Calvin lectured on the Minor Prophets from 1555/6 to 1559, beginning at the time of the implementation of the Peace of Augsburg. He saw the era in which he lived - particularly the period following the calling of the Council of Trent (1545) and the enforcing of the Augsburg Interim (1548) - as like that of Elijah; a fundamentally troubled era for the church. This study offers a comprehensive analysis of these lectures, their context, audience, and aims. It argues that they were integral not simply to his training of ministers and missionaries for France but to Calvin's endeavors to call the...

Minister of the Word, shepherd and teacher--the titles of Dutch pastors exude authority and prestige. In the course of the nineteenth century, however, their social position was slowly undermined by the separation of church and state, the emancipation of Catholics and dissenters, and the rise of all sorts of secular "shepherds" and "teachers." This work of historical sociology analyzes the development of the profession of pastor in the Netherlands Reformed Church, focusing on pastors' changing relationships with the state, the universities, other professions, and their own congregants. It...

For centuries, the relation between lay piety and academic theology has determined the faith of lay people as well as developments in theology, and influenced daily life as well as scholarly discussions. In this book an international and multidisciplinary panel of specialists, covering the fields of church history, history of literature, music history, book history, and art history reflects on a broad range of research topics, providing a fascinating and refreshing view on what this relation has been throughout the centuries. Christoph Burger has given a major impulse to the research into the...

This study is the first monograph to attempt a synthetic treatment of the career of Thomas Erastus (1524-1583). Erastus was a central player in the conversion of the Electoral Palatinate to Reformed Christianity in the early 1560s and a co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism. In the church discipline controversy of the 1560s and 1570s, Erastus opposed the Calvinist effort to institute a consistory of elders with independent authority over excommunication. Erastus's defeat in this controversy, and the ensuing Antitrinitarian affair, proved the watershed of his career. He turned to the...

The Synod of Dordt (1618-1619), the international assembly which ended the yearslong dispute between Arminians and Calvinists, was a defining event in the history of the Dutch Republic. This collected volume presents new facts and analyses concerning the Synod, its context, and its legacy. It includes contributions on the Synod's international character (Genevan delegation, James Ussher), biased historiography ( John Hales and Walter alquanquall), scholasticism ( Johannes Maccovius), philosophical ramifications, and Arminian theology. New, manuscript-based details about the formation of the...

Jacobus Arminius (1559-1609) composed 61 public disputations during his brief tenure as professor of theology at Leiden University, 36 of which have never before been collected and published, and have been neglected by scholars for four centuries. This critical edition supplements the works of Arminius by presenting these texts in the original Latin, complete with notes and summaries in English. The texts are preceded by a helpful introduction to the genre of theological disputations. In addition, the question of disputation authorship is treated exhaustively for the first time, demonstrating...

Church-state relations have always been important but the need for an historical re-evaluation has been heightened by recent developments in the relations between governments and religious bodies. Drawing on a wide range of historical case-studies this book focuses particularly on the way in which the traditional European Old World fusion of church and state was reshaped in the New World of European settler colonies of the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Its analysis illuminates both the historical dynamics of such changes and the way in which such developments continue to influence...

This study researches the historical development of the self-understanding of the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente. Throughout the 20th century, both churches have been in a developing relationship with each other, resulting in full communion in 1965. In the same time period, both churches developed an ecclesiological self-understanding in which an ecclesiology of the national church gradually gave way to an ecclesiology of the local church. By outlining this development for each of these two churches and comparing the developments, the...

This study of the origins of the Baptist movement among the Hungarians examines the two attempts to establish a sustained Baptist mission in the Kingdom of Hungary during the nineteenth century: the first unsuccessful attempt begun in 1846 and the second attempt begun in 1873, which resulted in a sustained Baptist presence in Hungary. The primary question the study addresses is why the first attempt came to naught while the second attempt quickly flourished. Related to this is the question of whether any organic connection exists between the two Baptist mission endeavors. In answering these...

This bibliography of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), Dutch theologian, journalist, and politician, and above all prolific writer, is the result of a life-long research. Kuyper's publications range from daily editorials in newspapers, via pamphlets on present-day issues and a 1000-page political program, to academic publications like an encyclopedia of theology. His works were ground laying for the neo-Calvinist tradition in the Netherlands, the United States, Asia, and Africa. This is the first bibliography of his works in English, and also the first all-encompassing bibliography, including all...