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Our Sovereign Refuge is a study of the pastoral theology of Theodore Beza, the Protestant reformer who inherited the mantle of leadership in the Reformed church from John Calvin. Countering a common view of Beza as supremely a 'scholastic' theologian who deviated from Calvin's biblical focus, Wright uncovers a new portrait of Theodore Beza. Beza was not a cold and rigid academic theologian obsessed with probing the eternal decrees of God. Rather, by placing Beza in his pastoral context and by noting his concerns in his pastoral and biblical treatises, Wright shows that Beza was fundamentally a committed Christian who was troubled by the vicissitudes of life in the second half of the sixteenth century. Beza believed that the biblical truth of the supreme sovereignty of God alone could support Christians on their earthly pilgrimage to heaven. This pastoral and personal portrait of Beza forms the heart of Wright's argument.""In this important study, Shawn Wright introduces us to Pastor Beza and shows us that his highly developed Reformed theology was shaped by serious pastoral engagement. Wright brings Beza down to earth and makes him live again as a pastoral theologian concerned with the life-and-death struggles of God's people.""--Timothy George, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University""Exploring the whole range of Beza's output, Dr. Wright now enables us to meet Beza as he really was, and it is an inspiring encounter. This is a landmark book.""--Professor James Packer, Regent College""Wright cogently and masterfully unveils Beza as a great spiritual casuist who knows how to use God's sovereignty in comforting and assuring the fainthearted in spiritual warfare. This book is long overdue and fills an important lacuna in Reformed scholarship.""--Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary""Dr. Wright shows how historical scholarship ought to be done. Our Sovereign Refuge is the work of a gifted, well-trained historian who reads the primary sources carefully, paying close attention to matters of context and genre, always in close dialogue with recent Bezan scholarship.""--John L. Farthing, Hendrix CollegeShawn D. Wright (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. He earned his BA at Duke University and his MDiv at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Gretchen, has five sons, Benjamin, Jonathan, Aaron, Nathan, and Stephen, and is a pastor at Clifton Baptist Church.

Without minimizing the validity of the social, political, and ecclesiastical approaches to this field of study, Yuille affirms that the essence of Puritanism is found in its spirituality. He demonstrates this by turning to a relatively unknown Puritan, George Swinnock (1627-1673). At the root of Swinnock's spirituality was his concept of fear of God as the proper ordering of the soul's faculties after the image of God. This concept is pivotal to Swinnock's spirituality, because he viewed it as the Christian's true principles of practice. Yuille shows the prevalence of this paradigm among Swinnock's fellow Puritans, and sets it in a historical tradition extending back to Augustine through Calvin.""[H]ere we are reminded of the importance of this great biblical theme of the fear of the Lord. And once again, past wisdom proves richly instructive for present church life.""--Michael A. G. Haykin, Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary""This is the first, and a first class, major study of the spirituality of a forgotten Puritan, George Swinnock. Yuille is to be congratulated on bringing to light the intrinsic connection between the fear of God and sanctification in Swinnock's theology, the former being the logical cause of the latter.""--Dennis Ngien, Research Professor of Theology, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, Canada""All who see Puritan piety as an integral element in the church's evangelical heritage will find George Swinnock's teaching, both in his own writings and as set forth here, a rich and reliable resource for practice. . . . For successfully deploying what he has found, Dr Yuille must be profoundly thanked.""--James I. Packer, Professor of Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, CanadaJ. Stephen Yuille (PhD, London School of Theology) is the preaching elder at Braidwood Bible Chapel. He is also part-time Professor of Biblical Studies with Toronto Baptist Seminary. He earned his BA from the University of Toronto, his MTS from Toronto Baptist Seminary, and his MDiv from Tyndale Seminary.

In three wide-ranging case studies Mark A. Garcia offers a comprehensive yet focused analysis of the centrality of union with Christ in Calvin's thought. It explains not only the distinctive nature of Calvin's response to Rome on justification, but why this response must be carefully distinguished from that of his Lutheran counterparts. The fruit of these investigations is the first extensive demonstration that Calvin's exposition of union with Christ in relating justification and sanctification points to an emerging Reformed theology of justification that diverges from the Lutheran tradition. Calvin's exegetical and theological model of union with Christ accents the importance in the early Reformed tradition of the relationship between Christology and salvation.""[T]his is one of the more perceptive recent accounts of the difficult problem of faith and works in Calvin's theology. It also sheds much light on issues such as his quarrel with Osiander. A highly commendable first book.""--Irena Backus, Professor of History of Christianity, Institute for Reformation History, University of Geneva""Thoroughly researched and clearly written, this book makes an important contribution to Calvin studies. It explores in depth and often with unprecedented insight the central place of union with Christ in his applied soteriology and demonstrates convincingly, with significant implications, just how controlling is its basic union/twofold grace (of justification and sanctification) structure.""--Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Charles Krahe Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary""This is a superb study and warmly to be recommended to all who are working with Calvin's theology.""--Anthony N. S. Lane, Director of Research and Professor of Historical Theology, London School of Theology""Mark Garcia here does handsome justice to the significance of union with Christ in John Calvin, and does so in a book which displays a masterful familiarity with contemporary Calvin scholarship, alongside other grounds for high praise.""--David F. Wright, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Reformed Christianity, New College, University of EdinburghMark A. Garcia (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is Pastor of Immanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in West Allegheny (Oakdale), Pennsylvania.

