In this book William Tyndale, one of the most renowned religious scholars of the Reformation, writes his explanations of justification by faith. The Parable of the Wicked Mammon is the very first work which carries William Tyndale's name. Selecting chapter sixteen from the Book of Luke as a basis, Tyndale explains crucial differences between emerging Protestant beliefs and the established Catholic system. By choosing this passage, Tyndale is able to explain justification and the fruits of it, thereby highlighting a central motivation behind the ensuing Reformation. Notably, this work sees the author acknowledge for the first time his new translation of the Biblical New Testament. Writing in part to blunt the blame levied upon the Protestant cause as being behind outbreaks of violence in Europe, Tyndale sought to frame his arguments in religious terms. By admitting his translation of the Bible, Tyndale reveals that he is opposed to keeping the scripture out of the hands of the common people.

J. E. Hutton's superb history follows the Moravian Church from its earliest years as one of the earliest founding Protestant denominations, over the centuries as it developed into a mature Christian fellowship. Arranged chronologically, Hutton's history takes us first to the dawn of the Protestant Reformation in the fifteenth century. He details the fraught religious and political situation during the decades prior to the eventual split with the dominant Catholic order. We are introduced to the pivotal figures of the era, such as Peter of Chelci, Gregory the Patriarch and Luke of Prague. The political climate of Prague, Bohemia and the surrounding areas in which the Moravians lived is much-detailed. The pure, simple observance of Christ and his virtues united the Moravian movement - the essential devotion to Jesus and his gospel appealed to Christians, who yearned for community under a common banner and felt distant from the old order. Poland in particular proved a bastion for Moravian brethren.

The dual biography of two remarkable women - Catherine Parr and Anne Askew. One was the last queen of a powerful monarch, the second a countrywoman from Lincolnshire. But they were joined together in their love for the new learning - and their adherence to Protestantism threatened both their lives. Both women wrote about their faith, and their writings are still with us. Powerful men at court sought to bring Catherine down, and used Anne Askew's notoriety as a weapon in that battle. Queen Catherine Parr survived, while Anne Askew, the only woman to be racked, was burned to death. This book explores their lives, and the way of life for women from various social strata in Tudor England.

Richard Baxter, one of the most famous Puritans of the seventeenth century, is generally known as a writer of practical and devotional literature. But he also excelled in knowledge of medieval and early modern scholastic theology, and was conversant with a wide variety of seventeenth-century philosophies. Baxter was among the early English polemicists to write against the mechanical philosophy of Rene Descartes and Pierre Gassendi in the years immediately following the establishment of the Royal Society. At the same time, he was friends with Robert Boyle and Matthew Hale, corresponded with Joseph Glanvill, and engaged in philosophical controversy with Henry More. In this book, David Sytsma presents a chronological and thematic account of Baxter's relation to the people and concepts involved in the rise of mechanical philosophy in late-seventeenth-century England. Drawing on largely unexamined works, including Baxter's Methodus Theologiae Christianae (1681) and manuscript treatises and correspondence, Sytsma discusses Baxter's response to mechanical philosophers on the nature of substance, laws of motion, the soul, and ethics. Analysis of these topics is framed by a consideration of the growth of Christian Epicureanism in England, Baxter's overall approach to reason and philosophy, and his attempt to understand creation as an analogical reflection of God's power, wisdom, and goodness, understood as vestigia Trinitatis. Baxter's views on reason, analogical knowledge of God, and vestigia Trinitatis draw on medieval precedents and directly inform a largely hostile, though partially accommodating, response to mechanical philosophy.

The Swiss theologian Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) was one of the most prominent reformers and the founder of the Reformed Protestant Church in the Swiss Confederation. During the last hundred years more than 200 titles from his private library have been discovered. They give an interesting insight into his interests and sources. The present book contains not only an extensive introduction and a catalogue of these books and manuscripts, but also an inventory of the lost works possessed by Zwingli. They open the door to Zwingli's study and to the intellectual world of an important reformer.

The Anabaptist Vision, given as a presidential address before the American Society of Church History in 1943, has become a classic essay. In it, Harold S. Bender defines the spirit and purposes of the original Anabaptists. Three major points of emphasis are: the transformation of the entire way of life of the individual to the teachings and example of Christ, voluntary church membership based upon conversion and commitment to holy living, and Christian love and nonresistance applied to all human relationships.48 Pages.