Christian Liberty Research Articles

Biblical Women in Early Modern Literary Culture 1550–1700

Introduction: Discovering biblical women in Early Modern literary culture - Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher PART I: Women and feminine archetypes of the Old Testament 2. Overview: reading Old Testament women in Early Modern England, 1550-1700 - Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher 3. A 'Paraditian Creature': Eve and her unsuspecting garden in seventeenth century literature - Elizabeth Hodgson 4. Christian liberty and female rule: exegesis and political controversy in the 1550s - Adrian Streete 5. Wives, fears and foreskins: Early Modern reproach of Zipporah and Michal - Michele Osherow 6. The politics of female supplication in the Book of Esther - Alison Thorne 7. Gender and the inculcation of virtue: the Book of Proverbs in action - Danielle Clarke PART II: Women and feminine archetypes of the New Testament 8. Overview: reading New Testament women in Early Modern England, 1550-1700 - Victoria Brownlee and Laura Gallagher 9. Christ's tears and maternal cannibalism in Early Modern London - Beatrice Groves 10. Mary of recusants and reform: literary memory and defloration - Thomas Rist 11. Stabat mater dolorosa: imagining Mary's grief at the cross - Laura Gallagher 12. St Helena of Britain in the land of the Magdalene: all's well that ends well - Lisa Hopkins 13. Imagining the enemy: protestant readings of the whore of babylon in Early Modern England, c.1580-1625 - Victoria Brownlee 14. Afterword - Dympna Callaghan Index

Wolność w Chrystusie. Aktualność nauczania św. Tomasza z Akwinu o wolności chrześcijańskiej na podstawie piątego rozdziału "Super Epistolam S. Pauli Apostoli ad Galatas Lectura"

The St. Paul’s call from the first verse of the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians leads all Christians to constantly looking at the Christ, especially the crucified, who reveals the authentic meaning of freedom, the fruit of God’s saving action. St. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this letter, notes that human freedom is realized through union with Christ. In addition, he notes that Christian teachings present to a believer the prospect of living in a relationship of love with God and another man. It is an unique elevation of the dignity of creation and perfect revelation of God’s mercy. Through the grace and mercy exceeding the strict measure of justice, sinners are capable of relationship with another man in the image of God.St. Paul wrote: „For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty. […] by love serve one another” (Gal 5, 13). St. Thomas, in the aforementioned commentary, stresses very strongly that the mentioned gift, making freedom real, is love. This truth is revealed especially by the Christ on the cross, who with love (serving God and people) took on the sins of the whole world (cf. Phil 2, 6-11) and, in his innocence, let himself to be killed because of them, so that sinners may live in freedom.The article outlines the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas on Christian liberty, on the basis of his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. In this way, it shows the enduring topicality of the thought of Aquinas, presenting it against some of the philosophical currents of thought which occurred in the history after the death of the Angelic Doctor, and comparing it with the Church’s teachings in papal encyclicals from the end of the twentieth century.

The Analysis of Christian Early Childhood Home-Schooling Curriculum: Bob Jones, Alpha Omega, and Christian Liberty

The Analysis of Christian Early Childhood Home-Schooling Curriculum: Bob Jones, Alpha Omega, and Christian Liberty

Yun Ch'iho’s Enlightenment Thought and Christian Liberty: a Comparison with Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Views on Liberty and Religion

Yun Ch'iho’s Enlightenment Thought and Christian Liberty: a Comparison with Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Views on Liberty and Religion

Clarissa ’s Political Theology and the Alternative Modernity of God, Death, and Writing

The following essay begins with the contention that the prolonged conclusion of Richardson’s Clarissa (1747-8) has yet to be understood. From Brian Downs, to Vivasvan Soni, to Richardson himself, critics have long overlooked the significance of Clarissa’s monastic final weeks because they have interpreted them according to a false dichotomy between divine transcendence and mortal particularity. Refusing this opposition, I frame Clarissa’s final days in the worldly terms of political theology and hail the protracted end of Richardson’s novel as the period in which he simultaneously perfects and undoes the novel tradition. Drawing from Martin Luther’s A Treatise on Christian Liberty (1520) as well as Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), I read Clarissa as a lesson in the overlooked potential for mainstream Protestantism to make modern novelistic subjects that stand against, and not merely for, the rising spirit of capitalism. While indebted to the critiques of secularism articulated by theorists such as Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida, I argue that Clarissa takes the conversation a step further. By opposing “the light of [her] own judgment” against the authority of her male attackers, Clarissa not only articulates the theological foundation of her novelistic self, but also dramatizes the separatist politics that it makes possible. Building upon Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse’s model of the domestic novel as captivity tale, I celebrate Clarissa as the captive heroine who brings her morally exemplary and supremely discursive self to its extreme limit of perfection.

Filippo Falcone. Milton's Inward Liberty: A Reading of Christian Liberty from the Prose toParadise Lost. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014. xvii + 199pp. ISBN 13: 9781625641908. $26.00 (paper).