During the middle decades of the nineteenth century the English Nonconformist community developed a coherent political philosophy of its own, of which a central tenet was the principle of religious equality (in contrast to the stereotype of Evangelical Dissenters). The Dissenting community fought for the civil rights of Roman Catholics, non-Christians, and even atheists, on an issue of principle that had its flowering in the enthusiastic and undivided suppot that Nonconformity gave to the campaign for Jewish emancipation.This study examines the political efforts and ideas of English Nonconformists during the period, covering the whole range of national issues raised, from state education to the Crimean War. It offers a case study of a theologically conservative group defending religious pluralism in the civic sphere, showing the that concept of religious equality was a grand vision at the center of the political philosophy of the Dissenters.""Larsen's book is both original and stimulating. . . . The author is persuasive in his insistence that mid-Victorian Nonconformist politics remained religiously motivated.""--English Historical Review""It is Timothy Larsen's purpose in this well-informed, well-written, and generally persuasive book to introduce us to a world in which English Nonconformists plausibly presented themselves as the vanguard of religious, political, and cultural progress. . . . This volume sets a formidable . . . standard.""--Journal of Religious History""This excellent monograph . . . focuses on the political ideas and outlook of English Nonconformists. . . . Larsen has immersed himself deeply and widely in the extensive periodical and pamphlet literature generated by the Nonconformists, enabling him to reconstruct their views with an authority and subtlety not matched by previous scholars.""--Parliamentary History""[This book is a w]elcome account of the advancement of religious equality in mid-Victorian England, likely to provide considerable scholarly debate over an important period in church history.""--Anglican and Episcopal History""Larsen's book is the best in print for this important period.""--Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society""Scholars and modern Free Churchmen alike are in Dr. Larsen's debt for this authoritative study.""--Congregational History CircleTimothy Larsen, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, is McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College, and had been elected a Visiting Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge.

This work examines the problem of how to connect the historic doctrine of the Trinity to Christian devotional practice. Two criteria for a successful Trinitarian spirituality are proposed: that of drawing significantly from nuances of the classic formulations of the doctrine and dealing with the mode of original Trinitarian self-disclosure, that is, the unfolding biblical doctrine of the historia salutis. Various historical attempts at articulating a method are examined, with special emphasis given to the Puritan John Owen.""In this work, Brian Kay has opened up new possibilities in understanding John Owen for our day. By showing how Owen's theology underpins and informs a developing spirituality, Kay demonstrates the need for prayer to be grounded in theology and for theology to be shaped by prayer.""--Ruth Gouldbourne, Minister, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, London""As valuable as this work is for specialists, it is an even greater treasure for the faith and practice on the church. At the time when spirituality seems theologically dry, John Owen--through his remarkably insightful interpreter, Brian Kay--reminds us just how significant the doctrine of the Trinity is for our daily lives as Christians. I anticipate a wide readership for this impressive work.""--Michael Horton, J, Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary, CA""This is a thoughtful and persistent attempt to explicate the connection between confessing a Trinitarian God and actually living as if it mattered. . . . The dichotomy between belief and behavior, so prevalent in modern religious life, is resolutely rejected by Kay. The resultant spirituality prescribed is honest, robust, orthodox, and above all genuinely Trinitarian. Kay has performed a great service for the church in our time. May he be widely read.""--Richard Lints, Professor of Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary""A great theme that leads us to the heart of the devotional theology of the ablest of Puritan thinkers. Kay's book opens, for the thoughtful explorer, a fresh path to a lost mine of spiritual treasure.""--Alan Spence, Minister in the United Reformed Church, LondonBrian K. Kay is Senior Pastor, Trinity Presbyterian Church, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Reformed theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were led by their doctrine of predestination to consider whether Christ had died only for ""the elect."" This work traces the way they tackled the extent of the atonement. Giving close attention to the Reformers, the debates of the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), and the Amyraldian controversy, it demonstrates that, up to and including the Swiss ""Consensus"" of 1675, the Reformed Churches were never able to achieve solid and lasting agreement on this point, and aims to explain why.As it follows these debates, this work provides insights into the process of the construction of Reformed theology. It ends by suggesting that the long-lasting difficulties experienced by the Reformed over predestination and the extent of the atonement point to a need for a new departure by those who stand in the Reformed tradition today.""In this careful historical study, in which the links between Reformed thought and medieval scholasticism are fully noted, the author shows that the incompatibility of the requirement that the Gospel be freely proclaimed to all with God's determination to save the elect only, lay at the root of early inner-Reformed and Reformed-Lutheran debates on the extent of the atonement.""--Alan P. F. Sell, Acadia University Divinity College""This analysis of the diversity of early Reformed thought on the extent of the atonement is the most careful and thorough examination yet available. It exposes the inadequacies of the most recent discussions, and will be essential reading for all future investigators.""--David F. Wright, University of EdinburghMichael Thomas earned a BA at the London Bible College (now London School of Theology) and has served as pastor at Baptist churches in the London suburbs. He was awarded a PhD in 1993 and the present work is closely based on his thesis.