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The fundamentals of every faith are exposed in their conceptualization of death. Recent studies have caricatured Post-Reformation Calvinist theology of death as cold and fatalistic. Jason D. Edwards examines the Reformed English Puritan John Flavels (ca. 16271691) theology of death through close analysis of his writings on mortality, dying, and eternal destiny. The spine of his doctrine was covenant theology, or how he understood the terms and applications of divine covenants, though this aspect of his theology has been largely neglected. Inquiry into Flavels treatment of death demonstrates how the Puritan minister emphasized union to Christ as Mediator as the only grounds for a believers hope. Flavel applied his theology to the spiritual needs of those facing death and dying with warmth, clarity, and conviction to anchor all hope in death upon Christ.

Sara Mannen in her book rejects the notion that Karl Barths theology makes God in the image of the modern autonomous subject and argues that his concept of divine personhood is best understood when reframed through the intellectual context that resulted from the Pantheism Controversy, which explicitly revolved around issues of the knowledge and nature of God and divine personhood. The work of Mendelssohn, Jacobi, Fichte, Herder, and Schelling created an environment that necessitated theologians address the concepts of divine personhood, divine absoluteness, and modern questions of theological epistemology. Mannen argues that Barths distinctly modern conception of divine personhood reflects and responds to this environment by providing the necessary divine ontological foundation that establishes God is capable of self-revelation without detriment to Gods absoluteness and that Barths motivation for the occasional use of counterfactual language is to maintain Gods personal nature and identity.

In his work Andreas Bergman delves into the depths of Martin Chemnitzs theological legacy, focusing on the often-neglected topic of the certainty of salvation. Through meticulous analysis and nuanced interpretation, Bergman uncovers the intricate intellectual and affective dimensions of Chemnitzs thought, exploring its implications for justification, predestination, and the broader theological landscape. By illuminating the tensions and paradoxes inherent in Chemnitzs theology, Bergman challenges readers to reevaluate fundamental assumptions about faith and salvation. Accessible yet scholarly, this monograph offers a valuable resource for academics, clergy, and lay readers seeking to deepen their understanding of Lutheran theology and its relevance for contemporary faith practice.

Calls for reformation were widespread across the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but few were as nuanced or philosophically rich as the lifelong work of Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (14011464). Cusa centralized the coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites, in our knowledge of God and the mystical institution of the Church. In his book, Michael R. Kearney traces Cusas historical impact on philosophy of communication and communication ethics with an eye toward the health of institutions in a postmodern moment of cynicism and decline. Cusa loved the church and fought passionately for its reform, energized by the "clouded vision" of a God who is beyond opposites. This champion of dialogic reformation offers churches and communities an unfinished task with a unity of contraries at its heart: upholding local narrative ground with tenacious loyalty while working in an increasingly large world.

The collective book by Lithuanian researchers presents research conducted in Lithuania on the historical and socio-cultural contexts of the Bible and the ways in which it functioned in Lithuanian writing from its beginning to the 18th century. The ways of religious communication, the dissemination of religious and social ideas in the works of theologians, the functioning of biblical texts and the ways of their transmission are shown. The articles review the problems of translating the Bible into Lithuanian and Slavic languages, consider the influence of other languages and cultures on the formation of the Lithuanian language in its early development, and address issues of editing and publishing religious writings.

This volume explores the patristic treatment of biblical characters and character. Patristic authors interpret the Bible and use it in the development of their theology and in debates on theological, Christological and ecclesiological issues.The individual contributions deal with the view of the Church Fathers on the person of Moses, with Maximus Confessors depiction of King Hezekiah, with the interpretation of the texts on the daughters of Zelophehad, with the theological interpretation of the story of Elijah on Mount Horeb, with the spiritual interpretation of the Psalms in Jeromes letters, the significance of the Psalms for the Christological argumentation in Cassiodorus, the interpretation of the Book of Job in various commentaries, the Christological interpretation of the Twelve Prophets and the understanding of the nation angels in John Chrysostom. The volume concludes with a summarising response.