Milton QuarterlyVolume 49, Issue 1 p. 60-63 REVIEW Filippo Falcone. Milton's Inward Liberty: A Reading of Christian Liberty from the Prose to Paradise Lost. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2014. xvii + 199pp. ISBN 13: 9781625641908. $26.00 (paper). Samuel Smith, Samuel Smith Messiah CollegeSearch for more papers by this author Samuel Smith, Samuel Smith Messiah CollegeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2015 https://doi.org/10.1111/milt.12114Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume49, Issue1March 2015Pages 60-63 RelatedInformation

Revolutionary Puritanism in Anglo-American Perspective

This essay is concerned primarily with the civil implications of Puritan ideology. Thus it explores the use made of the Bible by some of those who came to challenge the Crown from the sixteenth century onwards. A major theme is the political interpretation of “Christian liberty” and in particular the radical understanding of Galatians 5:1. Willingness to fight Charles I on such grounds first manifested itself in Massachusetts, followed by Scotland and then England. But, in the event, it was mainly Anglo-American Puritanism that helped to spawn republicanism. Moreover, this way of arguing survived the Stuart restoration in 1660 and continued to inform political thinking until at least the end of the eighteenth century.

Spiritual and Bodily Freedom

The notion of Christian liberty is essential for the understanding of the Reformed concept of the law. Early modern protestant theology, however, made a sharp distinction between spiritual and bodily liberty. This distinction originated from Luther’s concept of the two kingdoms. It enabled John Calvin to criticize the church for binding the consciences and at the same time appeal to the civil government for reform of the church. Because of the reshuffling of the Institutes in 1559 this function of Christian liberty is easily lost out of sight. In the further development of Reformed theology the distinction between spiritual and bodily liberty was applied to the Christian life of individual believers, as the examples of William Perkins and the Leiden Synopsis of Purer Theology show. Thus the reforming power of the distinction was lost and it was used to confirm the political and social status quo instead.

Christophe Tournu, Milton, Rights and LibertiesMilton, Rights and Liberties. Edited by ChristopheTournu and NeilForsyth. Bern: Peter Lang, 2007. Pp. viii+522.

<i>Christophe Tournu,</i> Milton, Rights and Liberties<i>Milton, Rights and Liberties</i>. Edited by ChristopheTournu and NeilForsyth. Bern: Peter Lang, 2007. Pp. viii+522.

The Call of Vocation inJulius CaesarandCoriolanus

In the classical worlds of Julius Caesar and Coriolanus Shakespeare finds the conditions in which to isolate and analyze the Christian doctrine of vocation, the idea that individuals are destined to fill a place in the body politic or the congregation of believers. Many of Shakespeare's plays pit character against calling. In the Roman tragedies the tension is especially acute. The principals struggle to discern a call in a world dismembered by revolution to the point that a voice can come from a wound. Repeatedly, civic turmoil is described in terms of creation and apocalypse; vocation, hinted at through plot turns and Pauline phrasing, should span and structure the interim. But both plays present a monolithic title character whose all‐consuming integrity threatens to annihilate the society that produced him. Under the pressure of events, Brutus' identity splits, while his co‐conspirators scramble for parts that suddenly seem too few to go around. Coriolanus despises “the many” and their trades that seem fractious and fragmentary next to his self‐sufficiency. Vocational uncertainty triggers other theological conundrums, such as free will and Christian liberty. At still another level, the theatrical imagery of the plays calls into question Shakespeare's own vocation as dramatist. (R. M.)

“Against the Law: Milton's (Anti?) nomianism inDe Doctrina Christiana”

This essay seeks to put to rest the notion that John Milton was an antinomian, by offering a concise summation of the relevant chapters ofDe doctrina Christianathat discuss his views on the covenants, the law and the gospel, and Christian liberty.1Defining antinomian is a difficult task, as its manifestations throughout history have not been monolithic.2During the seventeenth century in England, two kinds, broadly speaking, existed: 1) doctrinal antinomianism; and 2) licentious antinomianism.

Milton's vision. The birth of Christian liberty. By Theo Hobson. Pp. xiv+178. London–New York: Continuum, 2008. £16.99. 978 1 84706 342 7

Milton's vision. The birth of Christian liberty. By Theo Hobson. Pp. xiv+178. London–New York: Continuum, 2008. £16.99. 978 1 84706 342 7

Leben aus der Schrift

Calvin's influence and the Barmen Theological Declaration share the awareness that the church is faced with a decision. In the face of the pressure on the French Protestants on the one side and the false teaching of the German Christians on the other, evangelical solidarity and Christian liberty had to be maintained. For the sake of the integrity of the church Calvin and the Barmen theses concentrate on the biblical witness as the source of proclamation - with ecclesiological consequences: on the basis of her message the church receives the character of a church of freedom in which God is brought to speech bindingly, publicly and in opposition to respective untruths.

