LITMIR.BIZ

Recent studies have increasingly downplayed, and in a few cases even wholly denied, the influence of Martin Luther's theology of Law and Gospel on early English evangelicals such as William Tyndale. The impact of a late medieval Augustinian renaissance, Erasmian Humanism, the Reformed tradition, and Lollardy have all but eclipsed the more central role once attributed to Luther. Whiting reexamines these claims with a thorough reevaluation of Luther's theology of Law and Gospel in its historical context spanning twenty-five years, something entirely lacking in all previous studies. Based on extensive research in the primary sources, with acute attention to the larger historical narrative and in dialogue with secondary scholarship, Whiting argues that scholars have often oversimplified Luther's theology of Law and Gospel and have thus wrongly diminished his very significant, even principal, influence upon first-generation evangelicals William Tyndale, John Frith, and Robert Barnes during the English Reformation of the 1520s and 30s.

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As «evangelicals» face future challenges, many are turning back to the ancient church for inspiration. But these ancient-future approaches remain diverse and sometimes even at odds with one another. This volume demonstrates and analyzes the complexity of such contemporary church-early church engagements. Six scholars share diverse insights from the Patristic period, including lessons on evangelism and discipleship, community formation and maintenance, use of the «rule of faith,» the preaching of social ethics, responses to cultural opposition, and Christological development. The volume closes with two critical responses, from confessional Lutheran and Baptist perspectives. These collected essays will remind contemporary readers of the importance of a reflective and responsible ressourcement of Patristic wisdom.
With contributions from:
Rex D. Butler  Francis X. Gumerlock  Bryan M. Litfin Brian J. Matz W. Brian Shelton Edward Smither Glen L. Thompson

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The post-millennial vision of nineteenth century America led to greater educational opportunities for women, but these were focused on women's domestic efficacy in developing «messianic mothers» to help create the kingdom of God on earth. Yet, by embracing the doctrine of sanctification, Wesleyan Holiness women were able to move from «women's sphere» (domesticity) to the public sphere (public ministry), which they had come to see as their intended place. Not only did they make this shift for themselves, but they created Christian institutions of higher education that provided opportunities for both women and men to prepare for public ministry.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new force would enable women to further demonstrate their equality in the work of the Lord. In 1901, the Pentecostal movement was ushered in when Agnes Nevada Ozman became the first person in the modern era to speak in tongues. This movement saw the promise and fulfillment of equal empowerment of men and women for service by the Holy Spirit, which sent individuals throughout the world to further the kingdom of God. As the theological shift from a postmillennial to a premillennial view occurred, opportunity became necessity as priority was given to the creation of schools to prepare ministers to reach lost souls before the return of Jesus. The founding of such schools was pioneered by Wesleyan Holiness and Pentecostal women who carried the torch as their movement grew into the twentieth century.
This book compiles the inspiring stories of some of the most notable women who, from society's perspective stepped outside established roles to claim a significant place in the history of American higher education.

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Despite the voluminous and ever-growing scholarly literature on Karl Barth, penetrating accounts of his theological method are lacking. In an attempt to fill this lacuna, Todd Pokrifka provides an analysis of Barth's theological method as it appears in his treatment of three divine perfections–unity, constancy, and eternity–in Church Dogmatics, II/1, chapter VI. In order to discern the method by which Barth reaches his doctrinal conclusions, Pokrifka examines the respective roles of Scripture, tradition, and reason–the «threefold cord»–in this portion of the Church Dogmatics. In doing so he finds that for Barth Scripture functions as the authoritative source and basis for theological critique and construction, and tradition and reason are functionally subordinate to Scripture. Yet Barth employs a predominantly indirect way of relating Scripture and theological proposals, a way in which tradition and reason play important «mediatory» roles. Barth's approach to theology involves the humble yet serious attempt to «redescribe God,» that is, to say again on a human level what God has already said in the divine self-revelation attested in Scripture.
Redescribing God features an original conceptual framework for the analysis of Barth's method and an extensive application of that framework in the context of close readings of portions of the Church Dogmatics. Through this process it draws from, critiques, and complements a wide variety of Barth scholarship on topics such as the role of Scripture and theological exegesis in Barth, the role of tradition in Barth, the meaning and role of «reason» in Barth, and the nature of Barth's doctrine of divine perfections. The book also provides a fruitful basis for those who wish to learn from Barth's distinctive way of constructing the Christian doctrine of God as an attempt to obey God's self-revelation.

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What does the Bible say about forgiveness? It is a major subject in Scripture, but it has been strangely overlooked by biblical scholars. Forgiveness is the amazing way that alienation can be healed and guilt assuaged, and there is an extensive literature on the subject, written largely by psychologists, pastoral counselors, and philosophers, but until now anyone searching those many books for a thorough treatment of the Bible's message would have been frustrated. Now in a clear and concise form, Donald E. Gowan has offered a survey of all that the Bible says about this crucial subject-from Genesis to Revelation.