In the Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Calvin claimed full agreement with Luthers doctrine of the unfree will and divine necessity. Some scholars argue however that Calvin was trying to create the appearance of unity and was embarrassed by Luthers teaching. They have also denied any substantial influence from Luther. Others argue that the Reformers discontinued their teaching on necessity in the face of criticism. Matthew Heckel defends Calvins claim to unity with Luther and that Luther had a formative influence on Calvin. The latter can be seen in the fact that Calvin followed uniquely Lutheran contributions like the denial of free choice as a misleading term, free choice only in what is under human dominion, contingency defined as chance, divine omnipotence as the actuating force of divine necessity, and the distinctions between the hidden and revealed God and law and gospel. Despite what some interpreters have said, both Reformers affirmed necessity because of sin and divine sovereignty throughout their careers. Though the Reformers believed in divine necessity, they were careful to say that God was not the author of sin either before or after the fall of humankind. While Luther and Calvin agreed on necessity imposed by sin and divine sovereignty, they affirmed that the human will is always voluntary and thus responsible for its actions. Concerning predestination, they taught its double nature respecting the elect and the reprobate, while consoling believers by pointing them to grace alone in Christthe revealed Godand Gods preservation of the elect. Differences between the Reformers are noted but true solidarity existed on the will.

King Manasseh of Judah is one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible. 2 Kings presents him as the wickedest of monarchs. In 2Kgs 24:34, he is accused of having provoked God to destroy Judah on account of the innocent blood he had shed in Jerusalem (cf. 2Kgs 21:16). In his study Krzysztof Kinowski investigates this accusation, viewing it against the biblical and ancient Near East backgrounds, and casts a new light upon Manassehs role in the fall of Jerusalem. The mention of bloodshed in this affair appears to be the outcome of a process of scapegoating of Manasseh, ongoing in 2 Kings and reflecting both the legal and the cultic paradigms governing the biblical historiography. The link between Manassehs bloodshed and the destruction of Judah on account of the cultic lands blood-defilement points towards a group of priestly scribes involved in the production of the 2Kgs 21 and 24 narratives. This assumption lies behind the scholarly discussion about the Priestly-like strata and priestly touches in the Books of Kings.

Kowalski addresses the Pauline understanding of S/spirit in Romans 8, as compared to the Stoic idea of pneuma. The author first analyzes the Stoic views on pneuma perceived in a variety of life-giving, cognitive-ethical, unifying, reproductive and inspiring functions. The aforementioned features are taken as a starting point for the comparison with Paul to which, however, the third element is added, the Jewish texts of the Second Temple period. These include the Old Testament but also The Book of Enoch, The Book of Jubilees, Qumran, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Psalms of Solomon, Philo of Alexandria, Flavius Josephus, LAB, Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Book of Ezra and 2 Book of Baruch. Such a rich comparative material contributes to the novelty of the book and enables the reader to discover both the similarities and differences between Paul, Greco-Roman and Jewish authors. The study analyzes Romans 8 in its rhetorical context and brings to light the novelty of the Pauline view of the Spirit. The apostle portrays it in its primary cognitive-ethical and communitarian function of making the believers similar to Christ and inculcating in them the Lords mindset and attitudes. Paul presents the Spirit as dwelling within a person, similarly to God inhabiting the Jerusalem temple, and as the mediator of the resurrected life. In the original Pauline take the Spirit enables a close union between God and human beings in which the latter keep their freedom and distinctive personal traits.

There are five marked quotations from Psalms in the Gospel of Matthew. These are: (1) Ps 91:112 in Matt 4:6; (2) Ps 78:2 in Matt 13:35; (3) Ps 8:3 in Matt 21:16; (4) Ps 118:2223 in Matt 21:42; and (5) Ps 110:1 in Matt 22:44. Piotr Herok argues that the investigated texts are related to each other not only by the presence of the introductory formulas, making clear that a given citation comes from Scripture, but also through mutual thematic convergence, concerning in various degrees king David, the temple, and the theme of Jesus identity. Thanks to the new literary context, in which the quotations are embedded, Matthew reinterprets them significantly while giving them a new dimension clearly distinguishing them from the rest of the psalm quotations found in his work. This aims at presenting Jesus as not only the Son of David, but first of all the Son of God.

