These volumes describe how the development of the different styles of interpretation found in reading scripture and nature have transformed ideas of both the written word and the created world.

The four companion volumes of Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions contribute to a contextual evaluation of the mutual influences between scriptural exegesis and hermeneutics on the one hand and practices or techniques of interpretation in natural philosophy and the natural sciences on the other. We seek to raise the low profile this theme has had both in the history of science and in the history of biblical interpretation. Furthermore, questions about the interpretation of scripture continue to be provoked by current theological reflection on scientific theories. We also seek to provide a historical context for renewed reflection on the role of the hermeneutics of scripture in the development of theological doctrines that interact with the natural sciences. Contributors are Peter Barker, Paul M. Blowers, James J. Bono, Pamela Bright, William E. Carroll, Kathleen M. Crowther, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Carlos Fraenkel, Miguel A. Granada, Peter Harrison, Kenneth J. Howell, Eric Jorink, Kerry V. Magruder, Scott Mandelbrote, Charlotte Methuen, Robert Morrison, Richard J. Oosterhoff, Volker R. Remmert, T. M. Rudavsky, Stephen D. Snobelen, Jitse M. van der Meer, and Rienk H. Vermij.

The four companion volumes of Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions contribute to a contextual evaluation of the mutual influences between scriptural exegesis and hermeneutics on the one hand and practices or techniques of interpretation in natural philosophy and the natural sciences on the other. We seek to raise the low profile this theme has had both in the history of science and in the history of biblical interpretation. Furthermore, questions about the interpretation of scripture continue to be provoked by current theological reflection on scientific theories. We also seek to provide a historical context for renewed reflection on the role of the hermeneutics of scripture in the development of theological doctrines that interact with the natural sciences. Contributors are J. Matthew Ashley, Robert E. Brown, Elizabeth Chmielewski, Edward B. Davis, Henri Wijnandus de Knijff, Marwa Elshakry, Richard England, Menachem Fisch, George Harinck, Bernhard Kleeberg, Scott Mandelbrote, G. Blair Nelson, Alexei V. Nesteruk, Jitse M. van der Meer, Rob P. W. Visser, and William Yarchin.

This book provides a new account of a distinctive, important, but forgotten moment in early modern religious and intellectual history. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Christian scholars were investing heavily in techniques for studying the Bible that would now be recognised as the foundations of modern biblical criticism. According to previous studies, this process of transformation was caused by academic elites whose work, whether religious or secular in its motivations, paved the way for the Bible to be seen as a human document rather than a divine message. At the time, however, such methods were not simply an academic concern, and they pointed in many directions other than that of secular modernity. Biblical Scholarship in an Age of Controversy establishes previously unknown religious and cultural contexts for the practice of biblical criticism in the early modern period, and reveals the diversity of its effects. The central figure in this story is the itinerant and bitterly divisive English scholar Hugh Broughton (1549-1612), whose prolific writings in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English offer a new and surprising image of Protestant intellectual culture. In this image, scholarly advances were not impeded but inspired by strict scripturalism; criticism was driven by missionary ideals, even as actual proselytization was sidelined; and learned neo-Latin texts were repackaged to appeal to ordinary believers. Seen through the eyes of Broughton and his neglected colleagues and followers, the complex and unexpected contributions of reformed Protestant intellectuals and laypeople to longer-term religious and cultural change finally become visible.

Spinoza and Biblical Philology in the Dutch Republic, 1660-1710 investigates the biblical criticism of Spinoza from the perspective of the Dutch Reformed society in which the philosopher lived and worked. It focuses on philological investigation of the Bible: its words, language, and the historical context in which it originated. Jetze Touber expertly charts contested issues of biblical philology in mainstream Dutch Calvinism to determine if Spinoza's work on the Bible had bearing on the Reformed understanding of the way society should handle Scripture. Spinoza has received considerable attention both in and outside academia. His unconventional interpretation of the Old Testament passages has been examined repeatedly during the past decades. So has that of fellow 'radicals' (rationalists, radicals, deists, libertines, and enthusiasts), against the backdrop of a society that is assumed to have been hostile, overwhelmed, static, and uniform. Touber counteracts this perspective and considers how the Dutch Republic used biblical philology and biblical criticism, including that of Spinoza. In doing so, Touber takes into account the highly neglected area of the Dutch Reformed ministry and theology of the Dutch Golden Age. The study concludes that Spinoza--rather than simply pushing biblical scholarship in the direction of modernity--acted in an indirect way upon ongoing debates, shifting trends in those debates, but not always in the same direction, and not always equally profoundly at all times, on all levels.

