Anselm's Pursuit of Joy

Anselm's Pursuit of Joy
Author: Gavin R. Ortlund
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0813232759

The interpretation of Anselm of Canterbury’s Proslogion has a long and rich tradition. However, its study is often narrowly focused on its so-called “ontological argument.” As a result, engagement with the text of this work tends to be lopsided, and the prayerful purpose that undergirds the whole book is often completely ignored. Even the most rigorous engagements with the Proslogion often have little to say, for instance, about how the prayers of Proslogion 1, 14, and 18 contribute materially to Anselm’s argument, or how his doctrine of God develops organically from the divine formula in the early chapters to the doctrines of eternity, simplicity, and Trinity in later chapters. There are very few works that offer a sustained analysis to Anselm’s flow of thought throughout the entire Proslogion, and no one has explored how Anselm’s doctrine of creaturely joy in heaven in Proslogion 24-26 is a fitting climax and resolution to the book. Anselm’s Pursuit of Joy attempts a sustained, chapter-by-chapter textual analysis of the Proslogion, and offers the first effort to situate Anselm’s doctrine of heaven in Proslogion 24-26 as the climax of the earlier themes of Anselm’s work. Gavin Ortlund suggests that the basic purpose of Anselm’s argument in the Proslogion is to seek the visio Dei that he articulates as his soul’s deepest desire (Proslogion 1). While Anselm’s argument for God’s existence (Proslogion 2-4) is an important piece of this effort, it is only one step of a larger trajectory of thought that leads Anselm to meditate further on God’s nature as the highest good of the human soul (Proslogion 5-23), and then to anticipate the joy of possessing God in heaven (Proslogion 24-26). In other words, the establishment of God’s existence is only the penultimate consequence of Anselm’s famous formula “that than which nothing greater can be thought”—his ultimate concern is with the infinite creaturely joy that is entailed by his existence. The Proslogion is, far more than an argument for God’s existence, a meditation on God as the chief happiness of the human soul.

To Gaze upon God

To Gaze upon God
Author: Samuel Parkison
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2024-09-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1514007673

Though the doctrine of the beatific vision has woefully been forgotten in the church today, Samuel Parkison argues that the beatific vision is central for the life of the church today. Through close readings of Aquinas, Dante, Calvin, and more, Parkison reminds us of the beatific vision's historical and contemporary significance.

The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness

The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness
Author: Brent A. Strawn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2012-09-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199795770

Scholars of the social sciences have devoted increasing attention of late to the concept of human happiness, mainly from sociological and psychological perspectives. This groundbreaking volume, which includes twelve essays from scholars of the New Testament, the Old Testament, systematic theology, practical theology, and counseling psychology-along with an extensive introduction and epilogue by the editor-poses a new and exciting question: what is happiness according to the Bible? Informed by developments in positive psychology, the contributions explore representations of happiness throughout the Bible and demonstrate the ways in which they impinge upon both religious and secular understandings of happiness.

Love Become Incarnate: Essays in Honor of Bruce D. Marshall

Love Become Incarnate: Essays in Honor of Bruce D. Marshall
Author: Marcia Colish
Publisher: Emmaus Academic
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2023-01-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1645852709

Love Become Incarnate is a Festschrift in honor of Bruce D. Marshall, Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology. Marshall is one of the most significant Catholic theologians in the English-speaking world. His work exemplifies an intentionally Catholic theology that makes fearless use of the fullness of truth—wherever it may be found—in conscious service to the Church. Marshall has made significant contributions to the doctrine of the Trinity, Christology, Pneumatology, ecclesiology, ecumenism, Jewish-Christian dialogue, and fundamental theology. St. Thomas Aquinas has been his most constant theological companion, although he has also advanced our understanding of Saints Augustine and Anselm, John Duns Scotus, Martin Luther, Matthias Joseph Scheeben, Karl Barth, and other major figures. Marshall has carefully developed a unique, powerful, and wide-ranging theology of the primacy of Christ over all things. It is this same Christ who is the love of God become incarnate. This series of essays by Marcia Colish, J. Augustine Di Noia, Paul Griffiths, Reinhard Hütter, Matthew Levering, and others engage and advance Marshall’s ranging contributions to historical and systematic theology.

