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Pieter Veerman in his work explains why the Heidelberg Catechism is a unique teacher of thankfulness in its sixteenth-century context. Veerman provides an in-depth theological analysis of Q&A 115129. The author compares this teaching with Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed catechetical writings, demonstrating that the Heidelberg Catechism is a synthesis of earlier theological thought. The explanation of the Lords Prayer is central, as it is within the broader catechetical tradition. The Heidelberg Catechisms uniqueness lies in its thoughtful presentation and integration of various elements. By presenting catechetical answers in the form of prayers themselves, this catechism establishes itself as a valuable manual of piety. It differs from contemporaneous Catholic catechisms by emphasizing that true prayer arises from the heart. Its emphasis on the Holy Spirit is a distinctly Reformed feature.

However turbulent and virulent Christian-Muslim Relations may have been throughout the centuries it does not mean that each side did not take the time to evaluate and appreciate each others theological dogmas. Felipe Boechat Asseruy Silva shows that although Christians were subjected to constant attacks and invasions by the "Turks" for multiple centuries, they eventually (Early Modern Period) sought to refine their thinking about Islam and evaluate its theological tenets in a semi-dispassionate form and to provide a large-scale reply. In the Medieval period in-depth analysis of Islam, from a purely theological/philosophical point of view, were rare. Most publications frequently resorted to the use of offensive and inaccurate language, which, at times, fomented a disagreement between the parties based not on real theological differences besides the obvious political differences , but on imagined ones. This volume shows that Post-Reformation Reformed Orthodox theologians, especially those from the Dutch Republic, after having access to a long legacy of Christian-Muslim written publications collected by Dutch Universities, were able to build much more refined arguments and indeed present well informed apologetical, theological and historical arguments against Islam. The author also shows that the intense commerce between Christian and Islamic nations and the contemporary flourishing of orientalist studies in the Dutch Universities contributed to the formation of an intellectual arena that was willing to overlook past animosities and focus on the theological differences, addressing them as such.

In his book, Rebwar Audish Basa follows the canonical exegesis and focuses on a group of Psalms (113118) which is traditionally known as a unit called "the Hallel" and is used on the major Jewish liturgical feasts. The author examines the hypothesis that Pss 113118 form a single canonical unit with Ps 118 not only belonging to it but also being the climax of all the psalms of this group. A thorough investigation evaluates the unity of the Hallel and its function and message.The research concludes with the affirmation that the psalms of the Hallel are not put together arbitrarily but with a very precise intention, deep significance and main theological message. Actually, beside the uniqueness of each psalm, Basa affirms the unity of this group and the flow and the development of its themes and ideas.In the last chapter and in the conclusion, some important points regarding the unity of the Hallel are presented together with some of its significant characteristics.

Most scholars of Reformed orthodoxy devote little attention to the nineteenth century, and most students of nineteenth century Reformed thought bypass the influence of Reformed orthodox ideas on their subjects. Aligning himself with Reformed theology in nineteenth century America, Charles Hodges writings are an ideal place to bring such studies together. Hodges American context and Reformed identity illustrate the persistence and change of Reformed ideas in a post-Enlightenment context. Encompassing philosophy, science, and theology, Ryan M. McGraw traces the development of Hodges ideas with an eye both to Reformed orthodoxy and to American thought.

From his first publication of hymns in 1707, common knowledge regarding Isaac Watts (16741748) often revolves around his hymn-writing legacy. Though Watts legacy as a hymnographer is significant, he also functions as a key transitional figure between the English Puritans and the Evangelicals during eighteenth-century English dissent. As a pastor, theologian, philosopher, and literary mainstay of his era, Watts influence grew well beyond his early work in hymnody to impact scores of Christians on both sides of the Atlantic. Watts approach to Christian spirituality is an area of his thought thats been unexplored. This book provides the first ever analysis of Watts theological vision for the Christian spiritual life. In emphasizing the experience of holiness and happiness, Watts leans heavily upon his Reformed theological heritage to underscore how knowing and loving God are central to Gods preparation of the soul for heaven.

