Deals with Amsdorf's role in developing the understanding of Luther in the years after his death.

Deals with Amsdorf's role in developing the understanding of Luther in the years after his death. (Bibliotheca Humanistica & Reformatorica, Vol. XXIV). With portrait.

Newman and Justification examines John Henry Newman's via media 'doctrine of the justifying presence' in his Lectures on Justification. T. L. Holtzen contends that Newman put forth his via media doctrine of the justifying presence by employing a trinitarian grammar of divine inhabitation in which the Holy Spirit is the formal cause of justification as a solution to the Reformation debate over justification. Newman sets his via media of justification between the extremes of justification by 'mere imputation' in 'popular Protestantism' and that of justification by works-righteousness in 'English Arminianism' and 'Romanism'. The word 'justification' means both being declared and being made righteous because the eternal Word is spoken into the soul by the Holy Spirit in justification. Newman identifies this with 'the gift of righteousness' (Romans 5:17) and calls it the 'doctrine of the justifying presence'. The justifying presence is an imparted righteousness, in distinction from both the Protestant notion of imputed and Roman Catholic idea of inherent righteousness. The justifying presence comes through the sacraments, creates faith in the human soul, and begins a renewal in good works, all of which in different ways justify. The divine inhabitation of the Holy Spirit in the soul is the formal cause of justification by causing a duplex iustitia of both Christ's imputed righteousness and by beginning an actual righteousness in renewal. Newman's via media 'doctrine of the justifying presence' has great ecumenical promise because it shows how the trinitarian grammar of justification necessarily causes renewal through divine inhabitation.

This book explores the impact of the sixteenth-century Reformation on the plays of William Shakespeare. Taking three fundamental Protestant concerns of the era – (double) predestination, conversion, and free will – it demonstrates how Protestant theologians, in England and elsewhere, re-imagined these longstanding Christian concepts from a specifically Protestant perspective. Shakespeare utilizes these insights to generate his distinctive view of human nature and the relationship between humans and God. Through in-depth readings of the Shakespeare comedies ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and ‘Twelfth Night’, the romance ‘A Winter’s Tale’, and the tragedies of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’, this book examines the results of almost a century of Protestant thought upon literary art.

This book offers portraits of twenty of the secondary theologians of the Reformation period. In addition to describing a particular theologian, each portrait explores one problem in 16th-century Christian thought. Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, and Radical thinkers are all represented in this volume, which serves as both an introduction to the field and a handy reference for scholars.

What is conversion? How does it come about? What preparations must a person make? Harran traces the evolution of Luther's views on these questions, treating his early years as an Augustinian monk, the beginnings of his work as a reformer, and his final evangelical breakthrough, during which he realized the full theological implications of his religious stance. Harran studies Luther's changing interpretations of conversion in his exegetical writings on the Psalms, Romans, Hebrews, and Galatians, in sermons and letters, and in early reform writings, and she considers the relation of conversion to faith, justification, and grace, concepts traditionally viewed as the cornerstones of Luther's mature theology. Introducing new and compelling evidence to the heated debate about Luther's own conversion, she analyzes the accuracy of his later recollections of his "Tower Experience" and its dating. Insightful and innovative, Luther on Conversion will be welcomed by anyone interested in Luther and in the revolution in faith that he brought about.

Numerous historical studies use the term "community'" to express or comment on social relationships within geographic, religious, political, social, or literary settings, yet this volume is the first systematic attempt to collect together important examples of this varied work in order to draw comparisons and conclusions about the definition of community across early modern Europe. Offering a variety of historical and theoretical approaches, the sixteen original essays in this collection survey major regions of Western Europe, including France, Geneva, the German Lands, Italy and the Spanish Empire, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland. Complementing the regional diversity is a broad spectrum of religious confessions: Roman Catholic communities in France, Italy, and Germany; Reformed churches in France, Geneva, and Scotland; Lutheran communities in Germany; Mennonites in Germany and the Netherlands; English Anglicans; Jews in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands; and Muslim converts returning to Christian England. This volume illuminates the variety of ways in which communities were defined and operated across early modern Europe: as imposed by community leaders or negotiated across society; as defined by belief, behavior, and memory; as marked by rigid boundaries and conflict or by flexibility and change; as shaped by art, ritual, charity, or devotional practices; and as characterized by the contending or overlapping boundaries of family, religion, and politics. Taken together, these chapters demonstrate the complex and changeable nature of community in an era more often characterized as a time of stark certainties and inflexibility. As a result, the volume contributes a vital resource to the ongoing efforts of scholars to understand the creation and perpetuation of communities and the significance of community definition for early modern Europeans.