The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards offers a state-of-the-art summary of scholarship on Edwards by a diverse, international, and interdisciplinary group of Edwards scholars, many of whom serve as global leaders in the burgeoning world of research and writing on 'America's theologian'. As an early modern clerical polymath, Edwards is of interest to historians, theologians, and literary scholars. He is also an interlocutor for contemporary clergy and philosophical theologians. All such readers—and many more—will find here an authoritative overview of Edwards' life, ministry, and writings, as well as a representative sampling of cutting-edge scholarship on Edwards from across several disciplines. The volume falls into four sections, which reflect the diversity of Edwards studies today. The first section turns to the historical Edwards and grounds him in his period and the relevant contexts that shaped his life and work. The second section balances the historical reconstruction of Edwards as a theological and philosophical thinker with explorations of his usefulness for constructive theology and the church today. In part three, the focus shifts to the different ways and contexts in which Edwards attempted to realize his ideas and ideals in his personal life, scholarship, and ministry, but also to the ways in which these historical realities stood in tension with, limited, or resisted his aspirations. The final section looks at Edwards' widening renown and influence as well as diverse appropriations. This Handbook serves as an authoritative guide for readers overwhelmed by the enormity of the multi-lingual world of Edwards studies. It will bring readers up to speed on the most important work being done and then serve them as a benchmark in the field of Edwards scholarship for decades to come.

The Days of Creation examines the history of Christian interpretation of the seven-day framework of Genesis 1:1–2:3 in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from the post-apostolic era to the debates surrounding Essays and Reviews (1860). Included in the survey are patristic, medieval, Renaissance/Reformation, eighteenth-century Enlightenment and finally early to mid-nineteenth-century interpretations of the days of creation. This study enables an insight into the mighty career of a biblical text of seminal importance, and fills a significant niche in reception-historical research.

Gustave Doré and the Modern Biblical Imagination explores the role of biblical imagery in modernity through the lens of Gustave Doré (1832-83), whose work is among the most reproduced and adapted scriptural imagery in the history of Judeo-Christianity. First published in France in late 1865, Doré's Bible illustrations received widespread critical acclaim among both religious and lay audiences, and the next several decades saw unprecedented dissemination of the images on an international scale. In 1868, the Doré Gallery opened in London, featuring monumental religious paintings that drew 2.5 million visitors over the course of a quarter-century; when the gallery's holdings travelled to the United States in 1892, exhibitions at venues like the Art Institute of Chicago drew record crowds. The United States saw the most creative appropriations of Doré's images among a plethora of media, from prayer cards and magic lantern slides to massive stained-glass windows and the spectacular epic films of Cecile B. DeMille. This book repositions biblical imagery at the center of modernity, an era that has often been defined through a process of secularization, and argues that Doré's biblical imagery negotiated the challenges of visualizing the Bible for modern audiences in both sacred and secular contexts. A set of texts whose veracity and authority were under unprecedented scrutiny in this period, the Bible was at the center of a range of historical, theological, and cultural debates. Gustave Doré is at the nexus of these narratives, as his work established the most pervasive visual language for biblical imagery in the past two and a half centuries, and constitutes the means by which the Bible has persistently been translated visually.

An essential examination of the historical relationship between science and religion. Since its publication in 2002, Science and Religion has proven to be a widely admired survey of the complex relationship of Western religious traditions to science from the beginning of the Christian era to the late twentieth century. In the second edition, eleven new essays expand the scope and enhance the analysis of this enduringly popular book. Tracing the rise of science from its birth in the medieval West through the scientific revolution, the contributors here assess historical changes in scientific understanding brought about by transformations in physics, anthropology, and the neurosciences and major shifts marked by the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and others. In seeking to appreciate the intersection of scientific discovery and the responses of religious groups, contributors also explore the theological implications of contemporary science and evaluate approaches such as the Bible in science and the modern synthesis in evolution, which are at the center of debates in the historiography, understanding, and application of science. The second edition provides chapters that have been revised to reflect current scholarship along with new chapters that bring fresh perspectives on a diverse range of topics, including new scientific approaches and disciplines and non-Christian traditions such as Judaism, Islam, Asiatic religions, and atheism. This indispensible classroom guide is now more useful than ever before. Contributors: Richard J. Blackwell, Peter J. Bowler, John Hedley Brooke, Glen M. Cooper, Edward B. Davis, Alnoor Dhanani, Diarmid A. Finnegan, Noah Efron, Owen Gingerich, Edward Grant, Steven J. Harris, Matthew S. Hedstrom, John Henry, Peter M. Hess, Edward J. Larsen, Timothy Larson, David C. Lindberg, David N. Livingstone, Craig Martin, Craig Sean McConnell, James Moore, Joshua M. Moritz, Mark A. Noll, Ronald L. Numbers, Richard Olson, Christopher M. Rios, Nicolaas A. Rupke, Michael H. Shank, Stephen David Snobelen, John Stenhouse, Peter J. Susalla, Mariusz Tabaczek, Alan C. Weissenbacher, Stephen P. Weldon, and Tomoko Yoshida

In their theological and historical interactions, neo-Calvinism and Roman Catholicism have often met in moments of conflict and co-operation. The neo-Calvinist statesman Abraham Kuyper polemicized against the Roman Catholic Church and its theology, whilst building bridges between those traditions by forging novel political coalitions across ecclesiastical boundaries. In theology, Gerrit C. Berkouwer, a neo-Calvinist critic of Roman Catholicism in the 1930s, later attended the Second Vatican Council as an appreciative Protestant observer. Telling their stories and others—including new research on lesser-known figures and neglected topics—this book presents the first scholarly volume on those dynamics of polemics and partnership.