Reformed Virtue After Barth

With its focus on the traditions and communities that form us over the course of a lifetime, virtue ethics has richly expanded our understanding of what the Christian life can look like. Yet its emphasis on human virtues and habits of mind and life seems inconsistent with the Reformed tradition's insistence that sin lies at the heart of the human condition. For this reason, virtue ethics seems out of place in Reformed theology, especially in the company of the Reformed tradition's greatest twentieth-century theologian, Karl Barth. In this new addition to the Columbia Series in Reformed Theology, Kirk Nolan argues that Barth's theology actually proves virtue ethics can be compatible with the Reformed tradition. Rather than see virtue as an inevitable and natural process of growth, Barth helps us understand that development in the Christian life comes through a process of repetition and renewal, and that all virtue comes solely as a gift from God. Nolan establishes an important bridge between Reformed moral teaching and the tradition of virtue ethics.

This book argues that Protestant theological ethics not only reveals basic virtue ethical characteristics, but also contributes significantly to a viable contemporary virtue ethics. Pieter Vos demonstrates that post-Reformation theological ethics still understands the good in terms of the good life, takes virtues as necessary for living the good life and considers human nature as a source of moral knowledge. Vos approaches Protestant theology as an important bridge between pre-modern virtue ethics, shaped by Aristotle and transformed by Augustine of Hippo, and late modern understandings of morality. The volume covers a range of topics, going from eudaimonism and Calvinist ethics to Reformed scholastic virtue ethics and character formation in the work of Søren Kierkegaard. The author shows how Protestantism has articulated other-centered virtues from a theology of grace, affirmed ordinary life and emphasized the need of transformation of this life and its orders. Engaging with philosophy of the art of living, Neo-Aristotelianism and exemplarist ethics, he develops constructive contributions to a contemporary virtue ethics.

This research guide introduces scholars to the field of Reformed theology, focusing on works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the English language. Martha Moore-Keish explores twenty-one major theological themes, with attention to classical as well as current works.

Interrogating Barth's discipleship-shaped vision of sanctification, this book investigates both Lutheran and Calvinian source material to develop an account that differs markedly from other Lutheran and Calvinist perspectives. Highlighting the robustly theological and Christ-centred character of Barth's account, Chris Swann demonstrates that, far from merely valorising human activity, Barth advances an understanding of human moral agency, action, and suffering that is real but relative to the agency of God in Christ to which it corresponds analogously. With a focus on the role the image of discipleship plays in giving conceptual structure and shape to Barth's distinctive account of the correspondence between divine agency and sanctified human agency, this book evaluates the ramifications of his discipleship-shaped vision of sanctification. In doing this, it gives special attention to Barth's own personal mixed record with regard to Christian discipleship. Ultimately, Swann retrieves a number of important resources for contemporary theological ethics from Barth's theology of discipleship.

This volume offers an interdisciplinary study of Reformed sanctification and human development, providing the foundation for a constructive account of Christian moral formation that is attentive both to divine grace and to the significance of natural, embodied processes. Angela Carpenter's argument also addresses the impressions that such theologies give; namely either solitude in the face of adversity, or sheer passivity. Through careful examination of the doctrine of sanctification in three Reformed theologians - John Calvin, John Owen and Horace Bushnell-Carpenter argues that human responsiveness in the context of fellowship with the triune God provides a basic framework for a theological account of moral transformation. Her relational approach brings together divine and human agency in a dynamic process where both are indispensable. Supplying an account of moral formation located within Christian salvation, while also being attentive to embodied human nature and the sciences, this book is vital to all those interested in spiritual formation and the human capacity for love.

This book seeks to unpack the evolution of Barth’s understanding of God’s suffering in Jesus Christ in the light of election. The interconnectedness of election, crucifixion, and (im)passibility is explored, in order to ask whether the suffering of Christ is also a statement about the Trinity.

The Oxford Handbook of Jonathan Edwards offers a state-of-the-art summary of scholarship on Edwards by a diverse, international, and interdisciplinary group of Edwards scholars, many of whom serve as global leaders in the burgeoning world of research and writing on 'America's theologian'. As an early modern clerical polymath, Edwards is of interest to historians, theologians, and literary scholars. He is also an interlocutor for contemporary clergy and philosophical theologians. All such readers—and many more—will find here an authoritative overview of Edwards' life, ministry, and writings, as well as a representative sampling of cutting-edge scholarship on Edwards from across several disciplines. The volume falls into four sections, which reflect the diversity of Edwards studies today. The first section turns to the historical Edwards and grounds him in his period and the relevant contexts that shaped his life and work. The second section balances the historical reconstruction of Edwards as a theological and philosophical thinker with explorations of his usefulness for constructive theology and the church today. In part three, the focus shifts to the different ways and contexts in which Edwards attempted to realize his ideas and ideals in his personal life, scholarship, and ministry, but also to the ways in which these historical realities stood in tension with, limited, or resisted his aspirations. The final section looks at Edwards' widening renown and influence as well as diverse appropriations. This Handbook serves as an authoritative guide for readers overwhelmed by the enormity of the multi-lingual world of Edwards studies. It will bring readers up to speed on the most important work being done and then serve them as a benchmark in the field of Edwards scholarship for decades to come.

What difference does the virtue of patience make for our ability to engage deeply in the practice of patience? And how does patience help us grasp the something more that is at the heart of preaching excellence? Learning to Speak of God argues that the virtue of patience is vital to our faithful and deep preaching practice; that patience is a homiletical virtue. In doing so, this volume asks us to consider the role of character in preaching and the work of specific virtues as we go about our preaching practice. Along the way, it names the importance of patience as a long-acknowledged Christian virtue and considers anew how this virtue shapes and empowers the practice of those who desire to preach in ways that participate in God’s transforming work. For those who study, practice, or care about preaching, this volume identifies how any notion of what it means to preach well calls for those whose practice is infused with the virtue of patience.