Political Grace

Political Grace PDF

Author: Roland Boer

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0664233937

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In this exploration of Calvin's political thought, Roland Boer treats Calvin as a biblical scholar and political philosopher, showing us elusive aspects of Calvin's Institutes. Boer investigates Calvin's careful thinking in the Institutes as well as in his biblical commentaries, pursuing Calvin's understanding of political freedom. Calvin argued for a greater freedom for the faith than theologians had imagined, Boer claims, but then stepped back from the most radical implications of this call. Boer also explores Calvin's views on grace with the eye of a careful interpreter and suggests what we might find in Calvin's political thought if we took the Bible, grace, and freedom as seriously as he did. Clearly these are relevant points to consider for Christian political living today.

The Christian Polity of John Calvin

The Christian Polity of John Calvin PDF

Author: Harro Höpfl

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1985-07-18

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9780521316385

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This book explores the relationship between Calvin's thought about civil and ecclesiastical order and his own circumstances and activities. The early chapters argue that in his pre-Genevan writings, including the first edition of the Institution, Calvin's political thinking was entirely conventional; his subsequent thought and conduct were not an implementation of previously formulated ideas. Later chapters examine whether and to what extent Calvin developed a distinctive vision of the Christian polity as part of an overall conception of the Christian life.

Sovereign Grace

Sovereign Grace PDF

Author: William R. Stevenson Jr.

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1999-06-17

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0195352297

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The Reformation thinker John Calvin had significant and unusual things to say about life in public encounter, things which both anticipate modern thinking and, says William Stevenson, can serve as important antidotes to some of modern thinking's broader pretensions. This study attempts to give a coherent picture of Calvin's political theory by following the stream that flows from his fascinating short essay, "On Christian Freedom," one chapter in the magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion. Stevenson argues that a full examination of this essay yields not only a more thorough explication--and historical placement--of Calvin's political ideas proper but also a more complete and coherent picture of their theological underpinnings.

Sovereign Grace

Sovereign Grace PDF

Author: William R. Stevenson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0195125061

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The Reformation thinker John Calvin had significant and unusual things to say about life in public encounter, things which both anticipate modern thinking and, says William Stevenson, can serve as important antidotes to some of modern thinking's broader pretensions. Although much has been written about Calvin's political theory, a coherent picture has yet to emerge. He has been seen variously as a proto-liberal democrat, a reckless revolutionary, a "constructive" revolutionary, an unforgiving authoritarian, and an intransigent traditionalist. Can these pictures be reconciled? This study attempts such a reconciliation by following the stream that flows from Calvin's fascinating short essay "On Christian Freedom," one chapter in the magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Calvin's Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church

Calvin's Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church PDF

Author: Matthew J. Tuininga

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-04-06

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 131677287X

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In Calvin's Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church, Matthew J. Tuininga explores a little appreciated dimension of John Calvin's political thought, his two kingdoms theology, as a model for constructive Christian participation in liberal society. Widely misunderstood as a proto-political culture warrior, due in part to his often misinterpreted role in controversies over predestination and the heretic Servetus, Calvin articulated a thoughtful approach to public life rooted in his understanding of the gospel and its teaching concerning the kingdom of God. He staked his ministry in Geneva on his commitment to keeping the church distinct from the state, abandoning simplistic approaches that placed one above the other, while rejecting the temptations of sectarianism or separatism. This revealing analysis of Calvin's vision offers timely guidance for Christians seeking a mode of faithful, respectful public engagement in democratic, pluralistic communities today.

Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority

Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority PDF

Author: Harro Höpfl

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1991-09-27

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9780521342087

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Martin Luther and John Calvin were the principal 'magistral' Reformers of the sixteenth-century: they sought to enlist the cooperation of rulers in the work of reforming the Church. However, neither regarded the relationship between Reformed Christians and the secular authorities as comfortable or unproblematic. The two pieces translated here, Luther's On Secular Authority and Calvin's On Civil Government, constitute their most sustained attempts to find the proper balance between these two commitments. Despite their mutual respect, there were wide divergences between them. Luther's On Secular Authority would later be cited en bloc in favour of religious toleration, whereas Calvin envisaged secular authority as an agency for the compulsory establishment of the external conditions of Christian virtue and the suppression of dissent. The introduction, glossary, chronology and bibliography contained in this volume locate the texts in the broader context of the theology and political thinking of their authors.

Protestant Politics Beyond Calvin

Protestant Politics Beyond Calvin PDF

Author: Ian Campbell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-01-31

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1000536645

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The Reformed (or Calvinist) universities of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Europe hosted rich, Latin-language conversations on the nature of politics, the powers of kings and magistrates, resistance, revolution, and religious warfare. Nevertheless, it is too often assumed that Reformed political thought did not develop beyond John Calvin’s Institutes of 1559. This book remedies this problem, presenting extracts from major Reformed theologians and intellectuals (including Peter Martyr Vermigli, Guillaume de Buc, David Pareus, Lambert Daneau, and Bartholomäus Keckermann) which demonstrate both continuity and change in Reformed political argument. These men taught in France, the Holy Roman Empire, the Low Countries, and England, between the 1540s and 1660s, but they were read in universities throughout the North Atlantic world into the eighteenth century. Should all political action be subject to God’s direct command? Were humans capable of using their own God-given reason to tell right from wrong? Was it ever just to resist tyrants? Was religious difference enough by itself to justify war? Their political doctrines often aroused the greatest controversy in their own time; this is generally the first time that these extracts from their works have been translated into English. These texts and translations are accompanied by an introduction placing these authors in the context of the great European religious wars, advice on further reading, and a full bibliography.