Lucas Osiander (1534-1604) was an influential preacher of the Lutheran orthodoxy. As a Wuerttemberg court preacher and superintendent, he played a central role when the country was established as one of the leading Lutheran forces in the Empire. Osiander preached to a wide audience in a time when sermons were a privileged form of communication and when preachers could address and negotiate the central interests in society. Using confessionalization theory, Sivert Angel studies Osiander's preaching in its political and theological context and shows how Osiander as a preacher could exert...

Recent anthropological, linguistic, and philosophical studies have significantly increased our understanding of the gift and related phenomena, such as hospitality and charity. While their results can only very carefully be applied to historical theological sources, they do resemble classical discussions on neighbourly love, the administration of sacraments, the handing over of tradition, free will, and God's mercy. In this book, Risto Saarinen studies Martin Luther's understanding of the gift and related issues, such as favours and benefits, faith and justification, virtues and merits,...