Stefan Szymik analyses New Testament texts in terms of polemic and anti-Epicurean rhetoric. To what extent and how did Epicurus and his philosophical thought influence the first Christian Churches? How did Christians react to Epicureanism? Although the New Testament only includes one account of an encounter between the Apostle Paul and the Epicureans (Acts 17:18), the probability of their contacts was high, given the popularity of Epicureanism in the Roman Empire in the first century CE. As a vital component of Hellenistic-Roman culture, Epicureanism should be taken into account in research on the New Testament, becoming a point of reference and part of the content of comparative analyses.

This book is an in-depth examination of the pneumatology of Origen of Alexandria. Justin J. Lee argues that Origen conceives of the Holy Spirit as a divine person, but inferior in nature in both person and work. This can be discerned from his understanding of the Son and Father, as well as the influence of Middle Platonism on his theological and cosmological framework. Ontologically, Origens understanding of Trinity is a hierarchy of divine persons in which the greater ministers to the existence of the lower.Origens pneumatology can be best understood by examining how he speaks about the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit participates in the divine work of salvation, reflecting an economic Trinity of shared work and will. The Spirits primary role is to indwell and assist the saints. There are two major actions of the Holy Spirits work: (1) the downward action of God, where the Spirit is the distributor of the divine gifts and graces and (2) the Spirits upward work of revelation and sanctification, by which he leads the saints to the Son and Father. The Spirit thus serves as the practical and personal initiator of believers into the greater processes of salvation and deification.

Although many writings of Edmund Schlink (19031984) have been available in English for several decades, the publication of the new German edition offered a significant impetus for providing a fresh and more accurate translation of them.Matthew L. Becker and his co-translators have consistently translated key terms that occur in all five volumes. Also, they corrected infelicitous and misleading renderings of Schlinks language into English, which more or less happened in all the earlier editions.In this second volume Becker provides the first-ever English translation of Schlinks dogmatics. Representing the culmination of five decades of scholarly work by one of the most important theologians and ecumenists of the twentieth century, Schlinks opus magnum sets forth the "basic features" of Christian doctrine that all Christian churches hold in common. Schlinks Ecumenical Dogmatics thus offers a consistent witness to the living, triune God, who calls sinners to repentance and faith, who acts mightily to save them, and who sends them back into the world to share Gods gospel and love in word and deed.

The Old Testament is transformed from problem to ally when preachers attend to power at work in ancient and modern contexts by mirroring Second Isaiahs proclamation, listening to contemporary servant Israel, and learning from African American preaching in context of domination. This book analyses the impact of domination on Old Testament proclamation and thus leads to several unique contributions. Firstly, it reads Second Isaiah as a homiletic model for proclaiming older (pre-exilic) texts in response to exilic domination. Secondly, it treats the Old Testament as a rich resource for confronting racism and anti-Semitism though teaching and it introduces contemporary Christian-Jewish dialogue in Germany as a model for the Church. Lastly, it highlights preaching traditions within the African American Church as instructive for formulating an effective Old Testament preaching strategy.

Amandus Polanus (15611610) has often been described as a highly significant theologian, but also a neglected one. Part of Polanus significance comes from his inclusion of ethics and practical application in his discussion of theology and the way in which his theology mixes Ramist dichotomies and the scholastic distinctions common in Christian Aristotelianism. Stephen B. Tipton shows how Polanus understanding of Gods essence and attributes is built upon the ground of scripture, arranged with the aid of logical arguments and reasoning, and aimed at the worship and glory of the Triune God. Tipton defends this conclusion against previous research which suggests that Polanus theology is grounded in rationalism and subordinates the Trinity beneath an Aristotelian notion of Gods perfect unity. This research not only corrects these previous notions about Polanus, but it also provides greater insight into the early Reformed Orthodox period and the theology that arose from that time.

Richard Baxter (16151691) was arguably the greatest English Puritan of the seventeenth century. He is well known for his ministerial manual "The Reformed Pastor", in which he expressed the unusual conviction that parish ministers were better off unmarried. And yet, Baxter seemed to contradict himself by marrying one of his parishioners, Margaret Charlton. Though Baxter claimed to be happily married, he continued to champion celibacy for the rest of his life. This book explores Baxters argument for clerical celibacy by placing it in the context of his life and the turbulent events of seventeenth-century England. His viewpoint was shaped by several factors, including the Puritan literature he read, the context of his parish ministry, his burdensome model of soul care, and the formative life experiences shaping his theology and perspective. These factors not only explain why Baxter became the only Puritan to champion clerical celibacy but also why he continued to do so even after marrying.

