Calvin – RCS

The article by which the church stands or falls

Barend Kamphuis Doctor, professor emeritus of Systematic Theology, Theological University of the Reformed Churches (Broederweg 15, 8261 GS Kampen, Netherlands)
bkamphuis@tukampen.nl

Kamphuis B. The article by which the church stands or falls, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2019, vol. 8, pp. 72–85.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2020-00003

Language: English

Martin Luther said about the doctrine of justification: «Because ifthis articlestands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the churchcollapses». Later on, this became a sort of proverb, in Lutheran and alsoin Reformed theology: «justificatioest articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae», «Justification is the article by which the church stands or falls».In this article I analyse and evaluate this saying. First, I discuss its context. Then I mention some other articles that were important in the history of Christian doctrine. In the third place I highlight the danger of onesidedness. Lastly, I discuss the historicity of doctrine. Luther’s focus onthe doctrine of justification had its context in the specific circumstancesand problems of his time. In other times the church stood or fell by otherarticles. The focus on one article has the danger of one-sidedness: we mustbe aware of other aspects of the gospel, that always has more treasuresthan we can comprehend. It is our task to proclaim the gospel as an answerfor the questions and problems of our time.

Key words: Martin Luther, Calvin, justification, doctrine, the Gospel

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/kamphius-2020-en/

Landmarkist Baptism:now in Russia! Review of the book by V. N. Sobolev «Baptists: Who Are They?» (Chelyabinsk, 2015)

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Sergey Aleksandrovich Isaev PhD in History, Master of arts in Theology, assistant professor, Saint-Petersburg Theological Academy (naberezhnaya Obvodnogo kanala, 17, Sankt-Peterburg, 191167)
isayevsviir@yandex.ru

Isaev S. A. Landmarkist Baptism: now in Russia! Review of the book by V. N. Sobolev «Baptists: who are they?» (Chelyabinsk, 2015), Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2018, vol. 7, pp. 318–343.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2018-00016

Language: Russian

The review of a book written by a Baptist from Chelyabinsk on Baptism at large. Having read what Sobolev wrote on the origin of Baptism and its relation to the Reformation, the reviewer concludes that it is the reproduction of the mythology of Landmarkism — the trend in U.S. Southern Baptism, emerged about 1847. The Landmarkists believe that during all the history of the Christian Church the secret tradition of adult re-Baptism existed.

Key words: Luther, Calvin, John Knox, James Graves, William Whitsett, Thomas Eaton, Edgar Young Mullins

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/isaev-2018-en/

Oscillations of love. Relationship of Law and Gospel in the context of the theology of the process (on the example of the theology of Katherine Keller)

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Anton Vladimirovich Tihomirov Doctor in theology, Theological seminary of the Evangelical-Lutheran hurch (derevnya Novosaratovka, 140, Leningradskaya oblast’, Russia, 193149)
tikhomirov@live.com

Tihomirov A. V. Oscillations of love. Relationship of Law and Gospel in the context of the theology of the process (on the example of the theology of Katherine Keller), Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2018, vol. 7, pp. 18–43.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2018-00002

Language: Russian

The author examines the basic principles of the modern theology of the process inspired by the philosophy of the process of Alfred Whitehead. It is studied on the example of theology of a prominent representative of this trend, our contemporary Katherine Keller. In process theology, the world and God are understood as being in constant interaction that finally remains open. It openly denies the omnipotence of God. In relations with the world, He can act as a suffering and receiving power. The main focus of Keller’s analysis of creativity is the consideration of the dialectic of Eros, as the inspiring and impelling power of God, and Agape, as God’s saving mercy. At the same time, the author analyzes this pair of concepts in the context of the relationship between Law and Gospel in classical Lutheran theology. The author shows that, although some representatives of the theology of the process understand the relationship of Eros and Agape as a reflection of Luther’s distinction between Law and Gospel, it is still difficult to find a direct correspondence between these pairs of concepts. In Luther’s understanding, Law is opposed to Gospel, while Eros and Agape in the theology of the process complement each other and strive to complete fusion. It is noted, however, that Keller does not openly refer to Luther and does not argue with him, focusing her criticism on the teachings of Jean Calvin. Nevertheless, the author emphasizes that the ideas developed in the framework of the theology of the process can have a consoling character in the face of questions and doubts of a modern man, i.e. under certain conditions, to fulfill a purpose similar to the aime of the Martin Luther’s distinction between Law and Gospel.

