We Believe in God and in Christ. Not in the Church

by Kroon, Marijn de

• ISBN13: 9780664232931
• ISBN10: 0664232930
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-29
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

This English translation from the Dutch volume is a study of a quotation by St. Augustine as it was understood in the late medieval period. Marijn de Kroon focuses on how this quotation was interpreted by two theologians: Wessel Gansfort, the Northern humanist and theologian connected to theDevotio modernaand the Brethren of the Common Life, and Martin Bucer, the Protestant reformer who further developed Gansfort's ideas. This study is accompanied by a series of shorter texts, all showing the reception of Augustine's phrase in late medieval theology and contrasting it with Gansfort's understanding of it, which Bucer was to adopt. With his commented edition of sourcetexts, de Kroon throws a new light on the links between late medieval and Reformation thought, demonstrating how a fully fledged reformer like Bucer used the works of medieval theologians. In fact, this is the first work to point to a concrete case of Gansfort's influence on the Reformation.

Author Biography

Marijn de Kroon is Chief Editor of the Collected Works of Martin Bucer and author of numerous scholarly works, including The Honour of God and Human Salvation: Calvin's Theology according to His Institutes.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	p. ix
Author's Preface for the English Translation	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
Augustine Makes His Entrance	p. xv
Through the Back Door of Canon Law (Corpus Iuris Canonici)	p. xvii
Augustine's Criticism of Mani's Epistula fundamenti	p. xviii
Introductory Note to Chapter 1	p. xxi
Six Interpretations	p. 1
William of Occam (d. 1347)	p. 1
Hermann von Schildesche (d. 1357)	p. 5
Gregory of Rimini (d. 1358)	p. 8
Pierre d'Ailly (d. 1420)	p. 12
Thomas Netter Waldensis (d. 1430)	p. 17
Gabriel Biel (d. 1495)	p. 21
Who Has Authority in the Church?	p. 27
Wessel Gansfort's Interpretation	p. 27
Why Did Wessel Gansfort Write This?	p. 30
Excursus: Gansfort and Luther	p. 32
Preliminary Remarks on the Present Edition of Wessel Gansfort's Treatise on Authority in the Church	p. 33
The Text: Wessel Gansfort, Ecclesiastical Dignity and Power	p. 34
Martin Bucer and Wessel Gansfort: Exploratory Forays	p. 67
Introduction	p. 67
Bucer's Commentary on Romans 8:18	p. 67
Bucer Chooses Wessel Gansfort	p. 68
Exploratory forays	p. 70
Wessel's Treatise De Eucharistia	p. 70
Wessel's Treatise De potestate ecclesiastica	p. 73
Edification and Piety	p. 75
Religious Office as a Position	p. 77
Antithetical Formulations	p. 79
"Nature Is...the Will of God."	p. 84
Wessel's Praise of Francis of Assisi	p. 85
Concluding Remarks	p. 86
Abbreviations	p. 89
Sources and Secondary Literature	p. 91
Biblical Index	p. 97
Name Index	p. 99
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