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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Calvinist, Reformed & Presbyterian Churches > General
Recent decades have witnessed much scholarly reassessment of
late-sixteenth through eighteenth-century Reformed theology. It was
common to view the theology of this period-typically labelled
'orthodoxy'-as sterile, speculative, and rationalistic, and to
represent it as significantly discontinuous with the more
humanistic, practical, and biblical thought of the early reformers.
Recent scholars have taken a more balanced approach, examining
orthodoxy on its own terms and subsequently highlighting points of
continuity between orthodoxy and both Reformation and
pre-Reformation theologies, in terms of form as well as content.
Until now Scottish theology and theologians have figured relatively
minimally in works reassessing orthodoxy, and thus many of the
older stereotypes concerning post-Reformation Reformed theology in
a Scottish context persist. This collection of essays aims to
redress that failure by purposely examining post-Reformation
Scottish theology/theologians through a lens provided by the gains
made in recent scholarly evaluations of Reformed orthodoxy, and by
highlighting, in that process, the significant contribution which
Scottish divines of the orthodox era made to Reformed theology as
an international intellectual phenomenon.
This book explores one of the great paradoxes of our era. Western
culture has almost imperceptibly come to secularize the sacred,
while at the same time sacralizing the secular. The authors
endeavor to show the debilitating effects that this paradox has had
on the foundations of Christian worship with special reference to
the history of worship and in particular the Presbyterian Church in
Australia. The authors show how the theological predilection for
'minimization' has become inextricably woven into the fabric of
what we call 'the theory of transformative subjugation' which
drives the rationale for religious secularization. The book argues
that it is necessary to consider a serious reconstruction of
theological education in which its framework is located in a
specific Christian theory of knowledge which engenders the Lordship
of Christ and encourages a spirit of transformative love and
connectedness. It is only in this context that the theology of
worship and the beauty and usefulness of liturgical forms can be
appreciated.
The French Revolution was the scene of much intellectual and social
upheaval. Its impact touched a wide range of subjects: the
relationship of the church to the state, social relationships,
science, literature, fashion, philosophy and theology. Although the
French Revolution's momentum was felt across Europe and North
America, it met a particularly interesting response in the
Netherlands, at that time the scene of a burgeoning neo-Calvinist
movement. In that context, the likes of Groen van Prinsterer,
Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck responded to the French
Revolution's ideals and influence in a variety of intellectual and
practical ways.This book approaches that Dutch response from a
range of historical and theological perspectives, and in so doing
explores the relationship between the French Revolution and the
development of neo-Calvinism. Beginning with historical portraits
of Bavinck and Kuyper in relation to the Revolution, the
perspectives offered also include, amongst others, the place of
multilingualism in neo-Calvinism and the Revolution, neo-Calvinist
and Revolutionary approaches to fashion, a dialogue between
Kuyperian theology and Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy, and a
contemporary neo-Calvinist critique of French laicite. This book
forms part of a wider Project neo-Calvinism supported by the
Theologische Universiteit Kampen and the VU University Amsterdam.
Bringing together a rich range of primary sources - images,
liturgies, sermons, letters, eyewitness accounts, and Genevan
consistory records - this book examines worship as it was taught
and practiced in John Calvin's Geneva. Several of these primary
sources are translated into English for the first time, offering
new resources for studying Calvin and his context. Karin Maag uses
Geneva as a case study for investigating the theology and practice
of worship in the Reformation era. Covering the period from 1541 to
1564, the year of Calvin's death, Lifting Hearts to the Lord
captures both Calvin's signal contribution to Reformation worship
and the voices of ordinary Genevans as they navigated - and
debated, even fought about - the changes in worship resulting from
the Reformation.
The so-called extra Calvinisticum-the doctrine that the incarnate
Son of God continued to exist beyond the flesh-was not invented by
John Calvin or Reformed theologians. If this is true, as is almost
universally acknowledged today, then why do scholars continue to
fixate almost exclusively on Calvin when they discuss this
doctrine? The answer to the "why" of this scholarly trend, however,
is not as important as correcting the trend. This volume expands
our vision of the historical functions and christological
significance of this doctrine by expounding its uses in Cyril of
Alexandria, Thomas Aquinas, Zacharias Ursinus, and in theologians
from the Reformation to the present. Despite its relative
obscurity, the doctrine that came to be known as the "Calvinist
extra" is a possession of the church catholic and a feature of
Christology that ought to be carefully appropriated in contemporary
reflection on the Incarnation.
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