Bøger i OXFORD STU IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY SERIES serien

The Covenant of Works explores the origins of the doctrine of God's covenant with Adam and traces it back to the inter-testamental period, through the patristic and middle ages, and to the Reformation. The doctrine has an ancient pedigree and was not solely advocated by Reformed theologians. The book traces the doctrine's development in the seventeenth century and its reception in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Fesko explores thereasons why the doctrine came to be rejected by some, even in the Reformed tradition, arguing that interpretive methods influenced by Enlightenment thought caused theologians to question the doctrine's scriptural legitimacy.

A noted religious scholar and leader of Protestant thought, James Ussher (1581-1656) helped shape the Church of Ireland and solidify its national identity in the seventeenth century. In Catholicity and the Covenant of Works, Harrison Perkins addresses the development of Christian doctrine in the Reformed tradition, paying particular attention to the ways in which Ussher adopted various ideas from the broad Christian tradition to shape his doctrine of thecovenant of works, which he utilized to explain how God related to humanity both before and after the fall into sin.

Font of Pardon and New Life is a study of the historical development and impact of John Calvin''s doctrine of baptism, both adult (or believer) baptism and infant baptism. Did Calvin intend to teach a kind of baptismal forgiveness and regeneration, that is, did he believe that the external sign of baptism actually conveys the spiritual realities it signifies? If baptism does serve in some way as an instrument of divine grace for Calvin, what then are theroles of the Word, the Holy Spirit, divine election, and individual faith? Are spiritual blessings conferred only in adult (believer) baptism or also in the baptism of infants? Did Calvin''s teaching on baptismal efficacy remain constant throughout his lifetime, or did it undergo significant change? What impactdid it have on the Reformed confessional tradition that followed him?Lyle D. Bierma approaches these questions by examining Calvin''s writings on baptism in their entirety, proceeding chronologically through Calvin''s life and writings including his Institutes, commentaries on the Bible, catechisms, polemical treatises, and consensus documents. Bierma concludes that Calvin understood baptism as a means or instrument of both assurance and grace. His view underwent some change and development over the course of his life but not to the extent that some inthe past have suggested. The overall trajectory of his baptismal theology was one of increasing clarity and refinement of basic themes already present in incipient form in the Institutes of 1536.

Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) studied and taught rhetoric for nearly two decades until, at the age of thirty-one, he left his position as professor of rhetoric in Milan to embark upon his new life as a Christian. This was not a clean break in Augustine''s thought. Previous scholarship has done much to show us that Augustine integrated rhetorical ideas about texts and speeches into his thought on homiletics, the formation of arguments, and scriptural interpretation.Over the past few decades a new movement among scholars has begun to show that Augustine also carried rhetorical concepts into areas of his thought that were beyond the typical purview of the rhetorical handbooks. In Rhetorical Economy in Augustine''s Theology, Brian Gronewoller contributes to this new wave of scholarship by providing a detailed examination of Augustine''s use of the rhetorical concept of economy in his theologies of creation, history, and evil, in order to gain insights into these fundamental aspects of his thought. This study finds that Augustine used rhetorical economy as the logic by which he explained a multitude of tensions within, and answered various challengesto, these three areas of his thought as well as others with which they intersect-including his understandings of providence, divine activity, and divine order.

History has long viewed French Protestants as Calvinists. Refusing to Kiss the Slipper re-examines the Reformation in francophone Europe, presenting for the first time the perspective of John Calvin''s evangelical enemies and revealing that the French Reformation was more complex and colorful than previously recognized. Michael Bruening brings together a cast of Calvin''s opponents from various French-speaking territories to show that opposition to Calvinismwas stronger and better organized than has been recognized. He examines individual opponents, such as Pierre Caroli, Jerome Bolsec, Sebastian Castellio, Charles Du Moulin, and Jean Morély, but more importantly, he explores the anti-Calvinist networks that developed around such individuals. Each group had its own origins and agenda, but all agreed that Calvin''s claim to absolute religious authority too closely echoed the religious sovereignty of the pope. These oft-neglected opponents refused to offer such obeisance-to kiss the papal slipper-arguing instead for open discussion of controversial doctrines. They believed Calvin''s self-appointed leadership undermined the bedrock principle of the Reformation that the faithful be allowed to challenge religious authorities. This bookshows that the challenge posed by these groups shaped the way the Calvinists themselves developed their reform strategies. Bruening''s work demonstrates that the breadth and strength of the anti-Calvinist networks requires us to abandon the traditional assumption that Huguenots and other francophoneProtestants were universally Calvinist.

