Thinking with the Church: Essays in Historical Theology »

B. A. Gerrish is John Nuveen Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His other books include Tradition and the Modern World: Reformed Theology in the Nineteenth Century and Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin.

Thinking with the Church offers twelve substantial essays from B. A. Gerrish, renowned historian, theologian, and Calvin scholar. In this collection, he focuses on the Calvinist tradition and the interpretation of historical theology as a critical engagement with past leaders of Christian thought and their opponents. / In the first two parts the essays focus on philosophical theology, considering questions such as What is religion? and What is revelation? Part three turns directly to historical interpretation of the Calvinist tradition, viewed in the very diverse work of three of its foremost representatives — Calvin himself, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Charles Hodge. Finally, in the fourth and fifth sections Gerrish deals with particular Christian doctrines in which the diversity of the Calvinist tradition is apparent — the atonement, the Eucharist, and grace. Historical interpretation is the foundation throughout, but Gerrish does not exclude the critical engagement that belongs to the task of historical theology.

Preface ix

Abbreviations xi

Introduction: “Thinking with the Church” xv

I Revelation

1 Revelation and the Religion of Reason 3

2 Errors and Insights in the Understanding of Revelation 35

II Faith and Morals

3 Idolatrous Faith: Fichte's Atheism Controversy 65

4 Toward a Moral Theology: Forberg and Practical Belief 81

5 Feuerbach's Religious Illusion 92

III The Calvinist Tradition

6 The Place of Calvin in Christian Theology 105

7 Charles Hodge and the Europeans 125

8 Constructing Tradition: Calvin, Schleiermacher, and Hodge 157

IV Atonement

9 Charles Hodge on the Death of Christ 181

10 John Williamson Nevin on the Life of Christ 199

V The Eucharist and the Grace of Christ

11 The Reformation and the Eucharist 229

12 The Grace of Christ 259

Index of Names and Subject 276

Index of Scripture References 286