Is Handels Messiah anti-Judaistic? The question has been coursing through the academic world for some time now. This book shows the oratorios text to be more often than not in agreement with traditional Jewish translation and commentary. Moreover, its divergences from ascribed King-James-Version and Book-of-Common-Prayer texts, in preference for those sourced by the Codex Alexandrinus and Peshitta, evidence not only librettist Charles Jennens philological prowess, but also the oratorio itself as example of eighteenth-century English scholarship at its very best.[Der Text von Handels Messiah. Eine Zeitkapsel der fruhneuzeitlichen Textkritik] Ist Handels Messiah anti-judaistisch? Die Frage bewegt zurzeit die akademische Diskussion. Die Studie zeigt, dass dieser Vorwurf ins Leere greift. Denn der Oratorientext stimmt mit traditionellen judischen Ubersetzungen und Kommentaren uberein. Die Abweichungen von der King James Version und dem Book of Common Prayer, die dem Codex Alexandrinus und der Peschitta entsprechen, beweisen nicht nur die hohe philologische Grundlichkeit des Librettisten Charles Jennens, sondern auch die ausgewogene Komposition des Oratoriums selbst. Das Libretto ist ein Beispiel bester englischer Wissenschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts.

In this retrieval study David Van Brugge addresses how the current understanding of a homiletical use of imagination for expository preaching might be strengthened. The current need for strengthening becomes apparent when the various understandings of imagination and their implications for practical theology are realized. This is compounded as trends in homiletics seem to minimize the imagination or embrace it in modern or postmodern ways.The original contribution of this study is recognizing that the homiletical use of imagination can be strengthened by retrieving the Puritan baroque characteristics of Jonathan Edwards imagination as evidenced in his sermons to the Stockbridge Indians of 17511758. Edwards drew on a rich background to display an imagination that synthesized thoughts and ideas, thought beyond the senses, and that, by the grace of God, transformed thought and practice. Through that creative thought, Edwards maintained Biblical exposition and appeal to the affections.Van Brugge further develops and evaluates the idea of Puritan baroque characteristics, concluding that it is a helpful characterization of Edwards Stockbridge Indian sermons. In these sermons Edwards imaginatively used imagery, light, space, movement, and glorification for the ultimate goal of directing the affections of his audience towards God. Such a use of imagination for affective purpose becomes a key for the strengthening of a homiletical use of imagination today.

Krzysztof Pawlina presents in his book a profile of a candidate for the priesthood who enters a seminary in Poland. The study was first conducted by survey method in 2000 and then repeated twenty years later. In the former period, the survey covered seminarians born and partly brought up during the communist rule in Poland, while in the latter, the survey subjects were young people who were brought up in the conditions of a democracy and the free market economy. The research captured the change that had taken place in regard to the social identity, lifestyle and mentality of candidates for the priesthood. The study covered aspects such as the geographical and social sources of priestly vocations, the cultural background of priesthood candidates, their religiosity, their world of values, their motivations, their understanding of the priesthood and the Church. This change in question was explored in the context of social transformations, especially the secularisation processes taking place in the last two decades of Poland.

The early Christian movement known as "Montanism" referred to itself as the "New Prophecy". This collected volume, featuring contributions from the first-ever symposium on the New Prophecy, examines the origins of the Phrygian New Prophecy during the pandemic under Marcus Aurelius, its debated presence in North Africa and its relation to Tertullian, its relationship with mainstream Christians in Asia, its female leaders, and its echoes in the writings of Lucian of Samosata, Celsus, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Honoriuss legislation. The book concludes with a systematic-theological reflection for todays churches and William Tabbernees bibliography.Contributions by Heidrun E. Mader, Bernard Doherty, Peter Lampe, David E. Wilhite, Andrew McGowan, Petr Kitzler, Megan DeVore, Barbara Crostini, Ronald E. Heine, Ilaria L.E. Ramelli, Maria DellIsola, Andrzej Wypustek, Geoffrey D. Dunn, Alistair C. Stewart, and Gyula Homoki.