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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches
Randall C. Zachman places Calvin in conversation with theologians
such as Pascal, Kierkegaard, Ezra the Scribe, Julian of Norwich and
Karl Barth, and attends to themes in Calvin's theology which are
often overlooked. Zachman draws out Calvin's use of astronomy and
great concern to see ourselves in comparison to the immensity of
the universe, acknowledging in wonder and awe our nothingness
before God. Throughout, Zachman presents a Calvin who seeks a route
out of self-deception to self-knowledge, though Kierkegaard shows
that it is love, and not judgment, that most deeply reveals us to
ourselves. The book discusses Calvin's understanding of the
election of the Jews and their relationship to God, and further
reconsiders Calvin's understanding of judgment and how the call to
love our neighbour is undermined by the formation of alliances.
Mormonism: A Guide for the Perplexed explains central facets of the
Mormon faith and way of life for those wishing to gain a clearer
understanding of this rapidly growing world religion. As The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to grow in the
United States and especially in other countries (with a total
membership of over 15 million, more than 50% of which is outside
the US), and as theologians and church leaders wrestle with whether
Mormonism is in fact a valid expression of modern Christianity,
this distinctive religious tradition has become increasingly an
object of interest and inquiry. This book is the ideal companion to
the study of this perplexing and often misunderstood religion.
Covering historical aspects, this guide takes a careful look at the
whole of Mormonism, its tenets and practices, as well as providing
an insight into a Mormon life.
This book investigates the relationship between nineteenth-century
German theological Wissenschaft and the emergence of confessional
Lutheranism. It argues that the first generation of confessional
Lutherans contributed to the discourse over the nature of
theological Wissenschaft. Part I examines the intellectual context
of nineteenth-century theological Wissenschaft. Chapter 2 presents
Kant's and Schelling's conceptions of Wissenschaft in relationship
to theology. Chapter 3 analyzes Schleiermacher's contribution to
the debate about the integrity of theology as a Wissenschaft, and
concludes by considering the developments represented by F.C. Baur
and Albrecht Ritschl. Part II investigates the different Lutheran
approaches to theological Wissenschaft represented by Adolf
Harless, August Vilmar, and Johannes von Hofmann. Chapter 4
examines Harless's Theologische Encyklopadie as the first
expression towards a confessional Lutheran Wissenschaft. Chapter 5
highlights Vilmar's antagonistic posture towards modern German
theology, while attending to his construction of an alternative
approach to modern theology. Chapters 6 and 7 contextualize Hofmann
against the landscape of German theology, while situating his
theological Wissenschaft within his contentious work Der
Schriftbeweis. Chapter 8 reflects upon these efforts at
establishing a theological Wissenschaft in service to the church
and the university.
TIMOTHY DWIGHT, DD, LL.D., grandson of Jonathan Edwards the elder,
was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, May 14, 1752, and was
graduated at Yale College at a very early age in 1769. These
sermons are his Magnum Opus as he lays out the Doctrinal and
Practical Truths of Holy Scripture. Volume One contains 38 sermons
dealing with the Existence, Attributes, Decrees, and Works of God.
Buried for more than 135 years it is high time that this brilliant
and godly man were able to speak again to our needy generation.
Science and Catholicism in Argentina (1750-1960) is the first
comprehensive study on the relationship between science and
religion in a Spanish-speaking country with a Catholic majority and
a "Latin" pattern of secularisation. The text takes the reader from
Jesuit missionary science in colonial times, through the
conflict-ridden 19th century, to the Catholic revival of the 1930s
in Argentina. The diverse interactions between science and religion
revealed in this analysis can be organised in terms of their
dynamic of secularisation. The indissoluble identification of
science and the secular, which operated at rhetorical and
institutional levels among the liberal elite and the socialists in
the 19th century, lost part of its force with the emergence of
Catholic scientists in the course of the 20th century. In agreement
with current views that deny science the role as the driving force
of secularisation, this historical study concludes that it was the
process of secularisation that shaped the interplay between
religion and science, not the other way around.
During the nineteenth century, camp meetings became a signature
program of American Methodists and an extraordinary engine for
their remarkable evangelistic outreach. Methodism in the American
Forest explores the ways in which Methodist preachers interacted
with and utilized the American woodland, and the role camp meetings
played in the denomination's spread across the country. Half a
century before they made themselves such a home in the woods, the
people and preachers learned the hard way that only a fool would
adhere to John Wesley's mandate for preaching in fields of the New
World. Under the blazing American sun, Methodist preachers found a
better outdoor sanctuary for larger gatherings: under the shade of
great oaks, a natural cathedral, where they held forth with fervid
sermons. The American forests, argues Russell E. Richey, served the
preachers in another important way. The remote, garden-like
solitude provided them with a place to seek counsel from the Holy
Spirit, serving as a kind of Gethsemane. As seen by the American
Methodists, the forest was also a desolate wilderness, and a means
for them to connect with Israel's wilderness years after the Exodus
and Jesus's forty days in the desert after his baptism by John.
Undaunted, the preachers slashed their way through, following
America's expanding settlement, and gradually sacralizing American
woodlands as cathedral, confessional, and spiritual challenge-as
shady grove, as garden, and as wilderness. The threefold forest
experience became a Methodist standard. The meeting of Methodism's
basic governing body, the quarterly conference, brought together
leadership of all levels. The event stretched to two days in length
and soon great crowds were drawn by the preaching and eventually
the sacraments that were on offer. Camp meetings, if not a
Methodist invention, became the movement's signature, a development
that Richey tracks throughout the years that Methodism matured,
becoming a central denomination in America's religious landscape.
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