Samuel Rutherfords (1600-1661) scholastic theology has been criticized as overly deterministic and even fatalistic, a charge common to Reformed Orthodox theologians of the era. This project applies the new scholarship on Reformed Orthodoxy to Rutherfords doctrine of divine providence. The doctrine of divine providence touches upon many of the disputed points in the older scholarship, including the relationship between divine sovereignty and creaturely freedom, necessity and contingency, predetermination, and the problem of evil. Through a close examination of Rutherfords Latin works of scholastic theology, as well as many of his English works, a portrait emerges of the absolutely free and independent Creator, who does not utilize his sovereignty to dominate his subordinate creatures, but rather to guarantee their freedom. This analysis challenges the older scholarship while making useful contributions to the lively conversation concerning Reformed thought on freedom.

Insofar as the twentieth century has often been referred to as the ecumenical century, the twenty-first seems poised to become known as the century of World Christianity. Into this situation, the present study seeks to show the ongoing relevance of Wolfhart Pannenbergs ecclesiological and ecumenical proposals and, in doing so, finds that his eschatologically-oriented and historically-rooted emphasis upon an open-ended distinctiveness is exactly the kind of corrective that the emerging theological paradigm of World Christianity needs if it wants not only to stay contextually open-ended, but remain distinctively Christian in outlook and character as well. Towards that end, the book begins with the story of ecclesiologys definitional expansion (from the time of the Reformation to now) before tracing the biographical and ideational roots of Pannenbergs overall programme. The study then proceeds by outlining the main contours of Pannenbergs ecclesiology and ecumenism, especially as such pertain to World Christianity. In this regard, several facets of Pannenbergs thought are highlighted for consideration, including his understanding of the church as sign of the kingdom, his doctrine of participation in Christ, his reassertion of the churchs missionary task, his (underdeveloped) personalist and social thought-structures, his (ironically relevant) Constantinianism, his (directly relevant yet abstract) notion of creative love, and his views concerning contextualization and the ecumenical potential of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. While much that is here developed serves as a healthy corrective for an emerging theological paradigm that is still maturing, some surprising critical insights arise that also flow the other way.

Who was Jacob Latomus? What did he write in the series of lectures to which Luther penned an answer in 1521, an answer which is now so central to many interpretations of the great reformer? And how is the reading of that answer affected when it is preceded by an interpretation of what Latomus wrote?The study goes through the most important parts of Latomus treatise against Luther (1521). The aim is to identify Latomus theological convictions and thus to pin down who and what Luther was up against. The second and major part of the book is a reading of Luthers pamphlet against Latomus (1521). Parallels are drawn with Latomus theology in order to facilitate as much as possible an appreciation of the differences between the two.The comparison between the two theologians shows that they speak completely different languages and that their viewpoints do not square at all. Basically their ways depart in their understanding of Gods word and how it is communicated to man. This generates two ways of perceiving the matter of theology, and of speaking theologically : and prevents mutual understanding. Latomus cannot understand Luthers view of the autonomy of Gods word and the special character of proclamation, and hence a theology which is incompatible with natural reason. Even though he accepts a division between a natural and a supernatural rationality, and thus admits that natural reason has a limit, he grants the very same natural reason an important role in the ascent of cognition towards revelation. Everything else such as Luthers theology is a dehumanization of the human being. Luther, on the other hand, regards Latomus theology as a result of the impulse in sinful man towards ruling and controlling the word of God with his own inadequate natural abilities. In Luthers eyes that proclamation of Christ, which in the shape of a human being comes to man in contradiction of everything human, here disappears in the twinkling of an eye.

The role played by artistic, literary, historical and theological representations in the establishment of the European Reformation has attracted scholarly attention over the years. While they were generally regarded as a significant means of conveying the evangelical message, particularly in a society with a low average literacy rate, this scholarly consensus was then seriously challenged by objecting that their meaning must have remained opaque to those who couldnt read and interpret their sometimes multilayered imagery and their verbal and figurative messages. This volume, which publishes some of the papers delivered at the Fourth Reformation Research Consortium Conference held in Bologna, May 15th17th, 2014, is an attempt to examine the visual intelligibility of the European Reformation by a comparative, multiconfessional and multidisciplinary analysis of examples taken from both the Catholic and the Protestant world in the Early Modern and Modern Era, with particular reference to the figurative arts, but also to history and theology. All the case studies included here examine their peculiar subjects with regard to their religious and artistic contexts, in order to understand their historical significance in a new fashion, combining approaches from political history, history of arts, historiography, anthropology, philosophy and theology. Thus, the volume offers a very rich outline of how visual culture and representation through arts was embodied in very different cultural portraits and images.