The extra Calvinisticum, the doctrine that the eternal Son maintains his existence beyond the flesh both during his earthly ministry and perpetually, divided the Lutheran and Reformed traditions during the Reformation. This book explores the emergence and development of the extra Calvinisticum in the Reformed tradition by tracing its first exposition from Ulrich Zwingli to early Reformed orthodoxy. Rather than being an ancillary issue, the questionssurrounding the extra Calvinisticum were a determinative factor in the differentiation of Magisterial Protestantism into rival confessions. Reformed theologians maintained this doctrine in order to preserve the integrity of both Christ''s divine and human natures as the mediator between God and humanity. Thisrationale remained consistent across this period with increasing elaboration and sophistication to meet the challenges leveled against the doctrine in Lutheran polemics. The study begins with Zwingli''s early use of the extra Calvinisticum in the Eucharistic controversy with Martin Luther and especially as the alternative to Luther''s doctrine of the ubiquity of Christ''s human body. Over time, Reformed theologians, such as Peter Martyr Vermigli and Antione de Chandieu, articulated the extra Calvinisticum with increasing rigor by incorporating conciliar christology, the church fathers, and scholastic methodology to address the polemical needs ofengagement with Lutheranism. The Flesh of the Word illustrates the development of christological doctrine by Reformed theologians offering a coherent historical narrative of Reformed christology from its emergence into the period of confessionalization. The extra Calvinisticum was interconnected to broader concernsaffecting concepts of the union of Christ''s natures, the communication of attributes, and the understanding of heaven.

In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Conventional scholarship traces this controversy back to the Middle Ages. Throughout the medieval era, the Latin Church denounced and prohibited dancing in religious and secular realms, often aligning it with demonic intervention, lust, pride, and sacrilege. Historical sources, however, suggest that medieval dance was a complex and ambivalent phenomenon. During the High and Late Middle Ages,Western theologians, liturgists, and mystics not only tolerated dance; they transformed it into a dynamic component of religious thought and practice. This book investigates how dance became a legitimate form of devotion in Christian culture. Sacred dance functioned to gloss scripture, framespiritual experience, and imagine the afterlife. Invoking numerous manuscript and visual sources (biblical commentaries, sermons, saints'' lives, ecclesiastical statutes, mystical treatises, vernacular literature, and iconography), this book highlights how medieval dance helped shape religious identity and social stratification. Moreover, this book shows the political dimension of dance, which worked in the service of Christendom, conversion, and social cohesion. In Ringleaders ofRedemption, Kathryn Dickason reveals a long tradition of sacred dance in Christianity, one that the professionalization and secularization of Renaissance dance obscured, and one that the Reformation silenced and suppressed.

The Reformed Conformity that flourished within the Early Stuart English Church was a rich, vibrant and distinctive theological tradition that has never before been studied in its own right. While scholars have observed how Reformed Conformists clashed with Laudians and Puritans alike, no sustained academic study of their teaching on grace and their attitude to the Church has yet been undertaken, despite the centrality of these topics to Early Stuart theologicalcontroversy. This ground-breaking monograph recovers this essential strand of Early Stuart Christian identity, examining the teachings and writings of ten prominent theologians

Economics of Faith addresses the multiple ways that leaders of the European Reformation sought to inspire new attitudes toward poverty and wealth, to reform the institutions of poor relief, and to create new organizations for aiding religious refugees. Guided by biblical ideals and values, religious reformers became some of the major contributors in the effort to address poverty, one of the most vexing social problem in early modern Europe. By examining theconnections between religion, politics, and community, it highlights the crucial role that religion had in the promotion of social responsibility and the development of social welfare systems.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in the views held by Reformed theologians within the parameters of confessional orthodoxy. For example, the doctrine known as ''hypothetical universalism''ΓÇöthe idea that although Christ died in some sense for every person, his death was intended to bring about the salvation only for those who were predestined for salvation. Michael Lynch focuses on the hypothetical universalism of the English theologian and bishop JohnDavenant (1572-1641), arguing that it has consistently been misinterpreted and misrepresented as a via media between Arminian and Reformed theology. A close examination of Davenent''s De Morte Christi, is the central core of the study. Lynch offers a detailed exposition of Davenant''s doctrine of universal redemption in dialogue with his understanding of closely related doctrines such as God''s will, predestination, providence, and covenant theology. He defends the thesis that Davenant''s version of hypothetical universalism represents a significant strand of the Augustinian tradition, including the early modern Reformed tradition.The book examines the patristic and medieval periods as they provided the background for the Lutheran, Remonstrant, and Reformed reactions to the so-called Lombardian formula (''Christ died sufficiently for all, effectually for the elect''). It traces how Davenant and his fellow British delegates at the Synod ofDordt shaped the Canons of Dordt in such a way as to allow for their English hypothetical universalism.

