Many contemporary theologians seek to retrieve the concept of beauty as a way for people to encounter God. This groundbreaking book argues that while Martin Luther's view of beauty has often been ignored or underappreciated, it has much to contribute to that quest. Mark Mattes, one of today's leading Lutheran theologians, analyzes Luther's theological aesthetics and discusses its implications for music, art, and the contemplative life. Mattes shows that for Luther, the cross is the lens th...

In the five hundred years since the publication of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, a rich set of traditions have grown up around that action and the subsequent events of the Reformation. This up-to-date dictionary by leading theologians and church historians covers Luther's life and thought, key figures of his time, and the various traditions he continues to influence.Prominent scholars of the history of Lutheran traditions have brought together experts in church history...

Ditching the Checklist was written to help Evangelicals and other Christians who, due to grounding the assurance of their salvation in evidences of their new birth instead of Christ alone, struggle over whether or not they are saved. Evangelical leader J. D. Greear describes anxiety over whether or not one is saved as a major problem among Evangelicals. With ample testimony from Scripture and appealing to the thinking of Luther, this booklet addresses this anxiety head on. Mark Mattes argu...

The object of this work, is to give a brief history of persecution since the first introduction of christianity, till the present time. In doing this, we have commenced with the martyrdom of Stephen, and following the course of events, have brought the History of persecution down to the year 1830. In all ages, we find that a disposition to persecute for opinion's sake, has been manifested by wicked men, whatever may have been their opinions or sentiments on religious subjects. The full tit...

"This narrative of the first half of Augustine's life conjures the intellectual and social milieu of the late Roman Empire with a Proustian relish for detail." -- New York TimesIn Augustine, celebrated historian Robin Lane Fox follows Augustine of Hippo on his journey to the writing of his Confessions. Unbaptized, Augustine indulged in a life of lust before finally confessing and converting. Lane Fox recounts Augustine's sexual sins, his time in an outlawed hereti...

*Includes the following Commentaries: On Election and Predestination. On Ethics and the Common Life. On Faith. On Jesus Christ. On Providence. On the Bible. On the Christian Life. On the Church. On the Knowledge of God, and Other Works*Includes Illustrations*Includes an Original Introduction*Includes Table of Contents and working links for each Title

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 31 January 1892) was a British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers". Spurgeon was to 19th century England what D. L Moody was to America. Although Spurgeon never attended theological school, by the age of twenty-one he was the most popular preacher in London. A strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church...

John Calvin (10 July 1509 27 May 1564) was one of the most influential Christians of the last millennium. An influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation, Calvin was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later named after him. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530, and after religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel,...

Martin Luther's lectures on Genesis, delivered at the University of Wittenberg during the last decade of his life and later published by his students, allow modern readers to view a sixteenth-century professor engaging his students with the text of scripture and using that text to form them spiritually. The lectures show how Luther attempted to form in his students a new identity, an Evangelical identity, enabling them to make sense of the rapidly changing society and church in which they ...

"John Ploughman’s Talk" is the first in a series of two "Ploughman Books" by Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon sought to take common phrases off the day and use them to teach spiritual lessons easily understood by everyone. Spurgeon told his Parables, or talks, from the point of view of an English Plowman named John, and he tried to mix truth and humor in his tales. Some of the phrases he uses like “Two heads are better than One” are still commonly used today. This book includes a series of topic...

From Pulitzer Prize–winner Garry Wills, the story of Augustine’s ConfessionsIn this brief and incisive book, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills tells the story of the Confessions--what motivated Augustine to dictate it, how it asks to be read, and the many ways it has been misread in the one-and-a-half millennia since it was composed. Following Wills's biography of Augustine and his translation of the Confessions, this is an unp...

A Thousand-Mile Pilgrimage with Martin LutherIn 2010, Andrew Wilson and his wife, Sarah, walked in the footsteps of Martin Luther, re-creating his famous pre-Reformation pilgrimage from Erfurt to Rome. Their trek was well publicized, with coverage in the Christian Century, First Things, the Wall Street Journal, and Books & Culture. They were also interviewed by travel expert Rick Steves on his popular radio program. As they w...