This textbook explores the Lutheran theological tradition. Kirsi Stjerna looks at Lutheran sources, vocabulary and focal points through the lens of the Augsburg Confession and the Large Catechism, developing a distinctive Lutheran faith language that resonates with contemporary contexts and inquirers.Lutheran Theology gives students the tools they need to understand Lutheran perspectives in the light of historical sources, to see the underlying motivation...

Theosis shapes contemporary Orthodox theology in two ways: positively and negatively. In the positive sense, contemporary Orthodox theologians made theosis the thread that bound together the various aspects of theology in a coherent whole and also interpreted patristic texts, which experienced a renaissance in the twentieth century, even in Orthodox theology. In the negative sense, contemporary theologians used theosis as a triumphalistic club to beat down Cathol...

Contributors to this book analyze areas of Martin Luther’s and Lutheran theology that have otherwise been neglected or underrepresented in the five hundred years since the Reformation. They constructively widen the scope of Luther and Lutheran theology by viewing both from the perspectives of the “subaltern,” those whose voices are barely or rarely heard. The book formulates an inclusive Lutheran theology that reaches out but does not close out.The book’s sections address “Precario...

With great detail, Kirsi I. Stjerna introduces and annotates Luthers Large Catechism, which the reformer offered as a radical reorientation in the matters of theology and spirituality. After diagnosing what appeared to him as his churchs failures to provide proper spiritual care, Luther set out to offer a new compass for religious life. The sweeping reforms he proposed took root primarily through preaching and education as people embraced the new vision and transmitted it ...

Encounters with Luther offers in one volume original primary research from an international and ecumenical pool of scholars. It examines Luther and Lutheran theological traditions along with their historical foundations and with a focus on relevant contemporary issues and ecumenical collegiality. Topics range from sacraments and marriage to violence and gender and sexuality to spiritual care, politics, and suffering. Chapters are based on the annual Luther Colloquy proceedings at ...

Volume 2 of The Annotated Luther series contains a number of the writings categorized under the theme Word and Faith. Luther was particularly focused on what the word does in order to create and sustain faith. Writings in the volume range from the large core documents Bondage of the Will, Against the Heavenly Prophets, The Smalcald Articles, and Large Catechism to Luthers own Confession of Faith

In autumn 1525, Luther wrote The Bondage of the Will as a response to humanist and theologian Erasmus of Rotterdams On Free Will.Luthers treatise is important on four accounts: First, Luther wanted to show his own humanist education. Second, against Erasmus, who had maintained that the question of free will could not be decided just on the basis of the Bible, Luther stressed the clarity imbedded in Scripture. Third, Luther stressed that his denial ...

The place and significance of Martin Luther in the long history of Christian anti-Jewish polemic has been and continues to be a contested issue. The literature on the subject is substantial, and diverse. While efforts to exonerate Luther as “merely” a man of his times who “merely” perpetuated what he had received from his cultural and theological tradition have rightly been jettisoned, there still persists even among the educated public the perception that the truly problematic aspects of ...

Women Reformers of Early Modern**Europe provides an expansive view of women negotiating their faith, voice, and agency in the religious and cultural scene of the sixteenth-century reformations. Women from different geographic contexts (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, and Scandinavia) and from a broad spectrum of vocations and social standings are highlighted along with examples of their original writings in English translation (in some cases brand new).An internati...