This volume contains the plenary papers and a selection of shortpapers from the Seventh Annual RefoRC conference, which was held May 1012th 2017 in Wittenberg. The contributions concentrate on the effects of Luthers new theology and draw the lines from Luthers contemporaries into the early seventeenth century. Developments in art, catholic responses and Calvinistic reception are only some of the topics. The volume reflects the interdisciplinarity and interconfessionality that characterizes present research on the 16th century reformations and underlines the fact that this research has not come to a conclusion in 2017. The papers in this conference volume point to lacunae and will certainly stimulate further research.Contributors: Wim François, Antonio Gerace, Siegrid Westphal, Edit Szegedi, Maria Lucia Weigel, Graeme Chatfield, Jane Schatkin Hettrick, Marta Quatrale, Aurelio A. Garcia, Jeannette Kreijkes, Csilla Gabor, Gabor Ittzes, Balazs David Magyar, Tomoji Odori, Gregory Soderberg, Herman A. Speelman, Izabela Winiarska-Gorska, Erik A. de Boer, Donald Sinnema, Dolf te Velde.

In very different ways the writings of the New Testament have shaped cultures until today. The Novum Testamentum Patristicum project will give a full documentation of ancient Christian receptions of the New Testament in late antiquity. This volume focuses on the different mainly narrative receptions of New Testament texts in ancient Christian apocryphal literature. While it has been accepted for a long time that apocryphal writings mainly wanted to fill the gaps of New Testament texts in more or less fantastic ways, the articles in this volume discover a rich and very different variety of re-writings, relectures, and receptions of New Testament texts, motifs and ideas.

Aleksander Krogevoll offers the first extensive study on El Shadday. This includes the most thorough review of all etymologies proposed for Shadday and the most extensive examination on the use and meaning of Shadday in the Hebrew Bible. The author challenges the views that Shadday was unique to the Priestly source or that Priestly source invented the epithet. He supports the etymology of Shaddai being the Akkadian adu, "mountain." By tracing the epithet adu from Akkadian where it was attached to Enlil and Dagan to the Ugaritic El, Krogevoll presents a new hypothesis for how Shadday was introduced into Hebrew. This work is the first book-length study on the equation between El Shadday and Yahweh. Other scholars have proposed that their shared mountain motifs played a part in the equation, but this work is the first study to examine the equation through the lens of the shared mountain motifs at length.

God created the world out of love and for love. Creation especially created man is an image of the Holy Trinity. Trinitarian theology shows communal features of the process of evolution, of times, space, and freedom, the personal specificity of the creative action of the Persons of God, and an eschatological perspective of matter and history.The created human person integrates body and soul, sexual and social dimensions, and is open to God. Because of human sin, Christ redeemed humankind and called everyone to cooperate in the communion of the Church and to eschatological fulfillment in God. In the face of environmental crisis, eco-theology integrates theological anthropology and describes different models of the relationship between man and Creation: man as master of Creation, a servant of Creation, and a "priest of creation." Characterizing this monograph perspective of communion helps develop environmental ethos and culture.

When focusing on the sapiential traits in text of the Fourth Gospel, it should be noted that in its images of wine, water, and bread, connected by the common theme of eating and drinking, one can see Jesus the Giver, who, like the Old Testament personified wisdom, bestows his gifts on man. Although single references to the Old Testament sapiential texts have been suggested for the Johannine images of wine, water, bread, light, and the vine, no detailed study of these images, as well as their juxtapositions even in the aspect of eating and drinking, has been published so far. The selected topic seems to be important for showing a comprehensive approach to the Johannine banquet motif in its sapiential aspect, broken down into particular Johannine images, which are the events related to wine, water, and bread. It is ultimately significant to present Jesus full identity through these three metaphors, referring to the personified and preexisting wisdom as described in the Old Testament sapiential literature.

There is no doubt that Jerusalem in the Bible is a city of great historical and theological significance. However, many modern readers are unaware that authors writing in Greek used its two names, Ierousalem and Heriosolyma. Among the few who used both names simultaneously is Luke the Evangelist. Commentators of this onomastic phenomenon have tried to explain this fact in various ways, referring to Lukes literary and theological choices or denying its meaning altogether. Krzysztof Mielcareks monograph proposes a new view and explanation of this phenomenon in a theological-historical key. In his opinion, Lukes choices may be underpinned by his deep immersion in the world and terminological richness of the Septuagint, as well as important historical events that influenced the perception of the Holy City by the Hellenistic Jewish community and later also by the early Christians.

