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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Communion is a dynamic reality love, unity of life, mutual penetration, the closest union. The Holy Spirit is the Communion within the Trinity and forms the communion between God, man and the world, between people, in the Church and within whole reality of this world.Showing pneumatology as a dimension of the entire dogmatic theology determines the originality of this monograph. Typically, theologians focused their works on pneumatology itself. Marek Jagodziskis monograph is especially up to date since the pentecostal awakening in Christianity carries certain dangers. They take the forms of over-exposing the Holy Spirit at the expense of the Son of God, overly simplified ecumenism, emphasising charisms over the institution and putting personal experience over the community faith of the Church. The study is not only a presentation of ideas but brings new and inspiring elements to the scientific discussion. It is an original and creative contribution to the theoretical achievements of theology as a discipline of science. The dissertation brings a new name for the Third Divine Person Communion in the Holy Trinity. Communion reflects the mission of the Holy Spirit which embraces the Church and the sacraments, voices a golden mean between forgetting about the Holy Spirit and the Joachimism of proclaiming the era of the Holy Spirit. The monograph justifies the simultaneous existence of Christology and pneumatology, brings a new perspective on Filioque and is of significance for ecumenism.

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.

The book presents many aspects of the phenomenon of translation and commentary work of the Bible in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th centuries. It contains studies of eminent scholars as well as of some young adepts, coming mainly from Poland, but also from Lithuania and Czech Republic. The texts present various aspects of the researches conducted on this phenomenon nowadays. As it was an exceptional movement, extremely varied and long-time lasting, it would be difficult to offer its complete synthesis in one volume. Though, the exhaustive presentation of the historical and linguistic contexts allows the reader to understand the phenomenon. Intensified interest in translations of the Bible is closely connected with the interest in the Polish language, its literary expression as well as its grammatical and orthographic standardisation that occurred just in the same time. The intellectual activity related to the Bible contributed simultaneously to the development of the Polish literary language and even inspired the translations of the sacred texts of other religions present in the country. Moreover, contacts between different languages of Central and Eastern European area, where many attempts of new translations appeared, are very important. A quick rise of the different Reformation movements contributed to a natural need for new translations and commentaries to be used by community members. These new currents, first easily accepted and spread in the country, even when suppressed, could not stop this activity, and later new Catholic translations and commentaries of the post-Trident period, both in Polish and Lithuanian, proved it. Big part of study is also dedicated to particular typographical realizations of this activity and an interesting example of the musical expression directly inspired by the biblical translation, is also provided.

This present volume aims to stimulate Bucer-research as it brings together a selection of the best of De Kroons and Vant Spijkers articles some of which appear for the first time in English translation. In the first section Bucer is described as taking his independent stand in the patristic and scholastic tradition. The next five articles go into the close personal and theological relation between Bucer and John Calvin and make clear how much of Bucer works through in Calvin and Calvinism. Bucers efforts to bridge theological and ecclesiastical gaps brought him often in discussion with catholic as well as protestant theologians. How he dealt with this is the topic of the third section in this volume. The two following articles deal with his view on discipline and on the right of resistance. The next articles deal with Bucers doctrinal legacy and the last section focuses on sanctification as one of the most important characteristics of his theology.The most important issues of contemporary Bucer-research and the outlines of his theology are convincingly presented in this volume by known experts for this topic.

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).

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.

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.

Jonathan Edwards engaged in notable ways with the church in Germany through his writings on spirituality, theology and missiology, but this contribution has rarely been acknowledged in academic publications. In this book scholars who have an interest in both Edwards and the church in Europe offer contributions to a significant worldwide conversation on Edwardss texts and teachings. He found an ally in Martin Luther, sought out encouragement from German Pietists, and engaged with Western traditions of philosophy which proved useful in sharpening subsequent reflection on Gods work in the world. Edwards was not just a remote colonial American pastor, but an active participant in the transatlantic republic of letters and contributed to the birth of the global missions movement, for which the church in Germany was itself a significant base.

