Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality

Download Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190903546
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality by : Jarred A. Mercer

Download or read book Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality written by Jarred A. Mercer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of Hilary of Poitiers in the debates and developments of early Christianity is tenuous in contemporary scholarship. His invaluable historical position is unquestioned, but the coherence and significance of his own thought is less certain. In this book, Jarred A. Mercer makes a case for understanding Hilary not only as an important historical figure, but as a noteworthy and independent thinker. Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality offers a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's work De Trinitate. The book contends that in all of Hilary's polemical and constructive argumentation, which is essentially trinitarian, he is inherently developing an anthropology. The work therefore reinterprets Hilary's overall theological project in terms of the continual, and for him necessary, anthropological corollary of trinitarian theology- to reframe it in terms of a "trinitarian anthropology." The coherence of Hilary's work depends upon this framework, and without it his thought continues to elude his readers. Mercer demonstrates this through following Hilary's main lines of trinitarian argument, out of which flow his anthropological vision. These trinitarian arguments unfold into a progressive picture of humanity from potentiality to perfection.

Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality

Download Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford Studies in Historical T
ISBN 13 : 9780190903534
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (35 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality by : Jarred A. Mercer

Download or read book Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality written by Jarred A. Mercer and published by Oxford Studies in Historical T. This book was released on 2019 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of Hilary of Poitiers in the debates and developments of early Christianity is tenuous in contemporary scholarship. In this book, Jarred A. Mercer makes a case for understanding Hilary not only as an important historical figure, but as a significant and independent thinker. Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality offers a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's work De Trinitate as a trinitarian anthropology.

Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality

Download Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780190903565
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (35 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality by : Jarred Austin Mercer

Download or read book Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality written by Jarred Austin Mercer and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality

Download Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190903554
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality by : Jarred A. Mercer

Download or read book Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality written by Jarred A. Mercer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of Hilary of Poitiers in the debates and developments of early Christianity is tenuous in contemporary scholarship. His invaluable historical position is unquestioned, but the coherence and significance of his own thought is less certain. In this book, Jarred A. Mercer makes a case for understanding Hilary not only as an important historical figure, but as a noteworthy and independent thinker. Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality offers a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's work De Trinitate. The book contends that in all of Hilary's polemical and constructive argumentation, which is essentially trinitarian, he is inherently developing an anthropology. The work therefore reinterprets Hilary's overall theological project in terms of the continual, and for him necessary, anthropological corollary of trinitarian theology- to reframe it in terms of a "trinitarian anthropology." The coherence of Hilary's work depends upon this framework, and without it his thought continues to elude his readers. Mercer demonstrates this through following Hilary's main lines of trinitarian argument, out of which flow his anthropological vision. These trinitarian arguments unfold into a progressive picture of humanity from potentiality to perfection.

From Autocracy to Democracy to Technocracy

Download From Autocracy to Democracy to Technocracy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1527560953
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (275 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis From Autocracy to Democracy to Technocracy by : Victor N. Shaw

Download or read book From Autocracy to Democracy to Technocracy written by Victor N. Shaw and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores human polity with respect to its nature, context, and evolution. Specifically, it examines how individual wills translate into political ideologies, investigates what social forces converge to shape governmental operations, and probes whether human polity progresses in focus from individual wills to group interests to social integrations. The book entertains five hypotheses. The first is commonsensical: where there are people there is politics. The second is analogous: humans govern themselves socially in a way that is comparable to how a body regulates itself physically. The third is rational: humans set rules, organize activities, and establish institutions upon facts, following reasons, for the purpose of effectiveness and efficiency. The fourth is random: human affairs take place haphazardly under specific circumstances while they overall exhibit general patterns and trends. The final hypothesis is inevitable: human governance evolves from autocracy to democracy to technocracy. The book presents systematic information about human polity, its form, content, operation, impact, and evolution. It sheds light on multivariate interactions among human wills, rights, and obligations, political thoughts, actions, and mechanisms, and social structures, processes, and order maintenances. Pragmatically, it offers invaluable insights into individuals as agents, groupings as agencies, and polity as structuration across the human sphere.

Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology

Download Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004217320
Total Pages : 447 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology by : Damien Janos

Download or read book Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology written by Damien Janos and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-03-02 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study analyzes key concepts in al-Fārābī’s cosmology and provides a new interpretation of his philosophical development through an analysis of the Greco-Arabic sources and a contextualization of his life and thought in the cultural and intellectual milieu of his time.

