This book aims to explore the meaning of salvation in Balthasar Hubmaier's theology. Previous research has tended to explain and evaluate his theology by locating his identity among contemporary Anabaptists. Moreover, Hubmaier's theology has been variously labeled as Catholic Anabaptist, Magisterial Anabaptist, or as a bridge between the Radical and Magisterial branches of the Reformation. These approaches to Hubmaier's theology essentially depend on a static and transactional perspective where the result comes from the cause. Such an approach cannot fully explain the distinctive features of Hubmaier's theology, because his theology had multiple rather than single influences. To understand Hubmaier's theology, we need to focus on his motive and purpose in writing rather than external influences. This volume attempts to explore a new understanding of Hubmaier's theology reflecting a necessary change in our paradigmatic methodologies. This fresh perspective helps us see that Hubmaier's theology was not static and transactional but dynamic and relational. As Hubmaier's main purpose was to give readers a proper understanding of soteriology, his writings were written from this perspective, concentrating on salvation. This volume aims to enable the reader to access this unique understanding of soteriology by examining his primary texts in three categories: free will, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. To understand Hubmaier's theology through a new methodology leads us to rethink the meaning of salvation.

The purpose of this book is to shed light on the thought of Dirk Philips, who was a Mennonite leader in the sixteenth century, and to argue that his various doctrines, including his Christology, ecclesiology, soteriology, and anthropology, are interrelated with his view of the visible church. This book explains that Dirk Philips’ view of the visible church is much closer to the ecclesiology of Augustine’s tradition rather than to the ecclesiology of the Donatists’ tradition. Although Dirk Philips had excellent theological abilities and he was a leader who made a significant contribution to the development of the Mennonites camp, he did not receive much attention in the study of Anabaptists, and there has not been much research on this sixteenth-century Mennonite leader. Thus, this book will help you discover a great sixteenth-century leader who has been forgotten in church history. Is it true that the Radical Reformers are disciples of Donatus, that the Anabaptists thought that the failed believers cannot be forgiven because the church is a gathering of pure souls? This book will probe the idea that the Radical Reformation is closer to the ecclesiology of Augustine’s tradition than to the ecclesiology of the Donatists’ tradition.