This indispensable companion to key post-Reformation theological texts provides clear and concise definitions of Latin and Greek terms for students at a variety of levels. Written by a leading scholar of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras, this volume offers definitions that bear the mark of expert judgment and precision. The second edition includes new material and has been updated and revised throughout.

The scholars who have contributed to this volume of essays are Jewish and Christian thinkers who, without melding their different religious traditions and scholarly methods, have developed complementary responses to what they believe is wrong with contemporary biblical scholarship in Judaism and Christianity. The purpose of this collection is to draw attention to the similarities among these responses and to the possibility that they may contribute to a family of postcritical methods for interpreting the scriptural traditions. The postcritical scholars employ current methods of critical, scientific inquiry to clarify the language, the historical contexts, and the didactic messages of the biblical traditions. They do not, however, find these methods sufficient. They argue that the biblical traditions communicate to their practitioners some rules of action that cannot be deciphered within the terms set by canons of critical reason that emerged in the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. Rather, among the Bible's unique rules of action are the principles for interpreting the traditions themselves. Postcritical scholars attempt to identify these rules of interpretation, producing what editor Peter Ochs has come to term "postcritical Scriptural interpretation." It is neither strictly modern nor premodern. This form of inquiry emerges in the dialogue that is now unfolding between a contemporary family of scholars and their scriptural traditions.

This English translation from the Dutch volume is a study of a quotation by St. Augustine as it was understood in the late medieval period. Marijn de Kroon focuses on how this quotation was interpreted by two theologians: Wessel Gansfort, the Northern humanist and theologian connected to theDevotio modernaand the Brethren of the Common Life, and Martin Bucer, the Protestant reformer who further developed Gansfort's ideas. This study is accompanied by a series of shorter texts, all showing the reception of Augustine's phrase in late medieval theology and contrasting it with Gansfort's understanding of it, which Bucer was to adopt. With his commented edition of sourcetexts, de Kroon throws a new light on the links between late medieval and Reformation thought, demonstrating how a fully fledged reformer like Bucer used the works of medieval theologians. In fact, this is the first work to point to a concrete case of Gansfort's influence on the Reformation.

In his seminal work, A Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) laid the foundation for the future development of Jewish philosophy. In the centuries following his death, his book became the exemplar of reasoning faith. Its purpose was to reconcile Aristotle with Jewish philosophy and to provide a philosophical basis for Judaism’s teachings. Written in Arabic, the Guide was translated into Hebrew and Latin, with its influence extending to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Homo Mysticus, José Faur offers a modern rereading of Maimonides’s groundbreaking work. He examines the ideas, perspectives, and methodologies developed in modern critical theory and poststructural analysis and applies them to achieve an exciting new interpretation of the Guide. Faur’s interpretation of this text reveals Maimonides’s views on prophecy and philosophy, on imagination and intellect, on providence, on the importance of fulfilling the commandments, and above all on esoterism and mysticism. The result is a radical new interpretation of Maimonides, which will become the starting point for all future discussion and research on the philosopher and his important work.

Modern evangelicals have gained money, power, and influence, and it has been like giving whiskey to a two-year-old. The need of the hour is theological, not political. The arena is the pulpit and the table, not the legislative chamber. Before we are equipped to proclaim His lordship to the inhabitants of all the earth, we must live as though we believed it in the Church. Mother Kirk presents a very practical and pastoral guide to many of the countless issues that arise in conservative Christian churches. The essays span subjects ranging from the nature of legalism and church authority to worship music, debt, youth ministry, and pastoral character.

Richard Muller has put all theological students and pastors in his debt with his dictionary. Explanations of vexing Greek and Latin theological terms are drawn mainly from Protestant scholastic theology. Muller frequently explains the differences between the Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed systems which developed after the Reformation.