This long-standing series provides the guild of religion scholars a venue for publishing aimed primarily at colleagues. It includes scholarly monographs, revised dissertations, Festschriften, conference papers, and translations of ancient and medieval documents. Works cover the sub-disciplines of biblical studies, history of Christianity, history of religion, theology, and ethics. Festschriften for Karl Barth, Donald W. Dayton, James Luther Mays, Margaret R. Miles, and Walter Wink are among the seventy-five volumes that have been published. Contributors include: C. K. Barrett, Francois Bovon, Paul S. Chung, Marie-Helene Davies, Frederick Herzog, Ben F. Meyer, Pamela Ann Moeller, Rudolf Pesch, D. Z. Phillips, Rudolf Schnackenburgm Eduard Schweizer, John Vissers

The range and sweep of John Calvinís theology have rarely been more comprehensively presented than in this book. This analysis illuminates Calvinís ideas and helps to set them into the framework of their time.

A unique resource for the study of John Calvin's theology, its reception, and insights for today.

Throughout the two-thousand-year span of Christian history, believers in Jesus have sought to articulate their faith and their understanding of how God works in the world. How do we, as we examine the vast and varied output of those who came before us, understand the unity and the diversity of their thinking? How do we make sense of our own thought in light of theirs?

This book is the first major study of Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's Supper in twenty-five years and the first attempt to show the eucharistic shape of Calvin's entire theology. The core of Calvin's doctrine of the Eucharist is the analogy of ÒfeedingÓ on Christ, the Bread of Life. This analogy, argues Gerrish, links Calvin's thoughts to the ÒHoly BanquetÓ with the rest of his theology. The systematic character of Calvin's theology rests in part on his consistent understanding of God as father and fountain of good and his conception of the gospel as the message of free adoption. The father's liberality in feeding his children and their answering gratitude (or lack of it) is a thread that runs through Calvin's entire summary of piety; creation, the work of Christ, baptism, and the Lord's Supper.

In this thorough investigation of Calvinist doctrine, John Leith defines the Reformer's teaching on Christian life in the context of his theology. He begins with a discussion of what it means to say that the purpose of Christian life is the glory of God. He then discusses Christian life in relation to four aspects of Calvinist thought: justification by faith alone; providence and predestination; history and the transhistorical; church and society.Leith's concluding statement summarizes the importance of this book. "Calvin's doctrine of the Christian life represents a magnificent effort to give expression to what it means to have to do with the living God every moment of one's life. No interpretation of the sola gloria Dei ["only God's glory"] has been more vivid and dynamic than Calvin's. For this reason he speaks to the needs of this generation, which, at least until recently, has been more frequently concerned about the glory of humankind than that of God and which has fallen victim to many false gods and vicious ideologies. Yet if Calvinism is to render its full service to our day, it must be interpreted in the context of the shared faith of the total Christian community. On the basis of Calvin's own principles, no human statement of Christian faith can ever be final and must be continually reformed by the Christian community's apprehension of the word of God as revealed in Jesus Christ."

Decoding Jesus will forever change your view about Jesus! John Calvin (1509-1564) and Ellen G. White (1827-1915), though divergent in many ways, shared a pivotal common denominator: the Judeo-Christian Bible from Genesis to Revelation as a major template from which they reflected on the close connectedness, and radical difference of God, human beings, and the created environment. Calvin encountered a theological conundrum. He was unaware that one cannot hold on to the 16th-century Reformation of employing the biblical historical time-line from Genesis to Revelation (as a reflexive scheme on God’s four grand acts: creation, reconciliation [the cross/redemption], renewal [Pentecost/Holy Spirit] and fulfillment/end of time), whilst simultaneously embracing the classical first millennium Trinitarian view. Karl Barth, the great Swiss Reformed theologian of the early 20th century, was aware of Calvin’s conundrum. Barth resolved that the dogma of the Trinity is not found in the Bible, but should be used as a good dogma operating as the main starting pattern of one’s theology. How further can one go than Barth in giving the notion of the Trinity a biblical vote of no confidence? White treaded softly around the Trinity notion. Her vast ocean of voluminous writings is devoid of the word Trinity. She visited Switzerland, and having read Calvin’s doctrines, she most likely saw Calvin and the Reformation’s contradiction concerning the dogma of the Trinity, and wanted to avoid the same trap.