volume will be an incomparable boon for generations of students, pastors, teachers, and others, serving to deepen understanding and enrich reflection in both historical and systematic theology."--Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

A faithful examination of the role of John Calvin in the execution of Michael Servetus. The execution of Michael Servetus (1511-53) is one of the most debated events in the life of John Calvin (1509-1564). It has left an indelible stain on Calvin's reputation, and unfortunately, the retelling of the story is often dependent on the historian's relationship to Calvinism. Jonathan Moorhead here seeks to give a faithful narrative of the role of John Calvin in the execution of Michael Servetus. He examines the life of Servetus, with emphasis given to his education, publications, and relationship with John Calvin. Moorhead also gives attention to the role of Calvin in Servetus' arrests, trials, and execution. Understanding the extent of Calvin's power in Geneva at the time of the trial is critical to understanding the events, as is the context of executing heretics throughout history, and in particular, in the 16th Century. This book will challenge readers to think critically about the ethics of telling history, the standards of properly judging previous generations, and the benefits of this study for the building up of the Body of Christ. Servetus' Education and Publications Servetus' Arrest and Escape from Vienne The Authority of John Calvin Servtus' Arrest, Trial and Execution in Geneva Final Considerations Conclusion