The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin: Volume 2, 1066–1500

The Cambridge Anthology of British Medieval Latin: Volume 2, 1066–1500
Author: Carolinne White
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2024-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316953173

This anthology presents in two volumes a series of Latin texts (with English translation) produced in Britain during the period AD 450-1500. Excerpts are taken from Bede and other historians, from the letters of women written from their monasteries, from famous documents such as Domesday Book and Magna Carta, and from accounts and legal documents, all revealing the lives of individuals at home and on their travels across Britain and beyond. It offers an insight into Latin writings on many subjects, showing the important role of Latin in the multilingual society of medieval Britain, in which Latin was the primary language of written communication and record and also developed, particularly after the Norman Conquest, through mutual influence with English and French. The thorough introductions to each volume provide a broad overview of the linguistic and cultural background, while the individual texts are placed in their social, historical and linguistic context.

The Oxford Handbook of Deification

The Oxford Handbook of Deification
Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 753
Release: 2024-06-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0192634453

Modern theological engagements on deification have undergone two major paradigm shifts. First, the study of deification shifted from the periphery of theological discourse to its center. For Adolf von Harnack, deification was a pagan import that fatally corrupted and distorted the Gospel message of salvation. In response, the positive retrieval of the concept of deification belongs to the early years of the twentieth century. By the 1910s in Russian religious thought and by the 1930s in much Roman Catholic theology, deification had become a magnet concept attracting attention from many different viewpoints. The second important shift relates to how deification is characterized. Recent studies question the exclusively 'Eastern' character of deification and draw attention to the engagements of this theme in Latin patristic and later Western Christian sources. Reassessing the evidence for these two major shifts, The Oxford Handbook of Deification comprehensively explores the points of convergence and difference on the constitutive elements of deification in different traditions, and offers a foundation for ecumenical and interreligious dialogues. The Handbook's first part analyzes the cultural and scriptural roots of deification; the second part explores the most significant historical contributions to the understanding of deification in the early, medieval, and modern periods; the third part develops systematic connections. Readers will discover a surprizing breadth, depth, and diversity of theologies of deification in Christian traditions. Throughout the Handbook, leading scholars in the field of Deification Studies propose vital new insights from a variety of perspectives for this central mystery at the heart of the Christian faith.

Natural Theology

Natural Theology
Author: Geerhardus Vos
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2022-03-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1601789092

Biblical and natural theology may not appear to mix, but the two actually do belong together. Vos’s reputation as the father of contemporary biblical theology is not negated by his earlier teaching of natural theology, appearing here for the first time in English. Gathered from source material found in the Heritage Hall archives at Calvin Seminary and University, these are the earliest notes of Vos’s lectures on natural theology. They demonstrate his understanding of Reformed orthodox approaches as well as extensive knowledge of contemporary developments in the subject. The present volume could be regarded as, and may have formed, a partial introduction to Reformed Dogmatics since it lacks a prolegomenon and because Natural Theology discusses religion and the proofs for the existence of God.

Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals

Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals
Author: Gavin Ortlund
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2019-11-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433565293

Restless for rootedness, many Christians are abandoning Protestantism altogether. Many evangelicals today are aching for theological rootedness often found in other Christian traditions. Modern evangelicalism is not known for drawing from church history to inform views on the Christian life, which can lead to a "me and my Bible" approach to theology. But this book aims to show how Protestantism offers the theological depth so many desire without the need for abandoning a distinctly evangelical identity. By focusing on particular doctrines and neglected theologians, this book shows how evangelicals can draw from the past to meet the challenges of the present.