Augustine of Hippo, indisputably one of the most important figures for the study of memory, is credited with establishing memory as the inner source of selfhood and locus of the search for God. Yet, those who study memory in Augustine have never before taken into account his preaching. His sermons are the sources of memory's greatest development for Augustine. In Augustine's preaching, especially on the Psalms, the interior gives way to communal exterior. Both theself and search for God are re-established in shared identity and the communal labor of remembering and forgetting. Augustine on Memory presents this new paradigm not only for Augustinian studies, but also for theologians, philosophers, ethicists, and interdisciplinary scholars of memory.

For almost three hundred years there were those in England who believed that an Italian translation of the Book of Common Prayer could trigger radical change in the political and religious landscape of Italy. The aim was to present the text to the Italian religious and political elite, in keeping with the belief that the English liturgy embodied the essence of the Church of England. The beauty, harmony, and simplicity of the English liturgical text, rendered intoItalian, was expected to demonstrate that the English Church came closest to the apostolic model. Beginning in the Venetian Republic and ending with the Italian Risorgimento, the leitmotif running through the various incarnations of this project was the promotion of top-down reform according to themodel of the Church of England itself. These ventures mostly had little real impact on Italian history: as Roy Foster once wrote, "the most illuminating history is often written to show how people acted in the expectation of a future that never happened." This book presents one of those histories. Making Italy Anglican tells the story of a fruitless encounter that helps us better to understand both the self-perception of the Church of England''s international role and the cross-cultural and religious relations betweenBritain and Italy. Stefano Villani shows how Italy, as the heart of Roman Catholicism, wasΓÇöover a long period of timeΓÇöthe very center of the global ambitions of the Church of England.

Debates concerning the relationship between Tridentine Catholicism and Catholicism after Vatican II dominate theological conversation today, particularly with regard to the Church and its engagement with the world. Current historical narratives paint ecclesiology after the Council of Trent as dominated by juridical concerns, uniformity, and institutionalism. Purportedly neglected are the spiritual, diverse, and missional aspects of the Church. This book challengessuch narratives by investigating the theology of ecclesial unity and catholicity of the renowned Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suárez (1548-1617). Analyzing standard as well as overlooked sources of Suárez''s ecclesiology, Eric J. DeMeuse shows how Suárez wrestles with the new demands of his time andanticipates later ecumenical developments in twentieth-century Catholic ecclesiology. Early modern expansion prompted theologians after Trent to reckon with the ecclesial status of baptized Protestants, the Greek Orthodox, and non-believers in the New World. It further prompted reflection on the universality, or catholicity, of the Church, and how the Church''s mission to the nations serves her greater unity in Christ. DeMeuse demonstrates Suárez''s vision of the Church to be deeply spiritual, diverse, and missional—not at the expense of the institutional, but as itsnecessary and life-giving source. This book further explores not only Suárez''s speculative ecclesiology, but how the unity and catholicity of the body of Christ are lived out in practice: in the worship and works of the faithful, and, most notably, in the charism of his own religious order, the Society of Jesus.Suárez''s theology shows what the spiritual dynamic between Christic unity and missional catholicity should look like in the Church.

In Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory A. Edward Siecienski argues that seemingly minor issues-the beardlessness of the Latin clergy, the Western use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Purgatory-played a significant role in the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In Bisschop's Bench, Samuel D. Fornecker charts the incompatible theological agendas into which post-Restoration Arminian conformity proliferated and challenges the thesis that a monolithic Arminianism marched steadily from the post-Restoration period into the early Hanoverian.