The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers

Download The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198806647
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers by : Isabella Image

Download or read book The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers written by Isabella Image and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While he is more commonly known for his Trinitiarian works and theology, this study assesses mid-fourth-century bishop Hilary of Poitiers' view of the human condition. Isabella Image shows that the Commentary on Psalm 118 is more closely related to Origen's than previously thought. Image explains how his articulations of sin, body and soul, the Fall and the will all parallel or echo Origen's views in this work, but not necessarily in his Matthew Commentary. Hilary has a doctrine of original sin ('sins of our origin', peccata originis), which differs from the individual personal sins and for which we are individually accountable. He also articulates a fallen will which is in thrall to disobedience and needs God's help, something God always gives as long as we show the initiative. Hilary's idea of the fallen will may have developed in tangent with Origen's thought, which uses Stoic ideas on the process of human action in order to articulate the constraints on purely rational responses. Hilary in turn influences Augustine, who writes against the Pelagian bishop Julian of Eclanum citing Hilary as an example of an earlier writer with original sin. Since Hilary is known to have used Origen's work, and Augustine is known to have used Hilary's, Hilary appears to be one of the stepping-stones between these two great giants of the early church as the doctrines of original sin and the fallen will developed. The Human Condition in Hilary of Poitiers not only identifies Hilary's anthropological thought, but also places it in the current of theological development of the fourth century. It considers reception of Origen in the mid-fourth century, before the criticisms of Epiphanius and the debates in the Egyptian monastic communities. This work also contributes to understanding of the tradition from which Augustine received his doctrine of original sin.

The Covenant of Works

Download The Covenant of Works PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190071389
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Covenant of Works by : J. V. Fesko

Download or read book The Covenant of Works written by J. V. Fesko and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-14 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The doctrine of "the covenant of works" arose to prominence in the late sixteenth century and quickly became a regular feature in Reformed thought. Theologians believed that when God first created man he made a covenant with him: all Adam had to do was obey God's command to not eat from the tree of knowledge and obey God's command to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth. The reward for Adam's obedience was profound: eternal life for him and his offspring. The consequences of his disobedience were dire: God would visit death upon Adam and his descendants. In the covenant of works, Adam was not merely an individual but served as a public person, the federal head of the human race. The Covenant of Works explores the origins of the doctrine of God's covenant with Adam and traces it back to the inter-testamental period, through the patristic and middle ages, and to the Reformation. The doctrine has an ancient pedigree and was not solely advocated by Reformed theologians. The book traces the doctrine's development in the seventeenth century and its reception in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Fesko explores the reasons why the doctrine came to be rejected by some, even in the Reformed tradition, arguing that interpretive methods influenced by Enlightenment thought caused theologians to question the doctrine's scriptural legitimacy.

Rhetorical Economy in Augustine's Theology

Download Rhetorical Economy in Augustine's Theology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019756657X
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rhetorical Economy in Augustine's Theology by : Brian Gronewoller

Download or read book Rhetorical Economy in Augustine's Theology written by Brian Gronewoller and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) studied and taught rhetoric for nearly two decades until, at the age of thirty-one, he left his position as professor of rhetoric in Milan to embark upon his new life as a Christian. This was not a clean break in Augustine's thought. Previous scholarship has done much to show us that Augustine integrated rhetorical ideas about texts and speeches into his thought on homiletics, the formation of arguments, and scriptural interpretation. Over the past few decades a new movement among scholars has begun to show that Augustine also carried rhetorical concepts into areas of his thought that were beyond the typical purview of the rhetorical handbooks. In Rhetorical Economy in Augustine's Theology, Brian Gronewoller contributes to this new wave of scholarship by providing a detailed examination of Augustine's use of the rhetorical concept of economy in his theologies of creation, history, and evil, in order to gain insights into these fundamental aspects of his thought. This study finds that Augustine used rhetorical economy as the logic by which he explained a multitude of tensions within, and answered various challenges to, these three areas of his thought as well as others with which they intersect-including his understandings of providence, divine activity, and divine order.

Catholicity and the Covenant of Works

Download Catholicity and the Covenant of Works PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197514200
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Catholicity and the Covenant of Works by : Harrison Perkins

Download or read book Catholicity and the Covenant of Works written by Harrison Perkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Ussher (1581-1656), one of the most important religious scholars and Protestant leaders of the seventeenth century, helped shape the Church of Ireland and solidify its national identity. In Catholicity and the Covenant of Works, Harrison Perkins addresses the development of Christian doctrine in the Reformed tradition, paying particular attention to the ways in which Ussher adopted various ideas from the broad Christian tradition to shape his doctrine of the covenant of works, which he utilized to explain how God related to humanity both before and after the fall into sin. Perkins highlights the ecumenical premises that underscored Reformed doctrine and the major role that Ussher played in codifying this doctrine, while also shedding light on the differing perspectives of the established churches of Ireland and England. Catholicity and the Covenant of Works considers how Ussher developed the doctrine of a covenant between God and Adam that was based on law, and illustrates how he related the covenant of works to the doctrines of predestination, Christology, and salvation.