Key words: Calvin, Luther, Agape, Eros, Theology, God

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/tihomirov-2018-en/

Review of the monography by V. A. Bachinin «Europeamn Reformation as spiritual war» (Kiev, 2017)

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Sergey Aleksandrovich Isaev PhD in history, senior researcher, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of History (Petrozavodskaya ulitsa, 7, Saint-Petersburg, 197110) , isayevsviir@yandex.ru

Isaev S. A. Review on the monography by V. A. Bachinin «European Reformation as spiritual war» (Kiev, 2017), Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2017, vol. 6, pp. 406–417.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2017-00020

Language: Russian

The book is considered as a product of culturological scholarship created by Russian Calvinist. Vladislav Bachinin is sure that the Roman Catholic Church in the late medieval Europe was infected by Renaissance ideas — paganistic and anti-Christian. According to Bachinin, the Reformation saved the European Christianity from this threat. The main savior, according to Bachinin, was John Calvin. Martin Luther is considered as the great «pathfinder» of Reformation and harbinger of Calvin.

Key words: Luther, Calvin, Jan Huss, theology, culture, Calvinism, Europe

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/isaev-2017-en/

Luther’s representations and interpretations in the early Modern age. The Italian case

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Michela Catto PhD in history, assistant professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Viale Antonio Allegri 9, Palazzo Dossetti, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 42121) , michela.catto@unimore.it; michelacatto@gmail.com

Catto М. Luther’s representations and interpretations in the early Modern age. The Italian case, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2017, vol. 6, pp. 208–231.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2017-00011

Language: English

In the present article we shall focus on the early radicalization in Italy of Luther’s and the Reformed world’s stereotypical image, quite distant from an actual knowledge of the doctrine.
Luther was associated with Niccolò Machiavelli and machiavellism. The Florentine secretary was referred to, and sometimes only hinted at, for the historiographical notion which attributed Italy’s backwardness in the processs of modernization to the decadence of its religion and coincidentally of its mores and morals. At first Machiavelli and Luther, sons of Satan both of them, were indicated as the main actors of the corruption of customs and, during the 18th century, the analysis was developed with examples supplied by the economic, social and political comparison with the countries where Reformation was adopted.
In the context of the Roman Church, the «Lutheran monster» will occasionally be pointed at as the source and origin of all kinds of disasters, of decadence of customs and doctrine. In different moments and situations therefore, the figure of Luther — and Calvin — became the causes of the doctrinal corruption effected by the Society of Jesus, the origin of Jansenism, of any policy opposing the papal power and hostile to religious institutions, and at last as the germ from which the worst modern doctrines were born: from atheims to libertinism and the Enlightenment.

Key words: Calvin, Reformation, atheism, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, libertinism, Jansenism

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/catto-2017-en/

Alles Schicksal? Der Himmel als astrologische Auskunftei im Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit

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Walter Sparn, PhD in theology, professor, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Schloßplatz 4, 91054 Erlangen, Germany), ephorus, Martin Luthers Bund (Fahrstraße 15, Erlangen, Germany, 91054)

walter.sparn@t-online.de

Sparn W. Alles Schicksal? Der Himmel als astrologische Auskunftei im Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2015, vol. 4, pp. 34–41.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2015-00003

Language: German

The article “All is Fortune? The sky as an astrology agency in the early modern time lutheranism” deals with attitude to astrology as part of the Lutheran intellectual culture of the 16–17^th centuries. The author marks out two distinctive approaches to astrology that were, on the one hand, the interpretation of the planets position as the epitome of human lives, and, on the other hand, as sign of the future events. The last implies human actions with aim of correction and perfection of the picture presented in the sky. Luther himself didn’t engaged in astrology, but it fat perfectly his eschatological consciousness. Among other reformers and Lutheran priests (Michael Stiefel, Philipp Melanchthon, Abdias Trew, etc.) astrology was considered as necessary and honorable knowledge. Here the Melanchthon’s support of astrology in the treatise “Oratio de dignitate astrologia” 1535 was an important argument and is analyzed in detail by the author. Despite the overall empirical character of the 16–17^th centuries science within astrology was widely condemned, there had been made several attempts to reform the area. In conclusion, the author analyses astrology in the context of general Christian eschatology.

Key words: Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Ptolemy, Copernicus

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/sparn-w-2015-en/