What Is Regeneration?
What Is Regeneration?

Author: Matthew Barrett

Publisher: P & R Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9781596386594

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The Bible is clear that we cannot initiate our salvation; we are spiritually dead. Barrett explores the doctrine of regeneration to show us what truly happens when we are saved.

Reason and Religion in Clarissa
Reason and Religion in Clarissa

Author: E. Derek Taylor

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-30

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 135115074X

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What distinguishes Clarissa from Samuel Richardson's other novels is Richardson's unique awareness of how his plot would end. In the inevitability of its conclusion, in its engagement with virtually every category of human experience, and in its author's desire to communicate religious truth, E. Derek Taylor suggests, Clarissa truly is the Paradise Lost of the eighteenth century. Arguing that Clarissa's cohesiveness and intellectual rigor have suffered from the limitations of the Lockean model frequently applied to the novel, Taylor turns to the writings of John Norris, a well-known disciple of the theosophy of Nicolas Malebranche. Allusions to this first of Locke's philosophical critics appear in each of the novel's installments, and Taylor persuasively documents how Norris's ideas provided Richardson with a usefully un-Lockean rhetorical grounding for Clarissa. Further, the writings of early feminists like Norris's intellectual ally Mary Astell, who viewed her arguments on behalf of women as compatible with her conservative and deeply held religious and political views, provide Richardson with the combination of progressive feminism and conservative theology that animate the novel. In a convincing twist, Taylor offers a closely argued analysis of Lovelace's oft-stated declaration that he will not be 'out-Norris'd' or 'out-plotted' by Clarissa, showing how the plot of the novel and the plot of all humans exist, in the context of Richardson's grand theological experiment, within, through, and by a concurrence of divine energy.

An Introduction to Jacob Boehme
An Introduction to Jacob Boehme

Author: Ariel Hessayon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-08-29

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1135014280

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This volume brings together for the first time some of the world’s leading authorities on the German mystic Jacob Boehme, to illuminate his thought and its reception over four centuries for the benefit of students and advanced scholars alike. Boehme’s theosophical works have influenced Western culture in profound ways since their dissemination in the early 17th Century, and these interdisciplinary essays trace the social and cultural networks as well as the intellectual pathways involved in Boehme’s enduring impact. The chapters range from situating Boehme in the 16th Century Radical Reformation, to discussions of his significance in modern theology. They explore the major contexts for Boehme’s reception including the Pietist movement, Russian religious thought and Western esotericism, as well as focusing more closely on important readers: the religious radicals of the English Civil Wars and the later English Behmenists; literary figures such as Goethe and Blake, and great philosophers of the modern age, among them Schelling and Hegel. Together, the chapters illustrate the depth and variety of Boehme’s influence and a concluding chapter addresses directly an underlying theme of the volume – asking why Boehme matters today, and how readers in the present might be enriched by a fresh engagement with his apparently opaque and complex writings.

A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

Author: William Law

Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1598563858

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."If Mr. Law finds a spark of piety in a reader's mind, he will soon kindle it into a flame." --Edward Gibbon Originally published in 1728 at the beginning of the Enlightenment, when rational criticism of religious belief was at its peak, William Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life succeeded in inspiring the most cynical men of the age with its arguments in favor of a spiritual life. Law's challenge of conventional piety and emphasis on Christian perfection directly influenced literary critic Samuel Johnson and historian Edward Gibbon, as well as Cardinal John Henry Newman. John Wesley called it one of three books that accounted for his first "explicit resolve to be all devoted to God." Also, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Henry Venn, William Wilberforce, and Thomas Scott each described reading the book as a major turning point in his life. More than simply a set of rules to live by, Law's book examines what it means to lead a Christian life and criticizes the perversion of Christian tenets by secular and spiritual establishments. Proclaiming that God does not merely forgive our disobedience, but directly calls us to obedience and to a life completely centered in him, he chides, "If you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but because you never thoroughly intended it." Law's prose is fresh and vivid as he illustrates the Christian life as one lived completely for God. His thoughts on prayer, personal holiness, stewardship, pride and humility, and service to the poor will resonate with contemporary readers.