Economics of Faith

Download Economics of Faith PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197537731
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Economics of Faith by : Esther Chung-Kim

Download or read book Economics of Faith written by Esther Chung-Kim and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book addresses the role of religious reformers in the development of poor relief in the sixteenth century. During the Reformation, religious leaders served as catalysts, organizers, stabilizers, and consolidators of poor relief programs to alleviate poverty. Although once in line with the religious piety, voluntary poverty was no longer a spiritual virtue for many religious reformers. Rather they imagined social welfare reform to be an integral part of religious reform and worked to modify existing common chests or set up new ones. As crises and migration exacerbated poverty and caused begging to be an increasing concern, Catholic humanists and Protestant reformers moved beyond traditional charity to urge coordination and centralization of a poor relief system. For example, Martin Luther promoted the consolidation of former ecclesiastical property in the poor relief plan for Leisnig in 1523, while Juan Luis Vives devised a new social welfare proposal for Bruges in 1526. In negotiations with magistrates and city councils, reformers helped to shape various local institutions, such hospitals, orphanages, job creation programs, and scholarships for students, as well as to develop new ways of supporting foreigners, strangers, and refugees. Religious leaders contributed to caring for the vulnerable because poverty was a problem too big for any one group or one government to tackle. As religious options multiplied within Christianity, one's understanding of community would determine the boundaries, albeit contested and sometimes fluid, of responsible poor relief"--

Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England

Download Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197536905
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England by : Greg A. Salazar

Download or read book Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England written by Greg A. Salazar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England is the first modern full-scale examination of the theology and life of the distinguished English Calvinist clergyman Daniel Featley (1582-1645). It explores Featley's career and thought through a comprehensive treatment of his two dozen published works and manuscripts and situates these works within their original historical context. A fascinating figure, Featley was the youngest of the translators behind the Authorized Version, a protégé of John Rainolds, a domestic chaplain for Archbishop George Abbot, and a minister of two churches. As a result of his sympathies with royalism and episcopacy, he endured two separate attacks on his life. Despite this, Featley was the only royalist Episcopalian figure who accepted his invitation to the Westminster Assembly. Three months into the Assembly, however, Featley was charged with being a royalist spy, was imprisoned by Parliament, and died shortly thereafter. While Featley is a central focus of the work, this study is more than a biography. It uses Featley's career to trace the fortunes of Calvinist conformists--those English Calvinists who were committed to the established Church and represented the Church's majority position between 1560 and the mid-1620s, before being marginalized by Laudians in the 1630s and puritans in the 1640s. It demonstrates how Featley's convictions were representative of the ideals and career of conformist Calvinism, explores the broader priorities and political maneuvers of English Calvinist conformists, and offers a more nuanced perspective on the priorities and political maneuvers of these figures and the politics of religion in post-Reformation England.

Unity and Catholicity in Christ

Download Unity and Catholicity in Christ PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197638635
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Unity and Catholicity in Christ by : Eric J. DeMeuse

Download or read book Unity and Catholicity in Christ written by Eric J. DeMeuse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Debates concerning the relationship between Tridentine Catholicism and Catholicism after Vatican II dominate theological conversation today, particularly with regard to understandings of the Church and its engagement with the world. Current historical narratives paint ecclesiology after the Council of Trent as dominated by juridical concerns, uniformity, and institutionalism. Purportedly neglected are the spiritual, diverse, and missional aspects of the Church. This book challenges such narratives by investigating the Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suâarez's theology of ecclesial unity and catholicity. Analyzing standard as well as overlooked sources of Suâarez's ecclesiology, the author shows how Suâarez wrestles with the new demands of his time and anticipates later ecumenical developments in twentieth-century Catholic ecclesiology. Early modern expansion prompted theologians after Trent to reckon with the ecclesial status of baptized Protestants, the Greek Orthodox, and non-believers in the New World. It further prompted reflection on the universality, or catholicity, of the Church, and how the Church's mission to the nations serves her greater unity in Christ. Throughout this exposition, the author reveals Suâarez's vision of the Church to be deeply spiritual, diverse, and missional-not at the expense of the institutional, but as it's necessary and life-giving source. The Church, for Suâarez, is primarily a way of life. This book explores not only Suâarez's speculative ecclesiology, but how the unity and catholicity of the body of Christ is lived out in practice, that is, in the worship and works of the faithful, and, most notably, in the charism of his own religious order, the Society of Jesus. Suâarez thus shows his readers what the spiritual dynamic between Christic unity and missional catholicity should look like in the Church"--

Catechesis

Download Catechesis PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SCM Press
ISBN 13 : 0334059410
Total Pages : 79 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (34 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Catechesis by : Jarred Mercer

Download or read book Catechesis written by Jarred Mercer and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catechesis is not just about right teaching, it is a cultivation of a living faith within the community of the Church. Christian faith and theology are performed in the sacramental, communal, and missional life of the Church, and catechesis is an invitation into this lived reality. This book explores the nature of catechesis and how catechesis within our churches can shape the Christian community into an instrument of renewal in the world through the formation of holy living. It argues that the future of catechesis in the life of the Church is to be found in this holistic discipleship, and explores this holistic vision by examining catechesis in its relationship to Christian worship and liturgy, the teaching of doctrine, mission and social action, evangelism, preaching, communal life, and the sacraments.

