Luther's universal priesthood is, in part, a political doctrine that constitutes a revolutionary strain in Luther's thinking–a strain that can only be described as radical. Luther's political understanding of the universal priesthood posed a challenge to the concrete structures of his day, which were built upon a cosmological foundation that came under attack as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Thus, Luther's universal priesthood was not simply another evangelical...
Evangelicals in nineteenth-century America had a headquarters at Princeton. Charles Hodge never expected that a former student of Princeton and his own replacement during his hiatus in Europe, John W. Nevin, would lead the German Reformed Church's seminary in a new, and in his mind, destructive direction. The two, along with their institutions, would clash over philosophy and religion, producing some of the best historical theology ever written in the United States. The clash was broad,...
The advances of geologic science, Darwinism, theological liberalism, and higher textual criticism converged in the nineteenth century to present an imposing challenge to biblical authority. The meteoric rise in secular knowledge exerted tremendous pressure on the Protestant theological elite of the time. Their ruminations, conversations, quarrels, and convictions offer penetrating insight into their world–into their perspective on Scripture and authority and how their outlook was challenged,...
Who will speak for Hagar or Isaac or Sarah or the daughters of Lot? With an interpretive trajectory that moves from the margin to the center, this book gives voice to the marginalized and voiceless in the Abraham Narratives. Further, this approach is based on the premise that there is a continuum of power in the various characters in these narratives and that the most powerful are those who are lodged at the center while those with the least power are on the margin or beyond. The intent of this...
Now and then through the history of the church a great light appears, a prophet who calls the church back to its missional vocation. These reformers are lovers of God, mystics whose lives are utterly given to the divine vision. Yet as Jesus noted, a prophet is often without honor among her own people. In the case of Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874), honor was lost posthumously, for within a few decades after her death her name all but disappeared. Palmer's sanctification theology was separated...
Does education have any relation to theology? How do the educator's worldview commitments speak to his or her practice of education? James Michael Lee brought a definite answer to these questions–a firm no to the relations question, and an advocacy for empirical findings over and against any speculative or theoretical positions in reply to the commitments question. Lee claimed to have a universal, neutral metatheory for all religious education, a theory that would apply to all religious...
This collection of five essays is both a dialogical engagement with and critical assessment of Nancy R. Howell's book Constructing a Relational Cosmology. The collection includes three essays written from a Whiteheadian process perspective (by Marit A. Trelstad, Kathlyn A. Breazeale, and Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki), one from the perspective of narrative theology (Lisa Stenmark), and one from the Soto Zen Buddhist perspective (Stephanie Kaza). Howell, responding as a Whiteheadian feminist...
"The author of Hebrews is arguing that God himself has brought about the fulfillment of these institutions through his Son's priesthood, his once-for-all sacrifice, and the new covenant he inaugurated in the last days. These new institutions are never denied the Jews. In fact, the context of the epistle presumes that these are primarily for the Jews, considering that the author was speaking to a Jewish-Christian community. The author is not arguing for the abandonment by God of the...
Calvinist determinism destroys moral responsibility and makes God the author of sin. These two accusations are not new, and were arguably anticipated by Paul in Romans 9, but they remain today the most important objections offered against Calvinist/determinist views of human free will. This book is a philosophically rigorous and comprehensive defense of Calvinism against these two families of arguments. With respect to human moral responsibility, it discusses whether determinism destroys «free...