The Retirement Reformation will change the way we think about what our culture calls retirement. While acknowledging the reality of longevity, Bruce Bruinsma challenges both individuals and faith-based organizations to reexamine, reshape, reform, and revitalize the fastest-growing segment of our society. God has a unique call for each of our lives, and it does not stop at sixty-five or seventy.

This book is unique as it presents an academic and a practical aspect on managing pension funds to clarify the global debate on social security. The authors establish the basic choices in designating any system to help policy makers develop the system that achieves their many objectives. The success of reforms depends on financial innovation to mitigate key risks and some innovations are discussed, which also demonstrates how pension reform choices affect the achievement of retirement objectives. Finally, the authors examine some proposed hybrid options to show how the beneficial features of these hybrids can be captured through good design in a single fund.

Discover the three secrets to happiness--and much more--in the later years of life. Never before in human history have so many people lived for decades beyond their working years. 10,000 Americans turn 65 each day, and their average life expectancy is another 20 years--and many will live longer. But will they just live or have a meaningful life? The truth is that many--if not most--people approaching the latter years do not have a plan, much less a strategy to thrive instead of just survive. Packed with information based on research as well as common-sense wisdom, here are some examples of what readers will discover: How retiring at the wrong time increases the likelihood of dying 89%. What can delay Alzheimer's onset an average of 9 years. How everything that makes you happy comes in just 3 forms. Which partner is most likely to initiate divorce after decades of marriage and why.

The Reformation was the seismic event in European history over the past 1000 years, and one which tore the medieval world apart. Not just European religion, but thought, culture, society, state systems, personal relations - everything - was turned upside down. Just about everything which followed in European history can be traced back in some way to the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation which it provoked. The Reformation is where the modern world painfully and dramatically began, and MacCulloch's great history of it is recognised as the best modern account.

The German pension system was the first formal pension system in the world, designed by Bismarck nearly 120 years ago. It has been very successful in providing high and reliable pension levels at reasonable contribution rates. While the generosity of the German pension system is considered a great social achievement, negative incentive effects of past reforms in the 1970s and 1980s and population aging are threatening the very core of the system. This has led to fundamental pension reforms since 1992. Based on a detailed simulation model of the German pension system, this book provides a thorough assessment of the system and its reforms. It shows that the latest reforms have put the system back onto a stable path and moved it from the old monolithic towards a multi-pillar system.

In Law and Gospel, Timothy Wengert, one of the world's leading Melancthon scholars, explores the relationship between poenitentia and law in his theology during the time he was opposed by another of Luther's disciples, John Agricola.0

During the late Middle Ages, a considerable number of men in Germany and Switzerland were executed for committing sodomy. Even in the seventeenth century, simply speaking of the act was cause for censorship. Here, in the first history of sodomy in these countries, Helmut Puff argues that accusations of sodomy during this era were actually crucial to the success of the Protestant Reformation. Drawing on both literary and historical evidence, Puff shows that speakers of German associated sodomy with Italy and, increasingly, Catholicism. As the Reformation gained momentum, the formerly unspeakable crime of sodomy gained a voice, as Martin Luther and others deployed accusations of sodomy to discredit the upper ranks of the Church and to create a sense of community among Protestant believers. During the sixteenth century, reactions against this defamatory rhetoric, and fear that mere mention of sodomy would incite sinful acts, combined to repress even court cases of sodomy. Written with precision and meticulously researched, this revealing study will interest historians of gender, sexuality, and religion, as well as scholars of medieval and early modern history and culture.

One of the hallmarks of LutherÕs theology was its concern for daily life. In the midst of debates about justification and salvation, church authority, and the LordÕs Supper, he bore a deep concern for daily Christian life. In this refreshing book, Mark D. Tranvik looks at the importance of vocation in LutherÕs own life and in doing so discovers renewed insights into this important doctrine. Vocation, the called life, is a way of understanding that all of life is under the care and interest of God. All of our activities as a spouse, parent, child, worker, citizen, and church member are a part of a called life. Tranvik begins the book with a clear exposition of LutherÕs context, with a focus on how the reformer actually lived out his own calling. He rapidly moves into the contemporary sphere, drawing on twenty years of teaching and interaction with undergraduate students to outline how a renewed understanding of vocation is a powerful and liberating tool for life in the twenty-first century.

16 contributors represent four positions on the biblical role of civil government. Originally delivered at a consultation on that topic, each of the four major papers is presented by a leading representative of that view and is followed by responses from the three other perspectives. The result is a vigorous exchange of ideas aimed at pinpointing areas of agreement and disagreement and equipping God's people to serve him more effectively in the political arena.

Now in its third edition, The Age of Reformation has been fully updated and extended, offering a comprehensive study of the relationships between religion, politics, and social change in the sixteenth century. The book charts the new challenges and crises facing the English, Scottish, and Irish states in the early modern age as they contended with the spread of Protestantism and a powerful Tudor monarchy. Constructing a clear narrative of the events and actors of this era of reformations, both political and religious, the book provides an accessible entry point for studying a period of upheaval and transformation, synthesising key research and drawing unexpected connections. Each chapter of the third edition has been revised, with additions including expanded treatments of popular politics, the implementation of the Reformation in the parishes, and England’s global expansion and the Tudor roots of the ‘British empire’. Accompanied by new maps and drawing on the latest research, this book is essential reading for all students of religion, reformation, and politics in early modern British history.