This present volume aims to stimulate Bucer-research as it brings together a selection of the best of De Kroon's and Van't Spijker's articles some of which appear for the first time in English translation. In the first section Bucer is described as taking his independent stand in the patristic and scholastic tradition. The next five articles go into the close personal and theological relation between Bucer and John Calvin and make clear how much of Bucer works through in Calvin and Calvinism. Bucer's efforts to bridge theological and ecclesiastical gaps brought him often in discussion with catholic as well as protestant theologians. How he dealt with this is the topic of the third section in this volume. The two following articles deal with his view on discipline and on the right of resistance. The next articles deal with Bucer's doctrinal legacy and the last section focuses on sanctification as one of the most important characteristics of his theology.The most important issues of contemporary Bucer-research and the outlines of his theology are convincingly presented in this volume by known experts for this topic.

Martin Greschat's seminal work is the first biography of the important Protestant reformer to be written in over seventy years. Now translated into English, this work--"the most comprehensive account of Bucer's place within the context of the history of the Reformation" (The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation)--transcends normal biographies by providing information in relation to the social and political context of the sixteenth century. Lucid in style and mature in scholarship, Greschat'sMartin Buceris a splendid contribution to Reformation studies.

Anders als im Briefwechsel des ersten Halbjahres 1533 begegnen nun internationale Perspektiven: Der Konzilsinitiative Karls V. begegnet Bucer wegen der vom Papst gestellten Vorbedingungen skeptisch. Er verfasst aber eine Fürbereytung zum Concilio, die zusammen mit Desiderius Erasmus’ entsprechenden Schriften den Weg zur Einheit weisen soll. Im Blick auf die Schweiz hat Bucers Reise (April bis Mai 1533) die Beziehungen gefestigt, und die Korrespondenz aus den besuchten Orten wächst an. Auch an den Ereignissen im Reich nimmt Bucer regen Anteil: Sein Interesse gilt der Lage Konstanz’ im Zinsstreit mit dem Bischof. Ulm sucht einen Nachfolger fur den verstorbenen Prediger Konrad Sam; Bucer diskutiert mit Ambrosius Blarer mögliche Kandidaten und gibt Ratschläge zum Eherecht. Aus Münster erreicht Bucer die Bitte um eine Stellungnahme zu Bernhard Rothmanns Aktivitäten, aus Nürnberg die Klage Andreas Osianders über seine Ortskollegen. Dass der Esslinger Predigerstreit mit der Entlassung von Martin Fuchs eskalierte, bedrückt Bucer sehr. Die Berufung Gervasius Schulers nach Memmingen freut Bucer, ebenso die Beruhigung der Lage in Kempten nach der Entlassung der lutherischen Prediger. Zu Augsburg intensiviert sich der Kontakt, vor allem zu Gereon Sailer. In Straßburg gelten Bucers Aktivitäten neben der Vorbereitung der Herbstsynode dem Bildungswesen. Seltene Einblicke gewahrt die Korrespondenz in Bucers Familienleben.

This book describes Martin Bucer (1491-1551) as a teacher of theology, focusing on his time as Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge between 1549 and 1551. The book is centered on his 1550 Cambridge lectures on Ephesians, and investigates them in their historical context, exploring what sort of a theologian Bucer was. The lectures are examined to find out how they represent Bucer’s method of teaching and “doing” theology, and shed light on the relationship between biblical exegesis and theological formulation as he understood it. Divided into two interconnected parts, the book first sets the historical context for the lectures, including a broad sketch of scholastic method in theology and the biblical humanist critique of that method. It then closely examines Bucer’s practice in the Cambridge lectures, to show the extent to which he was a theologian of the biblical humanist school, influenced by the method Erasmus set forth in the Ratio Verae Theologiae in which true theology begins, ends, and is best “done” as an exercise in the exegesis of the Word of God.

Editor H. Wayne House introduces a lively debate on varying Christian views of divorce and remarriage. Contributors include J. Carl Laney, William Heth, Thomas Edgar and Larry Richards.

In 1500 Christians knew that God gave them the church to shepherd believers toward salvation and that it was centered at Rome and ruled by a pope. Today, that church is but one of forty thousand Christian denominations, each with distinctive structures and doctrines. How did this happen? Then, as now, all aspects of the church--from its divine mission to its offices and operations, hierarchy, and bureaucracy--were of interest to theologians, thinkers, and troublemakers alike, but for ages there had been satisfaction with the status quo. In the late Renaissance this gave way to frustration and heated debate, as some people wanted fewer clerical controls over their lives, and others sought a church more representative of its purest, earliest form. Ecclesiology (the doctrine and theory of the church) became a major controversy separating not only Roman Catholics from emerging Protestants, but also Protestants from one another. In the writings of the various reformers, the same issues surfaced repeatedly. Jesus's parable of the Wheat and the Tares was discussed often as an image of the church, as reformers sought to rediscover the purity of the church as God's gift. This book uses the words of a range of reformers to explain how the one church began to divide into the many.

"An updated text based on James I. Good's Famous women of the Reformed Church."

Against the backdrop of feminist critique, Karin Spiecker Stetina gives us a thorough study of John Calvin's ideas on the fatherhood of God. After looking briefly at Calvin's own experience of fatherhood, the author looks in depth at his epistemology and then his imagery for God as Father against the background of the biblical and historical doctrine. This intriguing study allows us, through the lens of the reformer's theology, to look again at what we mean by God as Father and believers as sons and daughters of the living God.