This book examines the intellectual career of Bishop John Fisher (1468-1535), the early sixteenth-century bishop of Rochester and victim of Henry VIII's Reformation, whose numerous writings included one of the most influential refutations of Martin Luther of the century. It places Fisher's writings in the context of contemporary movements of Renaissance and Reformation.

In 1929, nearly four hundred years after the deaths of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, G.K. Chesterton observed in words equally attributable to Fisher, "Blessed Thomas More is more important at this moment than at any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying; but he is not quite so important as he will be in a hundred years." Judge Robert J Conrad, Jr. anticipates Chesterton's one-hundred-year mark in a collection of stories from the lives of More and Fisher, demonstrating how their sanctity and integrity carried them and those who loved them through tumultuous and heart-wrenching times which, perhaps surprisingly, bear a striking resemblance to the present epoch. At first blush, nothing could appear more different than the pre-industrial sixteenth century and the tech-centered modern era. But a closer examination presents a similar tale of political maneuvering and hostile hearings, legal corruption, viral pandemics, riots, suppression of speech, loss of religious liberty, and a profound indifference for truth. Judge Conrad effortlessly weaves together tales of both men and what made them who they were--family, faith, friendship, oaths, vocation, detachment, conscience--inviting those who strive for holiness down the same narrow path these two martyrs walked with a clarity founded upon the truth of Christ's Church, and a wit that charmed even their persecutors. Both these men refused to consent to the theological farce that would permit the king's divorce and remarriage and drive a wedge into the unity of the Christian world, and both paid for their convictions with their lives. More died the king's good servant and God's first. Fisher approached his execution with joy befit for a wedding. And yet, both stand today, long after they are gone, as models of courage in a time when it is desperately needed. Discover in this volume of powerful stories two saints whose lives could not be timelier for the present age.

St. John Fisher is perhaps the forgotten saint. While his times are remembered, he is not. The 20th century saw a rebirth in interest in Fisher, the only Bishops to not bend the knee to Henry VIII. His work, the Defence of the Priesthood, was written in refutation of Martin Luther's work "On the Abolition of Private Mass." It relies principally on the witness of the New Testament, then the Church Fathers to prove with certainty that the Catholic priesthood was introduced by Jesus Christ. Luther regularly responded to anyone who criticized him with abuse, but to Fisher he never made any response, not only because the treatise was unanswerable, but also because Fisher was the holiest Bishop in Christendom . This treatise, being thoroughly grounded in Holy Scripture, reveals Fisher as the true witness to the Gospel.

This is a critical edition of John Fisher's Treatise on the Penitential Psalms, sermons delivered in 1507-1508 to the household of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII, who caused them to be published as the first English sermon collection ever printed. Also included is Bishop Fisher's funeral sermon for King Henry and his "month's mind" sermon for Lady Margaret herself, who died shortly after her son. Lady Margaret Beaufort was Fisher's patron and a notable benefactor to the University of Cambridge, where with his guidance she renewed Queens and Christ's Colleges, and founded a third, St John's, which her chaplain Fisher brought to completion after her death. The book features the subtitle "Preaching for Lady Margaret" because she was responsible for bringing the Treatise to general public attention and all these sermons owe their delivery to this remarkable woman, together with the gratitude of John Fisher's modern readers, because Fisher himself rarely sought publication for his English works. They are packed with scholarly reference to patristic and medieval theology, but also to contemporary chronicles, bestiaries and works of natural history and classical authors. This distinguished Treatise and its companion sermons gives the reader a glimpse into Fisher's mind, steeped in and devoted to the learning of his time yet always eager for the new scholarship of the humanists and their discoveries.

Does it really matter? Does it matter if we have free will? Does it matter if Calvinism is true? And does what you think about it matter? No and yes. No, it doesn't matter because God is who he is and does what he does regardless of what we think of him, just as the solar system keeps spinning around the sun even if we're convinced it spins around the earth. Our opinions about God will not change God, but they can change us. And so yes, it does matter because the conversations about free will and Calvinism confront us with perhaps the only question that really matters: who is God? This is a book about that question--a book about the Bible, black holes, love, sovereignty, hell, Romans 9, Jonathan Edwards, John Piper, C. S. Lewis, Karl Barth, and a little girl in a red coat. You've heard arguments, but here's a story--Austin Fischer's story, and his journey in and out of Calvinism on a trip to the center of the universe.

Jesus' "table fellowship" with sinners in the Gospels has been widely agreed to be historically reliable, but scholarly disputes continue. In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Craig L. Blomberg engages with the debate, surveying the relevant biblical texts and their background, concluding with contemporary applications.