Slideshow

The Day And The Hour

June 27, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

The Day and the Hour: Christianity’s Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World.

Trying to predict the return of Christ and the end of the ages began two thousand years ago and continues to this day. Gumerlock has compiled a one-of-a-kind history of these foolhardy predictions.This fascinating chronicle of predictions will rivet the attention of any student of Bible prophecy. Regardless of your eschatological position, you must have this book. Gumerlock looks at date-setting from the first century to the present and beyond showing the utter futility of trying to predict when the end might come.

Available from American Vision

Available from Amazom.com

Gottschalk & A Medieval Predestination Controversy

November 1, 2010 by Frank Leave a Comment

Victor Genke and I have been translating into English the Latin writings of Gottschalk of Orbais, a ninth-century monk whose teachings on divine predestination started a major controversy in the Carolingian church. Gottschalk & A Medieval Predestination Controversy: Texts Translated from the Latin is now available.

From the Back Cover:

“The question of predestination and its nature, which drew strong protests from the monks of Provence in the early fifth century against the teaching of Augustine of Hippo, was initially settled by the Council of Orange in 529. But in the Carolingian renaissance in the ninth century, the Benedictine monk, Gottschalk of Orbais, brought the teachings of the late Augustine to the forefront of theological debate and greatly disturbed the clergy and faithful with his doctrine of double predestination of some to the joy of heaven and of others to the eternal punishment of hell–a doctrine that he claimed was that of Augustine and the Catholic faith. The present volume provides for the first time an English translation of Gottschalk’s key writings on predestination and various reactions and comments from leading theologians of the ninth century, as well as a learned introduction to Gottschalk’s life and controversies.”

The table of contents is available in PDF.

Read reviews of Gottschalk & a Medieval Predestination Controversy in:

Augustinian Studies 41:2 (2010) (PDF)

Catholic Books Review (March 2011) (HTML ) | (PDF )

Fulgentius of Ruspe on the Saving Will of God

August 24, 2009 by Frank Leave a Comment

Fulgentius was born in the year 468 and educated in Vandal North Africa. After a short career in finance he joined a monastery. He later was elevated to an abbot and in the year 508 became bishop of Ruspe, a coastal town in modern Tunisia.

Fulgentius defended the doctrine of the Trinity against Arianism, which was the official religion of the Vandals that denied that the Son was one in being with the Father. He was exiled for his Trinitarian faith to the island of Sardinia for fifteen years. Fulgentius also wrote treatises on grace, free will, and divine predestination. These works are largely the foci of my book entitled Fulgentius of Ruspe on the Saving Will of God: The Development of a Sixth-Century North African Bishop’s Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:4 During the Semi-Pelagian Controversy (Mellen, 2009). It shows that in his earlier writings, Fulgentius often asserted the universality of God’s saving will and general grace. But as he entered a debate on grace and free will, he restricted that universality to all those among the nations predestined by God for salvation.

There are only two other books in print in English devoted to Fulgentius, and Fulgentius on the Saving Will of God is the only one devoted wholly to his theology of grace. It is based upon the latest scholarship on Fulgentius, and in it many passages from his works are translated for the first time in English. In addition, other texts from his time period are translated therein, such as Caesarius of Arles’ On Grace and short works by John Maxentius. Available only in hardback and published by an academic press, Fulgentius on the Saving Will of God is expensive, but worth the investment for those interested in the theology of grace in church history, Augustinian studies, and the Semi-Pelagian debate.

To read some reviews of Fulgentius of Ruspe on the Saving Will of God, click here.

To order a copy, click here. Happy reading. Frank