In the light of the research undertaken in this book the author concludes that the so called "anti-Jewish" texts in Johannine Gospel are not directed against the Jews being an ethnic or religious community. The object of the polemic and attacks is not the entire Jewish nation across the span of all the ages but a group of the Jewish leaders or opponents to Jesus in the First Century AD. Looking through the prism of the aposynagogal polemics, one can notice that the state of tension between the Johannine community and the rabbinic Judaism is inter-Jewish, not anti-Jewish, in character. The source of the polemical language of the Fourth Gospel is the Christological discussion in the historical and sociological context (the Messianic confession, the excommunication from the Synagogue, the presence of Samaritans in the Johannine community, the struggle for the preservation of the identity).

For centuries it has been discussed whether systematic theology is a scientific discipline. But it is not obvious what is meant by either "systematic theology" or "scientific discipline". Michael Agerbo Mrch presents an understanding of systematic theology as a tripartite discipline and science as a rationally justified public discourse about a given topic. Systematic theology is shown to meet the most generally accepted criteria for scientific work, since its theories can be tested and even falsified in an intersubjective setting. This can be done by the most proper tool we have for assessing and comparing scientific theories, which is coherence theory. Therefore, even though systematic theology is a distinct and normative discipline, it is not compromising for its theories because it can present its theses in a transparent way that can be checked and criticized by peers and compared to relevant alternatives. As such, the book shows that systematic theology is a scientifically strong discourse that meets accepted criteria to the same degree as other disciplines.

This volume contains the papers of the international RefoRC conference on Reformed Majorities and Minorities in Early Modern Europe as it was organized by the Johannes a Lasco Bibliothek, Emden in cooperation with the Faculty of Artes Liberales of the University of Warsaw. The conference took place April 10-12, 2013 in Emden and was part of the research project Doctrina et Tolerantia directed by the Johannes a Lasco Bibliothek. The contributions in this volume deal with the question how the relation between doctrine and toleration was dealt with in territories with a Reformed majority. Did the refugee-experience of the Reformed make them tolerant or militant? How did official policy relate to everyday practice? Were there different opinions on this issue within the Reformed tradition? The answers to these questions give more insights into the diversity of international Calvinism and the way theory was put into practice.

Korinna Zamfir explores the manner in which the Pastoral Epistles redefine roles and ministries within a changed ecclesiological framework (the ekkl?sia as oikos Theou). The contextual investigation focuses on the cultural and social background of the station codes and church orders. Applying the environmental approach advanced by Abraham MalherbeZamfir discusses the Pastoral Epistles as writings intimately linked to their Greco-Roman social and cultural environment. The volume addresses the mentalities reflected in moral philosophies, political theories, drama and epigraphy, focusing on the discourse articulated in these sources. Exploring the adoption of conservative mentalities, the monograph advances a reading of the Pastoral Epistles based on ideology critique. It also incorporates insights gained from research on the social world of earliest Christianity, in particular on private associations.Korinna Zamfir argues that the ecclesiology of the Pastoral Epistles presupposes the metaphorical use of oikos Theou and shows that in Greco-Roman antiquity oikos denotes larger social entities like the religious association, the polisand the cosmos. The ekkl?sia is the oikos and polis of God. As a consequence the Pastoral Epistles define roles and ministries based on the public-private divide and on honor and shame mentality. The theo-logical and cosmic dimension of the household of Godexplains the essentialist understanding of social and ecclesial roles. The author also tackles the contrast between discourse and ecclesial reality.

Arnold Huijgen analyses und assesses the idea of divine accommodation in John Calvins theology. He proves that Calvins idea of accommodation was terminologically influenced by Erasmus, while its content originated in patristic theology. Though Calvins idea of accommodation is multifaceted, Huijgen subsumes and analyzes it in the light of the two main perspectives of pedagogy and revelation. The pedagogical aspect relates to Calvins understanding of salvation history, and the relation between the Old and the New Testament. In this perspective Christ as the mediator holds a central position. The aspect of revelation focuses on Calvins comprehension of Gods nature which for him is behind Gods revelation. Calvins understanding of accommodation implies a distinct dynamic to revelation, which is disrupted by its static, hierarchical ontology. Huijgen points out the weaknesses of Calvins idea of accommodation on the basis of modern critiques by Karl Barth, Isaak August Dorner, and Harry M. Kuitert; he also explores the viable points for present day theology.