Many festschrifts are meant to simply highlight the academic accomplishments of the honored recipient and his or her students, but Dr. James A. Nestingen is much more than an academic. Jim's life and career have involved his calling into multiple vocations. He is a dedicated husband and father, acclaimed academic, beloved teacher, preacher of Christ Jesus, and distinguished author, as well as a friend and much-loved mentor to many of us. In some cases, he even serves as a surrogate father figure.The goods being handed over are the Word of Christ Jesus which flows from the lips of one sinner to the ears of another and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into the heart, thus turning our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. By handing over the goods himself, Jim has influenced many people from a variety of cultural, theological, synodical, and denominational backgrounds. Those who have contributed to this volume represent the diversity of opinions that characterizes Jim's openness, kindness, and willingness to stretch himself while stretching others.

Presents the historical evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Available in French only.

In this first of three volumes addressing Luther's outlaw God, Steven D. Paulson considers the two "monsters" of theology, as Luther calls them: evil and predestination. He explores how these produce fear of God but can also become the great and only comforts of conscience when a preacher arrives. Luther's new distinction between God as he is preached and God without any preacher absolutely frightened all of the schools of theology that preceded it, and for that matter all that followed Luther, as well. That fear coalesced in various opponents like Eck and Latomus, but in a special way in Desiderius Erasmus. For Paulson, bad theology begins with bad preaching, and since the church is what preaching does, bad preaching hides the church under such a dark blanket that it can hardly be detected. He argues that the primary distinction of naked/clothed or unpreached/preached radiates out in all directions for Luther's theology, and shows what difference this makes for current preaching. Specifically, Paulson takes up the central question of all theology (and life): What is God's relation to the law, and the law's relation to God? Luther's answers are surprising and will change the way you preach.

Jacob Böhme (1575–1624) is famous as a shoemaker and spiritual author. His works and thought are frequently studied as a product of his mystical illumination. Jacob Böhme and His World adopts a different perspective. It seeks to demystify Böhme by focusing on aspects of his immediate cultural and social context and the intellectual currents of his time, including Böhme’s writing as literature, the social conditions in Görlitz, Böhme’s correspondence networks, a contemporary “crisis of piety,” Paracelsian and kabbalistic currents, astrology, astronomy and alchemy, and his relationship to other dissenting authors. Relevant facets of reception include Böhme’s philosophical standing, his contributions to pre-Pietism, and early English translations of his works.

This volume includes the texts of Erasmus's 1524 diatribe against Luther, De Libero Arbitrio, and Luther's violent counterattack, De Servo Arbitrio. E. Gordon Rupp and Philip Watson offer commentary on these texts as well. 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.

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The Captivation of the Will provocatively revisits a perennial topic of controversy: human free will. Highly esteemed Lutheran thinker Gerhard O. Forde cuts to the heart of the subject by reexamining the famous debate on the will between Luther and Erasmus. Following a substantial introduction by James A. Nestingen that brings to life the historical background of the debate, Forde thoroughly explores Luther's "Bondage of the Will" and the dispute between Erasmus and Luther that it reflects. In the process of exposing this debate's enduring significance for Christians, Forde highlights its central arguments about Scripture, God, the will, and salvation in Christ. Luther recognized that the only solution for humans bound by sin is the forgiveness that comes from Christ alone. Convinced that this insight represents the heart of the Christian gospel, Forde concludes with ten sermons that proclaim the message of salvation through Christ alone while elegantly relating theological inquiry to everyday life.

Martin Luther started a reformation movement that revolutionized Europe in the sixteenth century. His far-reaching reforms of theological understanding and church practices radically modified both church and society in Europe and beyond. Steven Paulson's discussion of Luther's thought, coupled with Ron Hill's illustrations, provides an engaging introduction to Luther's multifaceted self and the ideas that catapulted him to fame. Written by experts but designed for the novice, the Armchair series provides accurate, concise, and witty overviews of some of the most profound Christian theologians in history. This series is an essential supplement for first-time encounters with primary texts, a lucid refresher for scholars and clergy, and an enjoyable read for the theologically curious.

Gerhard O. Forde has stood at the forefront of Lutheran thought for most of his career. This new collection of essays and sermons—many previously unpublished— makes Forde's powerful theological vision more widely available. The book aptly captures Forde's deep Lutheran commitment. Here he argues that the most important task of theology is to serve the proclamation of the gospel as discerned on the basis of the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. For Forde, the doctrine of justification is not one topic among other theological topics; rather, it is the criterion that guides "all theology and ministry. Throughout the book Forde applies this truth to issues of eschatology, authority, atonement, and ecumenism. Also included are seven insightful sermons that model the Lutheran approach to proclamation.

This book examines the ways in which Dostoevsky's adoption and reinvention of the medieval Russian holy fool - in Russian Orthodoxy, a person who feigned madness or folly as an ascetic feat of self-humiliation - serves as a locus for a critique of his culture's increasing reliance on the scientific paradigms of Claude Bernard's physiology, and as a source of formal narrative innovation in his novels. The author first explores the paradoxical hagiography of the holy fool, whose saintly acts are disguised under the mask of demonic folly. She then traces the rise of medical science in the nineteenth century and the increasing authority of the new scientific models of human behavior, especially the all-important notion of "the normal and the pathological." The book then shifts to close readings of four of Dostoevsky's major novels - Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Devils, and The Brothers Karamazov - always keeping the double focus of cultural critique and formal innovation. The author examines how Dostoevsky develops a specific literary procedure that is itself "holy foolishness." That is, his novels in their structure and, in particular, in the voice of their narrators mislead, tempt, and "scandalize" the reader, much like the street theater of the medieval holy fool. This difficult relationship between reader and text is mirrored in what is represented in the text as the interaction between the holy fool and other characters. In its theoretical orientation, the book both builds from and criticizes Bakhtin's work on carnival. The author offers a less optimistic account, showing how in Dostoevsky carnival is more demonic than jubilant, particularly in The Devils, where carnival leads to a frightening chaos.