The history of belief, piety, and theology ("Frommigkeitsgeschichte") has long stood in the center of Erlangen church historian Berndt Hamm's research interest. Inspired by his work, scholars from Europe and the U.S. have produced this interdisciplinary volume covering topics from the early Middle Ages to the present and dedicate it to him on his sixtieth birthday. Theologie- und frommigkeitsgeschichtlichen Phanomenen gilt das besondere Forschungsinteresse des Erlanger Kirchenhistorikers Berndt Hamm. Die Impulse aus seinen Forschungen aufnehmend, widmen ihm Forscher/-innen aus Europa und den USA zum 60. Geburtstag diesen interdisziplinar angelegten Sammelband mit Beitragen vom Fruhmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart.

Practicing Gospel is a collection of four new and eight previously published essays on the subjects of practical theology, homiletics and worship, Christian education, and pastoral care. Edward Farley offers a more faithful approach to the tasks of ministry for seminarians and pastors too often tempted to equate pastoral care with popular psychology, good preaching with snappy public speaking, or Christian education with flashy curriculum. By holding theology and practice in an inescapable partnership, Farley rightly re-focuses the church's life on its proper object and subject--a mysterious transforming God.

This book takes a fresh look at the cultural role of medicine among learned people around 1300. It was at this time that learned medicine came to be fully incorporated into the academic system and began to win greater social acceptance. Joseph Ziegler argues that physicians and clerics did not confine the role of medicine to its physical therapeutic function, and that fusion rather than disjunction characterized the relationship between medicine and religion at that time. Much of this argument relies on language analysis and on a close study of unedited manuscript sources. By juxtaposing the spiritual writings and the medical output of two learned physicians — Arnau de Vilanova (c. 1238-1311) and Galvano da Levanto (fl. 1300) — Dr Ziegler shows that they saw a medical purpose, namely to ensure the spiritual health of their audience and to reveal the mysteries of God and creation. When entering the spiritual realm, both brought to it a medical framework and extended their medical knowledge and curative activities from body to soul. By examining preachers' manuals and sermons, the author suggests that a growing tendency emerged among clerics in general and preachers in particular to appropriate current medical knowledge for spiritual purposes and to substantiate their extensive use of medical metaphors, analogies and exempla by citing specific medical authorities.

For over one hundred years, the International Critical Commentary series has held a special place among works on the Bible. It has sought to bring together all the relevant aids to exegesis — linguistic and textual no less than archaeological, historical, literary and theological—with a level of comprehension and quality of scholarship unmatched by any other series. No attempt has been made to secure a uniform theological or critical approach to the biblical text: contributors have been invited for their scholarly distinction, not for their adherence to any one school of thought. The first paperback editions to be published cover the heart of the New Testament, providing a wealth of information and research in accessible and attractive format.

Considered by many to be one of the most influential German Pietists, August Hermann Francke lived during a moment when an emphasis on conversion was beginning to produce small shifts in how the sacraments were defined—a harbinger of later, more dramatic changes to come in evangelical theology. In this book, Peter James Yoder uses Francke and his theology as a case study for the ecclesiological stirrings that led to the rise of evangelicalism and global Protestantism. Engaging extensively with Francke’s manuscript sermons and writings, Yoder approaches Francke’s life and religious thought through his theology of the sacraments. In doing so, Yoder delivers key insights into the structure of Francke's Pietist thought, providing a rich depiction of his conversion-driven theology and how it shaped his views of the sacraments and the church. The first in-depth study of Francke’s theology written for an English-speaking audience, this book supports recent scholarship in English that not only challenges long-held assumptions about Pietism but also argues for the role of Pietism’s influence on the changing religious landscape of the eighteenth century. Through his examination of Francke’s theology of the sacraments, Yoder presents a fresh view into the eighteenth-century ecclesiological developments that caused a rupture with the dogmas of the Reformation. Original and vital, this study recognizes Francke’s importance to the history of Pietism in Germany and beyond. It will become the standard reference on Francke for American audiences and will influence scholarship on Lutheranism, Pietism, early modern German studies, and eighteenth-century history and religion.

In this completely revised and updated edition, François Bovon provides a critical assessment of the last fifty-five years of scholarship on Luke-Acts. The study divides thematically, with individual chapters covering the subjects of history and eschatology, the role of the Old Testament, Christology, the Holy Spirit, conversion, and the church. Each chapter begins with a consideration of the exegetical and theological problems unique to each theme in Luke-Acts before providing a detailed survey and critique of contemporary English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian New Testament scholarship.