While often caricatured as severe and inflexible, Calvin’s theology in the Institutes in fact builds on the reformer’s own reverence and love for God revealed in Jesus Christ. Dennis Ngien shows how Calvin’s theology of piety shapes his wider theological ideas, including divine revelation, providence, justification and sanctification, adoption in Christ, prayer, and the purpose of the church. By closely expositing the Institutes, Ngien demonstrates how the triune God is c...

Scholars routinely describe how Martin Luther prioritized the books of the New Testament that he believed most truly represented the gospel, the Living Word of Jesus Christ. Luther adored the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles. Less well known is the admiration he had for the pastoral epistle of 1 Peter. Dennis Ngien's careful explication brings 1 Peter into the light of Lutheran biblical scholarship, demonstrating its standing for Luther alongside the Gospel of John and the Pauline e...

The author does not aim to defend Luther's and Calvin's reading of Galatians against modern biblical scholarship but to read and hear them in their own contexts. He grapples with major theological themes underlying their approach: law and gospel, active and passive righteousness, faith alone yet not alone, attribution of contraries between Christ and the justified saints, human love and God's love, Christ as gift and example, the creative power of God's word, union with Christ, the economi...

Lutero era um verdadeiro teólogo, um teólogo da cruz atuante no contexto pastoral. Como conselheiro espiritual, Lutero ensinou, por meio de seus escritos, a meditar corretamente sobre a Paixão de Cristo, a preparar-se para enfrentar o horror da morte, a aconselhar os enfermos, a tratar corretamente do sacramento do altar, a orar da forma correta, a extrair benefícios da Oração do Senhor e a viver uma vida de discipulado sob a cruz. Seus escritos têm formato e propósito devocional e catequé...

A sequel to A Faith Worth Believing, Living and Commendation, Giving Wings to the Soul is the compilation of Dr. Ngien's sermons or speeches, devotional and theological reflections. The materials continue to provide Bible-based, thought-provoking theological, spiritual, and pastoral insights to issues of topical interest. Devoid of complex theological jargon, and crafted with an earthy relevance, Dr. Ngien shows us how to preach doctrinally, apologetically, and pastorally in a way that is ...

The materials presented here are reflections on a variety of topics: a belief in God's suffering and the pastoral implications of this; Luther's theology of preaching; practical approaches to evangelistic preaching; pastoral advice on death and dying; apologetic preaching in a post-Christian culture on the model of Paul; effective living in the power of the Holy Spirit, striking a balance between enthusiastic service and fervent love; the image of God's love in the Old Testament; and perso...

The ministry is more than preaching, but preaching is its priority. This conviction is one Dr. Ngien has lived and worked with. As a sequel to A Faith Worth Believing, Commending and Living, and Giving Wings to the Soul, Interpretation of Love: God's Love and Ours is a third collection of sermons and talks, preached with rigor and humor, reverence and relevance. Basic to the book is the assertion that the one possessed of a penetrating eye, coupled with a compassionate heart, could interpr...

Ngien probes the depths of Luther's writing on the primary texts of the Small and Large Catechisms, uncovering a Trinitarian grammar of faith grounded in the Creed and further explicated in the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. "God's most earnest purpose is to be our God," Luther writes in his commentary on the first commandment. From these core teachings, argues Ngien, springs an understanding of the entire substance of the Bible: the knowledge of our illness under the law, the pro...

Luther was fundamentally a preacher-pastor, "a care-taker of souls," whose ingenuity lies in his usage of the biblical message as a source of pastoral encouragement. This book seeks to capture the often-overlooked pastoral side of the Reformer through an examination of his sermons on John's gospel. The sermons on John show the intrinsic, close, and causal link between doctrine and consolation. They are an exercise of his vocation as a pastor, or more precisely, as a theologian of the cross...

In celebration of Alister E. McGrath's sixty-fifth birthday in 2018, this Festschrift aims to highlight him as a lauded scholar, who exemplifies an interface of science, theology, and religion. It comprises works by McGrath's theological allies and colleagues from diverse ecclesial homes including Graham Ward, Oliver Crisp, Tony Lane, Sung Wook Chung, Randall Zachman, Veli-Matti Karkkainen, Jonathan Wilson, Jeffrey P. Greenman, Robert Kolb, Sister Benedicta Ward, Michael Lloyd, Bethany Sol...

Did Luther get Christian freedom right? The answer to this question contains two elements: - What is Luther's understanding of Christian freedom? - How did his understanding stand up under the pressure of reformation? Muhlhan examines both of these elements and contends that the sublime beauty of Luther's early understanding of Christian freedom--an understanding that empowered the German reformation--is consistently the same understanding he used to undermine papal heteronomy and refute r...