Sin Grace And Free Will

In this first volume of Sin, Grace and Free Will, Matthew Knell embarks on a journey through centuries of Christian thought, from the Apostolic Fathers to St Augustine of Hippo. While the themes of sin, grace and free will are familiar to any Christian, Knell provides a comprehensive overview of how people such as Irenaeus, Gregory of Nazianzus and Augustine explored these ideas, following the development of early church philosophy on topics such as the problem of evil and the crucial difference between conscious and unconscious sin, as well as the distinction between body and soul. An indispensable primer for any beginning scholar, Sin, Grace and Free Will presents the writings of Christian thinkers of the early church in context and examines the progress of church doctrine from the nascent model of sin in the Shepherd of Hermas to Origen's analysis of divine influence on human will and Augustine's seminal work on grace and salvation.

In the first volume of Sin, Grace and Free Will, Matthew Knell embarked on a journey through centuries of Christian thought, from the Apostolic Fathers to St Augustine of Hippo. In this second volume, a new journey begins with Anselm of Canterbury and leads to the Council of Trent. While the themes of sin, grace and free will are familiar to any Christian, Knell provides a comprehensive overview of the thought on such matters of crucial Christian thinkers and reformers. In doing so, the second volume explores not only the Catholic way of dealing with these central topics, but also Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin’s views and different approaches. An indispensable primer for any beginning scholar, Sin, Grace and Free Will presents the writings of Christian thinkers in their own contexts, and examines the progress of church doctrine.

An uplifting look at three famous and flawed fathers of the Christian church and how their lives can inspire us to fall in love with God and find the power to overcome our weaknesses. Augustine grappled with sexual passion. Martin Luther struggled to control his tongue. John Calvin fought the battle of faith with the world's weapons. Yet despite their failings, each man will always be remembered as a founding father to the Christian faith because of the messages they declared. And even with their deaths hundreds of years ago, their messages still speak today. John Piper explores each man's life, integrating Augustine's delight in God with Luther's emphasis on the Word and Calvin's exposition of Scriptures. Through their strengths and struggles, he teaches us how to better live today, for when we consider their lives, we behold the glory and majesty of God - and in that, find the power to overcome our weaknesses.

Augustine, the man with upturned eye, with pen in the left hand, and a burning heart in the right (as he is usually represented), is a philosophical and theological genius of the first order, towering like a pyramid above his age, and looking down commandingly upon succeeding centuries. He had a mind uncommonly fertile and deep, bold and soaring; and with it, what is better, a heart full of Christian love and humility. He stands of right by the side of the greatest philosophers of antiquity and of modern times. We meet him alike on the broad highways and the narrow footpaths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the awful depths of speculation, wherever philosophical thinkers before him or after him have trod. As a theologian he is facile princeps, at least surpassed by no church father, schoolman, or reformer. With royal munificence he scattered ideas in passing, which have set in mighty motion other lands and later times. He combined the creative power of Tertullian with the churchly spirit of Cyprian, the speculative intellect of the Greek church with the practical tact of the Latin. He was a Christian philosopher and a philosophical theologian to the full.

Robert E. Picirilli, in Grace, Faith, Free Will, renews the discussion of issues that have divided Calvinism and Arminianism since the Reformation, Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian of the 16th century, contested the dominant theological ideas advanced by the well-known Protestant reformer John Calvin and his disciples. Historically, Arminius has been frequently misunderstood and often interpreted by friend and foe alike. Even today, one who calls himself "Arminian" does so with considerable risk, as the name means different things to different people and comes in various flavors. Many automatically think of Arminians as liberal, differing little from Universalists, at least holding to salvation by works , and possibly espousing heretical views of the Trinity or the goodness of man. In truth, some "Arminians" have held and even now hold such beliefs. No so of Arminius himself, his original followers, or able contemporary theologians such as Picirilli. Though he presents both classics Calvinism and Arminianism in order to help readers intelligently decide for themselves, Dr. Picirilli unashamedly advocates a very specific form of Arminianism as the best resolution of the tensions between the two doctrinal positions.

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