This present work of nine chapters portrays iconoclastic trends within Western Christianity from the early Middle Ages up to the time of the French Revolution. The primary intent of this work is an explanation of the important iconoclastic movements - their origins and their theoretical foundations and motives. Parallel to this, the book deals with the religious and theological justification of the iconographic cult and of the icon in sacred architecture both in the formal theological teachings of schools and universities and in the arena of popular pietism.
The areas of concentration are:...

The problem of divine knowledge, focusing on questions of freedom and necessity, finds itself at the intersection of age-old discussions of logic, metaphysics, and ethics. The subject was discussed with particular clarity in the period 1250-1400. Many different solutions were put forward and criticized with an acuity and depth that was never reached again. One contributor to the discussion, Marsilius of Inghen (d. 1396), is of special importance. He assimilated not only the nominalism and theological developments of the 14th century, but also the ideas of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure,...

Baptism in the Theology of Martin Luther satisfies the need for a comprehensive survey, in English, of Martin Luther on baptism. The mature Luther was unstinting in praise of baptism. How does his vigorously expressed sacramental understanding sit with his earlier reformation insights? What is its impact upon justification, faith, conversion, the Church? The tensions and paradoxes are examined. Analysis of formal doctrine is complemented by a picture of baptism 'in action', culled mainly from the Lectures on Genesis. Central is baptism's 'present tense' -- its abiding force in...

Donne and the Politics of Conscience in Early Modern England examines the responses of John Donne and his contemporaries to post-Reformation debate about authority and interpretation. It argues that the legal and epistemological principles, as well as the narrative practices, of casuistry provided an important resource for those caught in the welter of conflicting laws and religions. The first two chapters explore the political, historical, and theological contexts of casuistry, locating Donne in debates about the limits of reason and the relativity of law and ethics. Chapter three...

qVeneration of the Host and of saintly relics can only be understood as closely interrelated aspects of medieval piety. This book offers a rich account of one of the most revealing dimensions of medieval belief and practice.

Tears and weeping are, at once, human universals and socially-constrained phenomena. This volume explores the interface between those two viewpoints by examining medical literature, sermons, and lyric poetry of the 16th and 17th centuries to see how dominant paradigms regarded who could, who must, and who must not weep. These paradigms shifted in some cases radically, during these centuries. Without a clear understanding of how the Renaissance 'read' tears, it is difficult to avoid using our own preconceptions -- often quite different and very misleading.
There are five chapters; one on...

This volume documents the role of creational theology in discussions of natural philosophy, medicine and technology from the Hellenistic period to the early twentieth century. Four principal themes are the comprehensibility of the world, the unity of heaven and earth, the relative autonomy of nature, and the ministry of healing.
Successive chapters focus on Greco-Roman science, medieval Aristotelianism, early modern science, the heritage of Isaac Newton, and post-Newtonian mechanics.
The volume will interest historians of science and historians of the idea of creation. It simultaneously...

This volume is the fruit of the colloquium "Les Pays-Bas, carrefour de la tolerance aux Temps Modernes", held in Wassenaar, the Netherlands, in 1994. Toleration in the strict sense of the word was very much against the grain of sixteenth-century European history. This volume charts the emergence and vicissitudes of the concept of tolerance and its practical implications in the Dutch Republic, from the revolt against Spain in the sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. The various contributions, all by distinguished scholars, address such issues as Erasmus' views on...

By 1300 theologians had established a consensus position concerning predestination stating that God predestines without regard to human causes, but reprobates with regard to sin. In the fourteenth Century this consensus was shattered, first by those arguing that God also predestines on account of human causes, and then by those who asserted that God does neither with regard for human causes.
The first part of the book examines the theology of Peter Aureol, who first broke with the consensus position on predestination. The second part traces the impact of his theology on late Medieval...