During the last decades, the doctrine of grace of Augustine of Hippo (354-430) has been studied in depth. The occurrence of grace in Augustine's ca. 580 sermones ad populum has not yet been systematically analysed. This monograph studies the presence of grace in sermones preached during the period of the Pelagian controversy - a debate precisely on the relation between divine grace and human freedom. Does Augustine deal with grace differently in these sermones and his anti-pelagian tractates? First, the gratia content of the sermones does not differ from that of the systematic treatises....

Introducing a new hermeneutics, this book explores the correlation between the personal faith of F.M. Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and the religious quality of his texts. In offering the first comprehensive analysis of his ego documents, it demonstrates how faith has methodologically to be defined by the inaccessibility of the 'living person'. This thesis, which draws on the work of M.M. Bakhtin, is further developed by critically examining the reception of Dostoevsky by the two main representatives of early dialectical theology, Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen. In the early 1920s, they claimed...

Balthasar Munter (1735-1793) is known primarily for being the spiritual advisor for Johann Friedrich Struensee in 1772. Munter is, however, generally interesting as a contributor to the theological development in Denmark-Norway in the eighteenth century, not least because he left a great number of theological texts to posterity. These texts are written in a public and political environment offering shifting conditions for the church. This present book analyses Munter's texts and sheds light on the extent to which he changes his preaching and teaching in accordance with the varying contextual...

This is the first published monograph on Claude Pajon (1626-1685), the theologian at the origin of the greatest doctrinal controversy within the French Protestant camp in the mid to late seventeenth century. Drawing on manuscript sources, this study examines Pajon's thought and its origins, and traces the nature and course of the first phase of controversy (1665-1667). It demonstrates that the conflict opposed Pajon as a 'radical' Cameronian over against the 'moderates, ' with each party claiming to represent the true theological heritage of John Cameron (ca. 1579-1625), as proposed by Paul...

The contemporary Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is in a paradoxical situation: On all levels of Church life, new practices and concepts are considered to belong to Orthodox tradition, yet at the same time Orthodoxy is regarded as the most "unchangeable" and normative of the Christian confessions. So what makes tradition? The nineteen contributions in this volume examine the ambiguities and complexities created by the dynamic between tradition and innovation within the ROC in relation to the fundamental tenets of Orthodoxy. By this focus, the volume offers new insights and highlights the...

Harlot, pious martyr, marriage breaker, obedient sister, prophetess, literate woman, agent of the devil, hypocrite. These are some qualifications of the image of Anabaptist/Mennonite women, from a wide array of perspectives. Over the ages they became both negative and positive stereotypes, created by either opponents or sympathizers, as a means of demonizing or promoting the dissident, radical free church movement. This volume explores the characteristics, backgrounds and effects of the collective perceptions of Anabaptist/Mennonite women, as well as their self-understanding, from the...

Unity in Diversity presents a fresh appraisal of the vibrant and diverse culture of Stuart Puritanism, provides a historiographical and historical survey of current issues within Puritanism, critiques notions of Puritanisms, which tend to fragment the phenomenon, and introduces unitas within diversitas within three divergent Puritans, John Downame, Francis Rous, and Tobias Crisp. This study draws on insights from these three figures to propose that seventeenth-century English Puritanism should be thought of both in terms of Familienahnlichkeit, in which there are...