The Works of Jacobus Arminius Volume 2 - Private Disputations


Book Description

A series of private disputation and letters, the second book in this three volume set starts to show another view on the Bible that challenges the works of John Calvin, Martin Luther and others. The aspect of self-determinism and the role of sin in a believer's life are dominant in Arminius's thinking while the other theologians in his time were focusing on the idea of determinism in the role of Biblical theology.







Love Divine


Book Description

Love Divine provides a systematic account of the deep and rich love that God has for humans. While the associated theological territory is vast, the objective is to contend for a unified paradigm regarding fundamental issues pertaining to the God of love who deigns to share His life of love with any human willing to receive it. Realizing this objective includes clarifying and defending specific conclusions concerning how the doctrine of divine love should be approached, what God's love is, what role love plays in motivating God's creation and subsequent governance of humans, how God's love of humans factors into His emotional life, which humans it is that God loves in a saving manner, what the punitive wrath of God is and how it relates to God's love for humans, and how it might be possible for God to share the intra-trinitarian life of love with human beings. As the book unfolds, the chapters interlock and build upon one another in the effort to trace nodal issues related to God's love as it begins in Him and then spills out in the creation, redemption, and glorification of humanity—a kind of exitus-reditus structure that is driven by the unyielding love of God.




Systematic Theology, Volume 2, Second Edition


Book Description

"Rivals the major systematic theologies of this century." --Baptist History and Heritage Journal, July 1996 "One of the characteristics of Garrett's system that needs especially to be noted is its balanced, judicious, and nearly invariably objective presentation of materials. While holding true to the teachings of his own Baptist faith, Garrett so carefully and judiciously presents alternatives . . . that teachers and students from other confessional and denominational positions will find his work instructive." --Consensus, 1997 "If one is searching for an extensive exposition of the biblical foundations and historical developments of the various loci of systematic theology, there is no more complete presentation in a relatively short work than this . . . Pastors will especially find this feature to be a real help in teaching theology . . . [It is] an indispensable contribution to the task of systematic theology." --Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, September 1999 "Many students and pastors will find all they need here, and will in addition be helped to relate their knowledge to recent developments in the theological world." --The Churchman: A Journal of Anglican Theology, 1991 "A gold mine of helpful material." --The Christian Century, May 29-June 5, 1991 "No book that I know is more loaded with biblical and theological facts than this one. The prodigious research that must have gone into the preparation of this volume is truly mind-boggling." --Faith and Mission, Fall 1991 "Garrett has provided a massive and scholarly systematic theology from a thoroughly conservative and comprehensive viewpoint. The work is well documented in both biblical and historical scholarship and will prove to be a classic." --William Hendrickson, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary "One of the most comprehensive, concise books of its type available; it should receive wide use in the classroom and in the study." --Robert H. Culpepper, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary




Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 2


Book Description

The aim of systematic theology is to engage not only the head but also the heart and hands. Only recently has the church compartmentalized these aspects of life—separating the academic discipline of theology from the spiritual disciplines of faith and obedience. This multivolume work brings together rigorous historical and theological scholarship with spiritual disciplines and practical insights—characterized by a simple, accessible, comprehensive, Reformed, and experiential approach. In this volume, Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley shift from the doctrine of God (theology proper) to the doctrine of humanity (anthropology) and the doctrine of Christ (Christology). This extensive reformed theology explores the Bible's teaching about who we are and why we were created, as well as who Jesus is and why his divinity is essential to the Christian faith.




The Wonderful Decree


Book Description

Unconditionally loving. Sovereign over all. How can God be sovereign over all things and loving towards all people while His creatures possess real freedom and responsibility for their choices? Theologians have wrestled with this question for centuries. But have our attempted solutions made the problem worse? In Wonderful Decree, Travis James Campbell suggests we cannot solve the problem by sacrificing either divine sovereignty and goodness on one hand or human responsibility on the other. While considering Arminian and Molinist alternatives, he concludes that the traditional Augustinian and Calvinist approach best allows these truths to remain in a healthy and biblically-faithful tension. Inspired by the example of Spurgeon, who preferred biblical mystery over human solutions, Campbell encourages readers to trust—even delight—in the harmony of God's love for all and sovereignty over all.




Simon Episcopius' Doctrine of Original Sin


Book Description

Simon Episcopius (1583-1643), who began his theological career as the protégé of Jacobus Arminius, led the Arminians at the Synod of Dort and was instrumental in guaranteeing Arminianism's survival. This book breaks new ground by clearly showing how, in the process of working out the implications of the theological trajectories which Arminius established, Episcopius introduced significant changes in his master's theology. It begins by demonstrating changes between Episcopius' early theological works and Arminius' writings, and then even greater changes in his mature theological work, Institutiones Theologicæ. It defends the idea that Arminianism represented a pre-Calvinist movement within the Netherlands, which not only rejected Genevan predestination, but also intentionally moved away from Reformed Scholasticism. This book is useful for seminars in early Arminian theology and the Arminian controversy in the Netherlands.




Coena Mystica


Book Description

Coena Mystica contains the never-before-reprinted text of John Williamson Nevin's response to Charles Hodge's devastating critiques of his 1846 magnum opus, The Mystical Presence. Initially appearing in twelve issues of the little-known Weekly Messenger of the German Reformed Church and almost entirely neglected by historians since, Nevin's response included the full text of Hodge's article, with his rejoinders interspersed every few pages. These articles, in addition to providing a lively and illuminating debate on the roots of Reformed eucharistic theology, take the disputants into such fields as the nature of the church, the development of doctrine, the person and work of Christ, and the merits of German idealism. The quality of the historical argument and theological acumen here displayed makes this exchange one of the landmark theological controversies of the nineteenth century, a gift to historians of the period, students of Reformed theology, and anyone seeking to better understand the contentious legacy of the Protestant Reformation. The present critical edition carefully preserves the original text, while providing extensive introductions, annotations, and bibliography to orient the modern reader and facilitate further scholarship. The Mercersburg Theology Study Series is an attempt to make available for the first time, in attractive, readable, and scholarly modern editions, the key writings of the nineteenth-century movement known as the Mercersburg Theology. An ambitious multi-year project, this aims to make an important contribution to the scholarly community and to the broader reading public, who can at last be properly introduced to this unique blend of American and European, Reformed and Catholic theology.




Becoming Christian


Book Description

Becoming Christian argues that romance narratives of Jews and Muslims converting to Christianity register theological formations of race in post-Reformation England. The medieval motif of infidel conversion came under scrutiny as Protestant theology radically reconfigured how individuals acquire religious identities. Whereas Catholicism had asserted that Christian identity begins with baptism, numerous theologians in the Church of England denied the necessity of baptism and instead treated Christian identity as a racial characteristic passed from parents to their children. The church thereby developed a theology that both transformed a nation into a Christian race and created skepticism about the possibility of conversion. Race became a matter of salvation and damnation. Britton intervenes in critical debates about the intersections of race and religion, as well as in discussions of the social implications of romance. Examining English translations of Calvin, treatises on the sacraments, catechisms, and sermons alongside works by Edmund Spenser, John Harrington, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, and Phillip Massinger, Becoming Christian demonstrates how a theology of race altered a nation’s imagination and literary landscape.