A critical assessment of one of the most important Reformers by an international team of specialists.

Martin Greschat's seminal work is the first biography of the important Protestant reformer to be written in over seventy years. Now translated into English, this work--"the most comprehensive account of Bucer's place within the context of the history of the Reformation" (The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation)--transcends normal biographies by providing information in relation to the social and political context of the sixteenth century. Lucid in style and mature in scholarship, Greschat'sMartin Buceris a splendid contribution to Reformation studies.

This accessible book introduces the life and work of Martin Bucer (1491–1551), the significant sixteenth-century Protestant Reformer. Bucer shared theological insights with other Protestant Reformers but also provided his own unique contributions. Donald McKim and Jim West help us to understand Bucer’s thought in the historical, political, and ecclesial context of his times. They also explore its ongoing importance for the contemporary church.

Martin Bucer has usually been portrayed as a diplomat who attempted to reconcile divergent theological views, sometimes at any cost, or as a pragmatic pastor who was more concerned with ethics than theology. These representations have led to the view that Bucer was a theological light-weight, rightly placed in the shadow of Luther and Calvin. This book makes a different argument.Bucer was an ecclesial diplomat and a pragmatic pastor, yet his ecclesial and practical approaches to reforming the Church were guided by coherent theological convictions. Central to his theology was his understanding of the doctrine of justification, an understanding that Brian Lugioyo argues has an integrity of its own, though it has been imprecisely represented as intentionally conciliatory. It was this solid doctrine that guided Bucer's irenicism and acted as a foundation for his entrance into discussions with Catholics between 1539 and 1541. Lugioyo demonstrates that Bucer was consistent in his approach and did not sacrifice his theological convictions for ecclesial expediency. Indeed his understanding was an accepted evangelical perspective on justification, one to be commended along with those of Luther and Calvin.

This carefully translated and edited volume in the Library of Christian Classics contains Philip Melanchthon's famous Loci Communes and Martin Bucer's De Rengo Christi. Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works--each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century--contemporary readers are able to engage the ideas that have shaped Christian theology and the church through the centuries.

This book examines Martin Bucer's attempts to circumvent the Reformation impasse on the Mass by seeking common ground with Catholic moderates in the Eucharistic theology of the church fathers and early scholastic theologians.