Academic writing is not a neutral medium for conveying truth; its powers and faults must be exposed before theology entrusts its mysteries to the academic text. To that end, William Wright, en route to putting Calvin’s Salvation in Writing, institutes a new theological genre, “theography”: theology that “confesses” its academic parameters--with both gratitude and repentance. He delineates those parameters by contrasting the philosophical rationales for writing found in Hegel and Derrida. Drawing on their insights into dialectic and difference, Wright sets out Calvin’s doctrine of justification and sanctification across a shifting written terrain. Observing Calvin’s doctrinal structure thus becomes a path to save academic writing from claiming for itself either too much or too little. Calvin's Salvation in Writing: A Confessional Academic Theology is the philosophically boldest employment of Calvin to date. Through innovatively mining Calvin’s theology, William Wright designs a new method of theology that will enliven the field.

This text introduces the reader to the great variety of distinctive interpretations within the Christian tradition regarding theologies of salvation, distinctive interpretations expressed by a wide range of Christian theologians.

Historical-critical scholars have often thought that writing a coherent theology of Isaiah 56-66 is impossible because it contains such historically and ideologically diverse materials. A canonical approach to the chapters is, however, open to considering Third Isaiah as a complex but coherent theological unity. Leaning on this approach, Abraham Oh constructs a theology of Isaiah 56-66. Arguing that the theology of Third Isaiah has eschatology (both prophetic and apocalyptic) at its core, he identifies four major themes and explores their significance through four key texts (56:1-8; 59:15b-21; 60:1-22; 65:13-25). The covenant concept (56:1-8) forms a framework for the eschatology in these chapters. People are invited to walk in the covenant, which is worked out as eschatological salvation. The coming of YHWH as the Divine Warrior initiates the eschatological era (59:15b-21) and, bringing judgment, restores the covenant. As the Temple-city-paradise (60:1-22) into which the nations flow, the glorified Zion is the eschatological fulfilment of the covenant, Zion, and Servant traditions. The New Heavens and Earth (65:13-25) is a return to the primordial paradise, where the natural world is restored, as the problem of sin is resolved.

This collection of studies in theology is written from the perspective of one from within the Christian faith, and seeking greater understanding of the doctrinal deposit of that faith. As a leading scholar in Christian and analytic theology, Oliver D. Crisp summarizes and analyses Christian doctrine, written in the form of traditional dogmatics. Beginning with issues concerning the task of theology, Crisp explores the challenges to systematic theology as a discipline, the uses of Scripture in theological discourse, and the reception of the theology of John Calvin. He then moves issues at the centre of serious theological debate in recent theology, the relationship between God and abstract objects in the thought of Jonathan Edwards, and theological anthropology. This volume culminates with studies that focus on central and defining issues in contemporary systematic and philosophical theology, taking forward a constructive theological program in dialogue with important figures in the Christian tradition, and engaged with some of the best contemporary theological scholarship.

John Calvin's understanding of works-righteousness is more complex than is often recognized. While he denounces it in some instances, he affirms it in others. This study shows that Calvin affirms works-righteousness within the context where faith-righteousness is already established, and that he even teaches a form of justification by works. Calvin ascribes not only a positive role to good works in relation to divine acceptance, but also soteriological value to believers' good works. This study demonstrates such by exploring Calvin's theological anthropology, his understanding of divine-human activity, his teaching on the nature of good works, and his understanding of divine grace and benevolence. It also addresses current debates in Calvin scholarship by exploring topics such as union with Christ, the relation between justification and sanctification, the relation between good works and divine acceptance, the role of good works in the Christian life, and the content of good works.

What does it mean to flourish? Human flourishing lies at the heart of the good news of the gospel, and yet contemporary theologies know not only one way of speaking about what it means to flourish. If we embed our theological grammars of flourishing in the doctrine of salvation, as the doctrine in which theological flourishing talk is arguably rooted and from which rich fruit may be borne, there is not one but various ways in which to speak about what it means to flourish. Yet what governs our speaking? Why do we speak of flourishing as we do? The various conceptions of human flourishing that are outlined in this book – piety, joy, and comfort; being fully alive, healing, and dignity; grace, happiness, and blessing – represent a collection of attempts not only to imagine human flourishing, but also to imagine ways of speaking about human flourishing. Perhaps what theology could offer to the vibrant and robust conversations on human flourishing lies exactly in the reminder to take care about how we speak about that which is truly and deeply human: our longing to flourish.

Reformation Letters is a detailed look at John Calvin’s letters, which were mostly of a pastoral nature. These were letters that define the Reformation and demonstrate Calvin’s concerns, his strengths, and his weaknesses, against the background of his own time and contemporaries. Here we find Calvin on his own calling and exile from Geneva; Calvin on marriage—his own and others’; Calvin’s prefatory letter to Francis I of France; Calvin’s letter to Sadoleto on the nature of the Reformation; Calvin on Servetus and the reasons for his trial and execution for heresy; and Calvin’s letters to those facing death and persecution.

Many ministers and faithful Christians instinctively recoil from "washed in the blood" theology, but they hesitate to discuss the subject. This book, by one of the world's leading authorities on atonement doctrine, shows how the "purchased by the blood" idea is out of step with the teachings of Jesus, who said that God reaches the pure in heart without any sacrificial payment. The successors of Paul took the Apostle Paul's sacrificial metaphors far too literally and turned them into an imagined "mechanics" of salvation in which God is "paid off." Over the centuries, this manipulative idea has been the source of confusion and mischief, from the anti-Semitic superstitions of the Middle Ages, to the pedagogy of shame taught in many fundamentalist churches today. Our understanding of Christ will be enhanced if we can recover the original apostolic Christology, which was based on Christ as Creator and life-giver.

This book presents a new model for analyzing Calvin's biblical interpretation, rescuing him from the quagmire of anachronistic interpretations. Concentrating upon Calvin's description of biblical interpretation, the book suggests new insights for hermeneutics, exegesis in the Reformations, and Calvin's ecclesiology.

Winner of the 2018 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Textual Studies, presented by the American Academy of Religion 2018 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Magazine A new perspective on the role of religion in the work of Langston Hughes Langston's Salvation offers a fascinating exploration into the religious thought of Langston Hughes. Known for his poetry, plays, and social activism, the importance of religion in Hughes’ work has historically been ignored or dismissed. This book puts this aspect of Hughes work front and center, placing it into the wider context of twentieth-century American and African American religious cultures. Best brings to life the religious orientation of Hughes work, illuminating how this powerful figure helped to expand the definition of African American religion during this time. Best argues that contrary to popular perception, Hughes was neither an avowed atheist nor unconcerned with religious matters. He demonstrates that Hughes’ religious writing helps to situate him and other black writers as important participants in a broader national discussion about race and religion in America. Through a rigorous analysis that includes attention to Hughes’s unpublished religious poems, Langston’s Salvation reveals new insights into Hughes’s body of work, and demonstrates that while Hughes is seen as one of the most important voices of the Harlem Renaissance, his writing also needs to be understood within the context of twentieth-century American religious liberalism and of the larger modernist movement. Combining historical and literary analyses with biographical explorations of Langston Hughes as a writer and individual, Langston’s Salvation opens a space to read Langston Hughes’ writing religiously, in order to fully understand the writer and the world he inhabited.