Before Jonathan Edwards

Before Jonathan Edwards
Author: Adriaan Cornelis Neele
Publisher: Paperbackshop UK Import
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0199372624

Early New England and the early modern era -- Jonathan Edwards and the Protestant scholastics -- Sources of Christian homiletics -- Sources of biblical exegesis: an ecumenical enterprise -- Sources of the formulation of doctrine: continuity and discontinuity? -- Sources of history as theology -- Conclusion and prospect

The Hebrew Idiom of Permission

The Hebrew Idiom of Permission
Author: Troy J. Edwards
Publisher: Troy Edwards
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2022-08-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

We appropriately use the Bible as our foundation for all Christian belief and practice because we rightly recognize it as God’s written Word. Why then is there such a lack of clarity on the God that this book is supposed to reveal to us within its pages? Why does He claim to be good, compassionate, and merciful while He is accused of hardening hearts, tempting people, causing sickness and accidents, etc. in so many other places? The issues arise from our failure to accurately understand and apply the “idiom of permission” to our reading and study of this holy text. In this book, Pastor Troy J. Edwards provides the scholarly evidence that the Bible uses the idiom of permission frequently, and he discusses how the application of this idiom will resolve many issues related to our understanding of God’s character.

Finding Locke’s God

Finding Locke’s God
Author: Nathan Guy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-09-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1350103527

The portrait of John Locke as a secular advocate of Enlightenment rationality has been deconstructed by the recent 'religious turn' in Locke scholarship. This book takes an important next step: moving beyond the 'religious turn' and establishing a 'theological turn', Nathan Guy argues that John Locke ought to be viewed as a Christian political philosopher whose political theory was firmly rooted in the moderating Latitudinarian theology of the seventeenth-century. Nestled between the secular political philosopher and the Christian public theologian stands Locke, the Christian political philosopher, whose arguments not only self-consciously depend upon Christian assumptions, but also offer a decidedly Christian theory of government. Finding Locke's God identifies three theological pillars crucial to Locke's political theory: (1) a biblical depiction of God, (2) the law of nature rooted in a doctrine of creation and (3) acceptance of divine revelation in scripture. As a result, Locke's political philosophy brings forth theologically-rich aims, while seeking to counter or disarm threats such as atheism, hyper-Calvinism, and religious enthusiasm. Bringing these items together, Nathan Guy demonstrates how each pillar supports Locke's Latitudinarian political philosophy and provides a better understanding of how he grounds his notions of freedom, equality and religious toleration. Convincingly argued and meticulously researched, this book offers an exciting new direction for Locke studies.

The Wonderful Decree

The Wonderful Decree
Author: Travis James Campbell
Publisher: Lexham Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2020-01-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1683593332

Unconditionally loving. Sovereign over all. How can God be sovereign over all things and loving towards all people while His creatures possess real freedom and responsibility for their choices? Theologians have wrestled with this question for centuries. But have our attempted solutions made the problem worse? In Wonderful Decree, Travis James Campbell suggests we cannot solve the problem by sacrificing either divine sovereignty and goodness on one hand or human responsibility on the other. While considering Arminian and Molinist alternatives, he concludes that the traditional Augustinian and Calvinist approach best allows these truths to remain in a healthy and biblically-faithful tension. Inspired by the example of Spurgeon, who preferred biblical mystery over human solutions, Campbell encourages readers to trust—even delight—in the harmony of God's love for all and sovereignty over all.

God, Locke, and Liberty

God, Locke, and Liberty
Author: Joseph Loconte
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2014-02-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0739186906

“I no sooner perceived myself in the world,” wrote English philosopher John Locke, “than I found myself in a storm.” The storm of which Locke spoke was the maelstrom of religious fanaticism and intolerance that was tearing apart the social fabric of European society. His response was A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), arguably the most important defense of religious freedom in the Western tradition. In God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West, historian Joseph Loconte offers a groundbreaking study of Locke’s Letter, challenging the notion that decisive arguments for freedom of conscience appeared only after the onset of the secular Enlightenment. Loconte argues that Locke’s vision of a tolerant and pluralistic society was based on a radical reinterpretation of the life and teachings of Jesus. In this, Locke drew great strength from an earlier religious reform movement, namely, the Christian humanist tradition. Like no thinker before him, Locke forged an alliance between liberal political theory and a gospel of divine mercy. God, Locke, and Liberty suggests how a better understanding of Locke’s political theology could calm the storms of religious violence that once again threaten international peace and security. To read an interview with the author about the book on Patheos.com, see here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2015/01/10/under-locke-and-key/

John Locke's Theology

John Locke's Theology
Author: Jonathan S. Marko
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2023
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019765004X

In John Locke's Theology: An Ecumenical, Irenic, and Controversial Project, Jonathan S. Marko offers the closest work available to a theological system derived from the writings of John Locke. Marko argues that Locke's intent for The Reasonableness of Christianity, his most noted theological work, was to describe and defend his version of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and not his personal theological views. Locke, Marko says, intended the work to be an ecumenical and irenic project during a controversial time in philosophy and theology. Locke described what qualifies someone as a Christian in simple and irenic terms, and argued for the necessity of Scripture and the reasonableness of God's means of conveying his authoritative messages. The Reasonableness of Christianity could be construed as personal, but mainly in the sense that it puts the burden of understanding Scripture and arriving at theological convictions on the autonomous individual, rejecting the notion that one should base one's doctrinal opinions on so-called authorities. His work was inadvertently controversial partly because then, like today, readers typically failed to make a distinction between Locke's personal and programmatic positions. Marko also points to places in Locke's corpus where he avoids advocating for a particular sectarian position in his treatment of theological doctrines. What is more, it shows why attempting to categorize Locke--a philosopher, theologian, and political scientist all at once--according to traditional Christian paradigms is a dangerous misstep and a difficult scholarly feat.

Calvinism and the Making of the European Mind

Calvinism and the Making of the European Mind
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2014-09-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004280057

Calvinism must be assigned a significant place among the forces that have shaped modern European culture. Even now, despite its history of religious fragmentation and secularization, Europe continues to bear the marks of a pervasive Calvinist ethos. The character of that ethos is, however, difficult to pin down. In this volume, many of the traditional scholarly conundrums about the relationship between Calvinism and the cultural history of Europe are revisited and re-investigated, to see what new light can be shed on them. For example, how has the ethos of Calvinism, or more broadly the Reformed tradition, affected economic thinking and practice, the development of the sciences, views on religious toleration, or the constitution of European polities? In general, what kind of transformations did Calvinism’s distinct spirituality bring about? Such questions demand painstaking and detailed scholarly work, a fine sample of which is published in this volume.