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Western culture is changing. Postmodern exigencies are encroaching on all aspects of our lived experiences. With them, these exigencies bring tremendous pressures and challenges to Spiritual Leadership-challenges that must be met and overcome, lest this traditional institution render itself out-dated and outmoded.
We are now confronted with the advent of an empowered, educated, and democratically geared population-an epistemological culture that is engaged in its own determination, that has information at its fingertips, that feels entitled to its own points of view, that passionately pursues its own development, and that wants to feel validated in all these pursuits. Postmodern Western society expects its Spiritual Leaders to be able to engage it at a level of depth that is sufficiently cogent to honor individual complexity, personal trajectory and evolution, philosophical differences, scientific relevance, empirical cogency, cultural sensitivity, religious background, emotional inheritance, and existential mystery. It is a sophisticated and elegant culture, steeped in autonomous entitlement and ready to easily discard that which it feels is no longer useful.
In the face of such a stark and startling challenge, what can Spiritual Leaders do to keep up? How do we approach our work when so much is demanded of us? How do we conceive of our vocation in such as way as to avoid the slide into potential cultural 'obsolescence'?
This book sets forth a framework of spiritual growth and spiritual leadership that addresses these very issues. In its pages, cherished traditional messages are interwoven with post-modern therapeutic and care-giving outlooks, resulting in a product that is a must read for Spiritual Leaders today.
Spiritual Leadership must find a way to remain relevant, cogent, and integrated as it toils to disseminate its essential message of growth and transformation into this post-modern world. This book tells us how.

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Lane provides a canonical analysis of the credo of Exodus 34:6-7 and its major parallels in the Hebrew Bible. He argues that the credo was an important theological expression for the ancient Israelites and that the final form of the Tanak is marked by the use of the credo. These uses in the final form of the canon give evidence of the theological tension over the presence of the foreigners in the postexilic community. And this tension is marked by the use of the credo in texts that emphasize YHWH's covenantal relationship with ancient Israel (Torah), movement toward the nations (Prophets), and YHWH as king over the whole earth (Psalms).

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Gadamer's Path to Plato investigates the formative years of Hans-Georg Gadamer's Plato studies, while studying with Martin Heidegger at Marburg University. It outlines the evolution of Heidegger's understanding of Plato, explains why his hermeneutics and phenomenological method inspired Gadamer, and why Heidegger's argument, that Plato was responsible for Western civilization's forgetting the meaning of existence, provoked him.
Heidegger's provocation was crucial to the development of Gadamer's understanding of Plato. This book thus puts forward an argument for Gadamer's having indirectly refuted Heidegger's Plato. This involves a dialogical relationship to the past and a re-examination of the relation of Plato to Aristotle in matters of ethics, physics, and truth. Above all, however, it is Gadamer's concept of Platonic dialectic that refutes Heidegger.
This challenge to Heidegger's Plato was commensurate with the origination of Gadamer's positive hermeneutical philosophy. In order to test the alleged openness of that philosophy to the other as other Gadamer's reading of the Republic is scrutinized by using the brilliant scholarship of Stanley Rosen. An examination of their interpretations of the Republic includes an inquiry into their intellectual influences. For Gadamer these include Hegel, the Tubingen school and Jacob Klein; for Rosen, the poetic genius of Leo Strauss. Rosen's mathematical and poetic orientation is then compared to Gadamer's dialectical orientation to Plato.
The mathematical approach dovetails with a theory of human nature and procedural rationalism in Gadamer's hermeneutical philosophy that explains why he, in contrast to Rosen, bypasses important dimensions of the Republic such as the significance of particular characters and settings to understanding the whole. In turn, this methodological shortcoming calls into question the truth of Gadamer's method and, with it, the foundations of a truly open and pluralist society.

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This book offers an introduction to some of the fundamental themes of theology. From the very beginning, however, it insists on the contribution to be found in the different Christian traditions. The reader is enabled to view these traditions as part of a common heritage. Drawing on the wealth of these understandings of what it is to be Christian can be an inspiration for those from very different church structures, and even for people who seek to understand their own spiritual journey and search for God, without identifying themselves or their journey with any particular church. A number of important theological questions are covered in the book. It starts with a look at theological method before examining the idea of divine revelation. This is followed by investigating the nature of authority and authorities in different churches and where these coincide and come into conflict. The historical and cultural contexts of theology and its roots in religious experience are also examined. Each theme has a biblical and patristic part, as well as a genuinely reciprocal discussion involving contemporary Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theologians.

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Divino Companero explores the necessary foundations for constructing a Hispanic Pentecostal Christology. Although traditionally Pentecostal Christologies have been anchored in a two-nature Chalcedonian model, Alfaro proposes that Spirit-Christology is a more suitable paradigm for a Hispanic Pentecostal Christology, provided it is grounded in the experience, faith, and worship of its community and oriented toward liberative praxis. After reviewing the christological reflection of early Pentecostals and the contemporary turn to Spirit-Christology, Alfaro lays out the main components needed to construct a christological model born out of the Hispanic Pentecostal reality, rooted in the broader Pentecostal christological imagination, and informed by the Pentecostal way of doing theology. Following this method, Alfaro concludes the central metaphor of Hispanic Pentecostal Christology is El Divino Companero, for in their pilgrimage through this world it is Jesus, the Divine Companion, who through the Spirit guides and nurtures his followers on their way back home.

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