John Locke's Theology

Download John Locke's Theology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019765004X
Total Pages : 377 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis John Locke's Theology by : Jonathan S. Marko

Download or read book John Locke's Theology written by Jonathan S. Marko and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In John Locke's Theology: An Ecumenical, Irenic, and Controversial Project, Jonathan S. Marko offers the closest work available to a theological system derived from the writings of John Locke. Marko argues that Locke's intent for The Reasonableness of Christianity, his most noted theological work, was to describe and defend his version of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and not his personal theological views. Locke, Marko says, intended the work to be an ecumenical and irenic project during a controversial time in philosophy and theology. Locke described what qualifies someone as a Christian in simple and irenic terms, and argued for the necessity of Scripture and the reasonableness of God's means of conveying his authoritative messages. The Reasonableness of Christianity could be construed as personal, but mainly in the sense that it puts the burden of understanding Scripture and arriving at theological convictions on the autonomous individual, rejecting the notion that one should base one's doctrinal opinions on so-called authorities. His work was inadvertently controversial partly because then, like today, readers typically failed to make a distinction between Locke's personal and programmatic positions. Marko also points to places in Locke's corpus where he avoids advocating for a particular sectarian position in his treatment of theological doctrines. What is more, it shows why attempting to categorize Locke--a philosopher, theologian, and political scientist all at once--according to traditional Christian paradigms is a dangerous misstep and a difficult scholarly feat.

Refusing to Kiss the Slipper

Download Refusing to Kiss the Slipper PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197566979
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Refusing to Kiss the Slipper by : Michael W. Bruening

Download or read book Refusing to Kiss the Slipper written by Michael W. Bruening and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History has long viewed French Protestants as Calvinists. Refusing to Kiss the Slipper re-examines the Reformation in francophone Europe, presenting for the first time the perspective of John Calvin's evangelical enemies and revealing that the French Reformation was more complex and colorful than previously recognized. Michael Bruening brings together a cast of Calvin's opponents from various French-speaking territories to show that opposition to Calvinism was stronger and better organized than has been recognized. He examines individual opponents, such as Pierre Caroli, Jerome Bolsec, Sebastian Castellio, Charles Du Moulin, and Jean Morély, but more importantly, he explores the anti-Calvinist networks that developed around such individuals. Each group had its own origins and agenda, but all agreed that Calvin's claim to absolute religious authority too closely echoed the religious sovereignty of the pope. These oft-neglected opponents refused to offer such obeisance-to kiss the papal slipper-arguing instead for open discussion of controversial doctrines. They believed Calvin's self-appointed leadership undermined the bedrock principle of the Reformation that the faithful be allowed to challenge religious authorities. This book shows that the challenge posed by these groups shaped the way the Calvinists themselves developed their reform strategies. Bruening's work demonstrates that the breadth and strength of the anti-Calvinist networks requires us to abandon the traditional assumption that Huguenots and other francophone Protestants were universally Calvinist.

Consciences and the Reformation

Download Consciences and the Reformation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019769215X
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Consciences and the Reformation by : Timothy R. Scheuers

Download or read book Consciences and the Reformation written by Timothy R. Scheuers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the contentious relationship between oath-taking, confessional subscription, and the binding of the conscience in reforms led by John Calvin. Calvin and his closest Reformed colleagues routinely distinguished what they believed were impious rules and constitutions in the Roman Church--human traditions claiming to bind the consciences of the faithful by putting them in fear of losing their salvation--and legitimate church observances, such as oaths and formal subscription to Reformed confessional standards. Doctrinal and moral reform in the cities became difficult, however, when friends and foes alike accused Calvin and his partners of burdening consciences with extra-Scriptural statements of faith composed by human authorities--a claim that, if true, would necessarily shape our assessment of the integrity of Calvin's Reformation. In light of these conflicts, author Timothy R. Scheuers offers a close reading of the texts and controversies surrounding Calvin's struggle for reform. In particular, he shows how they reveal the unique challenges Calvin and his colleagues encountered as they attempted to employ oath-swearing and formal confession of faith in order to consolidate the reformation of church and society. This book demonstrates how oaths and vows were used to shape confessional identity, secure social order, forge community, and promote faithfulness in public and private contracts. It also illustrates the complex and difficult task of protecting the individual conscience as Calvin sought to bring his new take on Christian freedom into Reformed communities.