Antonio Gerace dealt with the development of biblical scholarship in Louvain by analysing with seven authors who worked in the first part of the Sixteenth century and who are strictly linked to the Louvain milieu. In chronological order, they include Nicholas Tacitus Zegers (c.14951559), John Henten (14991566), Cornelius Jansenius of Ghent, Adam Sasbout, John Hessels (15221566), Thomas Stapleton, and Francis Lucas of Bruges. Each author offered key-contributions that can effectively show the development of Catholic biblical scholarship in that period. This can be divided into three main thematic areas: 1) Text-criticism of the Latin Vulgate; 2) Exegesis of the Scriptures; and 3) Preaching of the Bible. Somehow, these three areas represent the study flow of the Scriptures: the emendation of the Vulgate, aimed at restoring the text to a hypothetical original, and the philological approach to the Greek and Hebrew sources allowing for a better comprehension of the Bible. Such comprehension becomes the basis of commentaries made with the intention of explaining the meaning of the Scriptures to the faithful in the light of the Tradition. Furthermore, the Church needed to preach the Scriptures and their contents to the Catholic flock in order to safeguard them from any heretical influence. Therefore, several homiletic works appeared so that priests could prepare their sermons appropriately. Therefore, Gerace divided his work into three parts, each devoted to one of the three research areas, following the study-flow of the Scriptures.

Darren M. Pollock examines the 1611 Romans hexapla commentary by the prolific Church of England preacher and controversialist Andrew Willet. While some have considered Willets later biblical commentaries to have been a retreat from his earlier engagement in religious controversy, the author argues that his exegetical work maintained a significant element of anti-Catholic polemics, only expressed in a different genre. This polemical hermeneutic served as an organizing principle and as a means by which to clarify the presentation of traditional Reformed readings in relief against a body of Roman Catholic theology that Willet believed threatened the gospel of grace. Paulos letter provided ample opportunity for Willet to identify what is distinctive about Reformed theology or rather, as Willet would have it, the particular ways in which papist dogma had diverged from the true line of Christian belief running from the Fathers through to the (truly catholic) Reformed church of the seventeenth century.Willets exegesis highlights many of the polemical issues that had long been contended between Protestants and Catholics, including the authentic versions of the bible, Scriptures attributes, and principles of interpretation, as well as doctrines like justification, predestination, the assurance of salvation, and the place of good works. A close investigation into Willets exegetical method also helps to see how an identifiable hermeneutical lens is consistent with a disciplined reading that is faithful to the text. His polemical focus does not corrupt his exegesis or force upon it meanings that are alien to the text itself; rather, his polemical hermeneutic serves to focus his attention and frame positive doctrinal statements against the sharp contrast of alternate readings.

Biblische Frauen spielen eine bedeutende Rolle in verschiedenen Genres patristischen Schrifttums und in rabbinischen Texten: Etwa als Vorbilder fur Frauen, manchmal auch fur Manner, als Reprasentantinnen bestimmter Tugenden oder Laster, als Autoritaten in Streitfragen, als Ausgangspunkt fur bestimmte Praktiken. Die Bilder, die die (fast immer mannlichen) Autoren von den biblischen Frauen zeichnen, spiegeln stets den zeitgenossischen sozialen, kulturellen und religiosen Kontext wider, besonders im Hinblick auf weit verbreitete antike Vorstellungen uber Frauen und uber das Verhaltnis der Geschlechter zueinander. Der Sammelband fragt nach der Prasenz und Sichtbarkeit bzw. Horbarkeit und nach dem Bild biblischer Frauen in den spatantiken Texten. Er enthalt Beitrage zu Rahab, zur agyptischen Frau des Salomo, zur Geliebten des Hoheliedes, zu Judit, den vier Tochtern des Philippus und den Myrophoren der Evangelien, die Salben zu Jesu Grab bringen, und untersucht die Rezeption dieser biblischen Frauen in verschiedenen patristischen und rabbinischen Texten.

Stephen J. Hamilton attempts to create a "portrait" of "born-again" Christianity by providing a general introduction to the doctrine of regeneration, including its development in modernity, as well as short exegeses of relevant scriptural texts, followed by a close reading of four theologians Philipp Jakob Spener, Jonathan Edwards, Friedrich D.E. Schleiermacher, and Charles G. Finney who all associate the doctrine of regeneration with an experience of presence in the individual believer.In light of these analyses, he then traces a general theological structure of the "born-again" understanding of regeneration, including a catalogue of theological issues over which there is significant disagreement, in order to create a topography of "born-again" theologies. In the final section, he applies these results to contemporary conversion narratives of non-theologians. It is in such conversion narratives, the author argues, that theologians can discover an implicit, "lived" theology that reveals how doctrines are perceived and put into practice among Christians. Accordingly, this is to be understood as the result of the creative reciprocity between (often tacit) theological convictions and the experiences of the Christian life. The final chapter, as a coda to the entire work, offers some concluding reflections on the present cultural and political situation in the USA pertaining to "born-again" Christianity and argues against any oversimplifications of the relationship between "born-again" theologies, culture, and politics.