Early New England and the early modern era -- Jonathan Edwards and the Protestant scholastics -- Sources of Christian homiletics -- Sources of biblical exegesis: an ecumenical enterprise -- Sources of the formulation of doctrine: continuity and discontinuity? -- Sources of history as theology -- Conclusion and prospect

“I no sooner perceived myself in the world,” wrote English philosopher John Locke, “than I found myself in a storm.” The storm of which Locke spoke was the maelstrom of religious fanaticism and intolerance that was tearing apart the social fabric of European society. His response was A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), arguably the most important defense of religious freedom in the Western tradition. In God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West, historian Joseph Loconte offers a groundbreaking study of Locke’s Letter, challenging the notion that decisive arguments for freedom of conscience appeared only after the onset of the secular Enlightenment. Loconte argues that Locke’s vision of a tolerant and pluralistic society was based on a radical reinterpretation of the life and teachings of Jesus. In this, Locke drew great strength from an earlier religious reform movement, namely, the Christian humanist tradition. Like no thinker before him, Locke forged an alliance between liberal political theory and a gospel of divine mercy. God, Locke, and Liberty suggests how a better understanding of Locke’s political theology could calm the storms of religious violence that once again threaten international peace and security. To read an interview with the author about the book on Patheos.com, see here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/01/10/under-locke-and-key/

Unconditionally loving. Sovereign over all. How can God be sovereign over all things and loving towards all people while His creatures possess real freedom and responsibility for their choices? Theologians have wrestled with this question for centuries. But have our attempted solutions made the problem worse? In Wonderful Decree, Travis James Campbell suggests we cannot solve the problem by sacrificing either divine sovereignty and goodness on one hand or human responsibility on the other. While considering Arminian and Molinist alternatives, he concludes that the traditional Augustinian and Calvinist approach best allows these truths to remain in a healthy and biblically-faithful tension. Inspired by the example of Spurgeon, who preferred biblical mystery over human solutions, Campbell encourages readers to trust—even delight—in the harmony of God's love for all and sovereignty over all.

We appropriately use the Bible as our foundation for all Christian belief and practice because we rightly recognize it as God’s written Word. Why then is there such a lack of clarity on the God that this book is supposed to reveal to us within its pages? Why does He claim to be good, compassionate, and merciful while He is accused of hardening hearts, tempting people, causing sickness and accidents, etc. in so many other places? The issues arise from our failure to accurately understand and apply the “idiom of permission” to our reading and study of this holy text. In this book, Pastor Troy J. Edwards provides the scholarly evidence that the Bible uses the idiom of permission frequently, and he discusses how the application of this idiom will resolve many issues related to our understanding of God’s character.

Calvinism must be assigned a significant place among the forces that have shaped modern European culture. Even now, despite its history of religious fragmentation and secularization, Europe continues to bear the marks of a pervasive Calvinist ethos. The character of that ethos is, however, difficult to pin down. In this volume, many of the traditional scholarly conundrums about the relationship between Calvinism and the cultural history of Europe are revisited and re-investigated, to see what new light can be shed on them. For example, how has the ethos of Calvinism, or more broadly the Reformed tradition, affected economic thinking and practice, the development of the sciences, views on religious toleration, or the constitution of European polities? In general, what kind of transformations did Calvinism’s distinct spirituality bring about? Such questions demand painstaking and detailed scholarly work, a fine sample of which is published in this volume.