Protestant Reformation Studies

No question has been as persistently nettling as the proper relationship of Christians and the Christian church to political power, and the results have often been calamitous. This classic collection of Christian statements on social ethics, now fully revised and augmented, provides a panoramic view of the 2000-year development of Christian concerns for political justice, peace, civil rights, family law, civil liberties, and other "worldly" issues. In readings that range from the Bible to church fathers to Bonhoeffer and Pope Benedict XVI, these substantial excerpts enable the student to see the flow of Christian thought and the deeper religious context for addressing today's most pressing problems.

ebook accessible through GCTS library website
Available on ebook

Here is an anthology of early to mid-sixteenth-century writings that illuminate the distinctive character of early Anabaptist ideology. The writings focus on the themes of regeneration, the Anabaptist fellowship and the demands of discipleship.

Highly accessible introductions to five periods precede brief introductions to and texts from more than fifty key thinkers. The texts highlight perennial themes and questions in Christian tradition, especially the meaning and importance of Jesus, challenges to the institutional church, tensions of faith and reason, spirituality, and the Christian quest for social justice. The new edition, half again as large as the original, adds significant work from the Cappodocian Fathers and the Christological controversialists, the Franciscan tradition, the Radical and English reforms, and deeper coverage of twentieth-century theologians.

Illuminates the history and development of Christian thought by offering selections from the writings of 55 great Christian theologians. The volume includes substantial excerpts from notable women theologians and from black and liberation perspectives, plus a new section from deceased theologians such as Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Karl Rahner. Each passage is prefaced by detailed introductory comments on the life and thought of each theologian and the significance of his/her work.

An important volume of scholarship, this book presents a collection of documents previously little known and inaccessible to the English-speaking world. This volume includes writings of the Radical Reformation--Anabaptist and Spiritualist--as well as three treatises by Juan de Valdes as a representative of Evangelical Catholicism. Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works--each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century--contemporary readers are able to engage the ideas that have shaped Christian theology and the church through the centuries.

First released in 1988, this 25th Anniversary Edition of Timothy George's Theology of the Reformers includes a new chapter and bibliography on William Tyndale, the reformer who courageously stood at the headwaters of the English Reformation. Also included are expanded opening and concluding chapters and updated bibliographies on each reformer. Theology of the Reformers articulates the theological self-understanding of five principal figures from the period of the Reformation: Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, Menno Simons, and William Tyndale. George establishes the context for their work by describing the spiritual climate of their time. Then he profiles each reformer, providing a picture of their theology that does justice to the scope of their involvement in the reforming effort. George details the valuable contributions these men made to issues historically considered pillars of the Christian faith: Scripture, Jesus Christ, salvation, the church, and last things. The intent is not just to document the theology of these reformers, but also to help the church of today better understand and more faithfully live its calling as followers of the one true God. Through and through, George's work provides a truly integrated and comprehensive picture of Christian theology at the time of the Reformation.

The Church exists today in its current form because of the people who have come before us. Who were those people? Staid and dour scholars? Cultural movers and shakers? How does their contribution to history affect us today? From a consummate storyteller comes this collection of inspiring biographical sketches of people who played pivotal roles in advancing the Kingdom of God on earth. In rich prose and spanning twenty centuries of church history, these engaging narratives range from the well-known to the obscure, highlighting personalities such as Josephus, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo, John Calvin, Blaise Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William Wilberforce, G. K. Chesterton, and many others. Readers will feel the past come alive and mingle in their minds with the present state of the Church, encouraging and galvanizing them to live their own faith courageously in our time--and shape the Church of the future.

This volume offers the first major survey of the history of Christian thought on children. Each chapter, written by an expert in the field, discusses the particular perspectives on children held by influential theologians and Christian movements throughout church history, asking what resources they can contribute to a sound contemporary view of childhood and child-rearing. Intended for all readers, this needed book will be a valuable resource for laying the foundation for a new, more meaningful Christian view of childhood today. Contributors: Clarissa W. Atkinson Margaret Bendroth Catherine Brekus Marcia J. Bunge Dawn DeVries Richard P. Heitzenrater Mary Ann Hinsdale Judith Gundry-Volf Vigen Guroian Keith Graber Miller Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore Barbara Pitkin Marcia Y. Riggs Martha Ellen Stortz Jane E. Strohl Cristina L. H. Traina William Werpehowski

Held by GCTS Hamilton campus library - can be requested Charlote students

The Low Countries during the Middle Ages -- The dawn of a new day -- The Evangelical sacramentarian reformation -- Melchior Hofmann : a prophetic layman -- Anabaptism at the crossroads -- Gathering a Christian fellowship -- Growth and molding of the brotherhood -- Conclusion.

The central ideas of 300 influential works on which Protestant Christianity is grounded.

The four chapters of this book were delivered as the Annual Seminary lectureship of the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries at Elkhart, Indiana, in March 1961 under the general title: ""The Theology of Menno Simons and Its Significance Today."" Franklin H. Littell (June 20, 1917-May 23, 2009) was professor of church history at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. His PhD was secured at Yale University with a dissertation on The Anabaptist View of the Church. During nearly a decade in postwar Germany as a member of the Religious Affairs Staff (USA) and director of the Franz Lieber Foundation, he was closely related to the movement known as the Kirchentag, as well as to the Evangelical Academies, and received a doctor of theology degree honoris causa from the University of Marburg (1957). He was an ordained minister in the Methodist Church.

Just war, pacifism, weapons of mass destruction, war on terror, preemptive war. These phrases highlight recent world events that have brought questions about the morality of war into sharp relief. Instead of advocating a particular approach to war, War and Christian Ethics offers a variety of Christian perspectives, enabling readers to make up their own minds about what they believe. This collection of primary source materials contains texts from many influential classic and contemporary writers that are crucial to the development of Christian thought on war. From Plato to Augustine, Thomas Aquinas to Martin Luther, Reinhold Niebuhr to Paul Ramsey, the book covers a broad range of writers. The second edition includes new selections from Rowan Williams, George Weigel, and Duane Friesen.