This compilation of writings from Erasmus and Luther's great debate--over free will and grace, and their respective efficacy for salvation--offers a fuller representation of the disputants' main arguments than has ever been available in a single volume in English. Included are key, corresponding selections from not only Erasmus' conciliatory A Discussion or Discourse concerning Free Will and Luther's forceful and fully argued rebuttal, but--with the battle now joined--from Erasmus' own forceful and fully argued rebuttal of Luther. Students of Reformation theology, Christian humanism, and sixteenth-century rhetoric will find here the key to a wider appreciation of one of early modern Christianity’s most illuminating and disputed controversies.

The authors strive to illuminate every aspect of Erasmus’ life, work, and legacy while providing an expert synthesis of the most inspiring research in the field. There is no volume to compare or to compete with this compendium of all Erasmian knowledge.

The first English-language popular biography of widely influential northern Renaissance scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam in twenty years. Erasmus of Rotterdam came from an obscure background but, through remarkable perseverance, skill, and independent vision, became a powerful and controversial intellectual figure in Europe in the early sixteenth century. He was known for his vigorous opposition to war, intolerance, and hypocrisy, and at the same time for irony and subtlety that could confuse his friends as well as his opponents. His ideas about language, society, scholarship, and religion influenced the rise of the Reformation and had a huge impact on the humanities, and that influence continues today. This book shows how an independent textual scholar was able, by the power of the printing press and his wits, to attain both fame and notoriety. Drawing on the immense wealth of recent scholarship devoted to Erasmus, Erasmus of Rotterdam is the first English-language popular biography of this crucial thinker in twenty years.

From Mythos to Logos: Andrea Palladio, Freemasonry and the Triumph of Minerva explores how myth was used to encode architecture and frescoed interiors with insights that promote peace, freedom and kindness as ways of being in the world. The author, Michael Trevor Coughlin argues that Freemasonry took root in the Italian city of Vicenza as early as 1546, and that its precepts, conveyed through the intersection of myth and philosophy, were disseminated widely in buildings and images, as well as texts, prescribing tolerance and an understanding of the divine that exists in each and everyone.

Martin Luther is known for challenging the Roman Catholic church; yet reading God's Word was what Luther considered his primary task. Though he is often portrayed as reading the Bible with a bare approach, Todd R. Hains considers how Luther's interpretation of the text was actually guided by the church's established practice of hermeneutics.

Do we have free will? It's a question that has puzzled philosophers and theologians for centuries and feeds into numerous political, social, and personal concerns. Are we products of our culture, or free agents within it? How much responsibility should we take for our actions? Are our neural pathways fixed early on by a mixture of nature and nurture, or is the possibility of comprehensive, intentional psychological change always open to us? What role does our brain play in the construction of free will, and how much scientific evidence is there for the existence of it? What exactly are we talking about when we talk about 'freedom' anyway? In this cogent and compelling book, Julian Baggini explores the concept of free will from every angle, blending philosophy, neuroscience, sociology and cognitive science. Freedom Regained brings the issues raised by the possibilities - and denials - of free will to vivid life, drawing on scientific research and fascinating encounters with expert witnesses, from artists to addicts, prisoners to dissidents. Contemporary thinking tells us that free will is an illusion, and Baggini challenges this position, providing instead a new, more positive understanding of our sense of personal freedom: a freedom worth having.

Combining biographical narrative and analytical essays, this book provides a new, comprehensive view of Martin Luther's life and times, along with a new examination of the radical theology that sparked the Reformation and changed the Christian world forever. Drawing on sources new and old, the authors chronicle the fascinating, turbulent life of the Great Reformer from a historical point of view. Luther's revolutionary thoughts on scripture and salvation are explored from a theological perspective, offering a fresh appraisal of the doctrine that irrevocably divided the Roman Catholic Church.

Volume 58 in the Collected Works of Erasmus series contains, for the first time, the English translation of Erasmus' Annotations on Paul's Epistles to the Galatians and Ephesians. Erasmus' Annotations began as marginal comments in his own copy of the New Testament and were subsequently published in 1516 as a supplement to the Novum Instrumentum. His annotations were intended to justify his changes based on the Greek text. In each successive edition, published between 1516 and 1535, the Annotations grew in size and scope providing Erasmus with the opportunity to defend his translations in the face of growing criticism from orthodox Catholic theologians. This volume notes the editorial changes made in the five editions and also provides the reader with information about the patristic, medieval and contemporary sources consulted by Erasmus, and about the evolving relations with contemporary critics. The Annotations played a pivotal role in the development of sixteenth-century biblical exegesis and mark a significant stage in the evolution of humanist biblical scholarship.

A study of reaction to predestinarian doctrine of continental reformers.

Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) hailed Origen of Alexandria (185-254) as a holy priest, a gifted homilist, a heroic Christian, and a celebrated exegete and theologian of the ancient Church. In this book Thomas Scheck presents one of the fruits of Erasmus's endeavors in the field of patristic studies (a particularly neglected field of scholarship within Erasmus studies) by providing the first English translation, annotated and thoroughly introduced, of Erasmus' final work, the Prefaces to his Edition of Origen's writings (1536). Originally published posthumously two months after Erasmus's death, the work surveys Origen of Alexandria's life, writings, preaching, and contribution to the Catholic Church. The staggering depth and breadth of Erasmus's learning are exhibited here, as well as the maturity of his theological reflections, which in many ways anticipate the irenicism of the Second Vatican Council with respect to Origen. Erasmus presents Origen as a marvelous doctor of the ancient Church who made a tremendous contribution to the Catholic exegetical tradition and who lived a saintly life.