Book Review: Milton's Vision: The Birth of Christian Liberty

Book Review: <b>Milton's Vision:</b> The Birth of Christian Liberty

Milton's Vision: The Birth of Christian Liberty. By Theo Hobson. The Development of Milton's Thought: Law, Government, and Religion. By John T. Shawcross.

Milton's Vision: The Birth of Christian Liberty. By Theo Hobson. The Development of Milton's Thought: Law, Government, and Religion. By John T. Shawcross.

Lady in the labyrinth: Milton's Comus as initiation

This book studies Milton's Ludlow Maske of 1634 as a rite of passage. Maske fashions and mobilizes its Lady as an independent subject and moral agent, the inviolably private, conscience-governed self of English Puritan culture. Initiating a ritual discourse on virtue that is not founded in and dependent on royalist ideology, Milton feminizes both the discourse on heroic virtue and the mythologized cosmos that supports it, and authenticates female prophetic speech and ethical action in a way that prepares for women's participation in the emerging public sphere and in the reformation of literary histories.The first of Milton's heroes of Christian Liberty, the Lady is also the first of his characters to participate in the seventeenth-century's literary invention and development of the early modern subject. The exemplary social importance of the Lady thus makes Comus a startling founding gesture of early modern feminism. William Shullenberger is Professor of Literature and Joseph Campbell Chair in the Humanities at Sarah Lawrence College.

The ‘Sweet Singers’ of Israel: Prophecy, Antinomianism and Worship in Restoration England

This paper will examine the forgotten Restoration sect known as the ‘Sweet Singers of Israel,’ regularly listed alongside Ranters, Muggletonians, Quakers and Anabaptists as dangerous enthusiasts in early Enlightenment England. Although the sources for its history are limited, I argue that the sect is worth rescuing from obscurity because it illustrates the continuity of an antinomian tradition in England after the Restoration, and indicates that music in worship was used as an expression of radical Christian liberty. Known for matching religious lyrics to secular ballad-tunes, and bawdy words to psalm settings, the Sweet Singers tested the boundaries between the spheres of the sacred and profane and sought to demonstrate that God was ‘all in all.’ Proposed here is that the Sweet Singers, with their extempore, prophetic verse and musical experiments, offer an insight into the creativity and volatility of this formative period in English church music.

John Locke, Christian Liberty, and the Predicament of Liberal Toleration

Recently, scholars have disputed whether Locke's political theory should be read as the groundwork of secular liberalism or as a Protestant political theology. Focusing on Locke's mature theory of toleration, the article raises a central question: What if these two readings are compatible? That is, what would be the consequences if Locke's political philosophy has theological foundations, but has also given shape to secular liberalism? Examining Locke's theory in the Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), the article argues that this is indeed the case. The liberal model of toleration is a secularization of the theology of Christian liberty and its division of society into a temporal political kingdom and the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Therefore, when liberal toleration travels beyond the boundaries of the Christian West or when western societies become multicultural, it threatens to lose its intelligibility.

The Patristic Context in Early Grotius

AbstractThe use of patristic texts was tightly bound up with the needs of the contemporary discussion which provided Grotius with sources for his patristic citations. His use of ancient texts especially in Ordinum Hollandiae ac Westfrisiae pietas proved to be highly controversial.Grotius's advocacy of tolerance with respect to various forms of Christianity determines his use of patristic texts as well. He looks for examples of moderation in the Early Church and by this accomplishes a significant shift of perspective. He points out the diversity of expressions in the Early Church and therefore replaces questions of dogmatic definition with the question of how to handle orthodoxy and heresy in society. In doing so, he implies requirements for the proper reading of patristic texts in his own times. Grotius's notion of Christian liberty is connected to awareness of context and intrinsically linked to a historical understanding. In his writings, contextualisation involves both religious-historical comparison and the integration of general sources from antiquity. With regard to early Christian sources, this means that Grotius understands them as deeply rooted in the broader ancient context. This approach to early Christian literature is already visible in De Iure Praedae. His sensibility for cultural variation, his comparative method and historical interest in ancient institutions are outstanding, and Grotius has these characteristics in common with legal humanists like François Baudouin.

My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs (review)

My Struggle for Freedom: Memoirs. By Hans Kung. Translated by John Bowden. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2003. Pp. xvii, 478. $38.00.) Hans Kung's memoirs cover his first forty years (1928-1968). Roughly third is devoted to his childhood Switzerland, his education at the Collegium Germanicum and Gregorian University Rome, and his first forays into theological scholarship (most portentously his massive commentary on Karl Earth's theology of justification). He then moves to what he identifies as the most important part of the story: his participation the events leading to Vatican Council II, his role at the Council itself, and his evaluation of the aftermath (pp. 169-463). The story is told, as one would expect, from his distinctive point of view: personal struggle for freedom the pursuit of theological truth, and the Christian liberty of the whole church, the royal priesthood, the people of God. Early on he chafes at the petty discipline of the seminary. Later the stakes are much higher. It is his story, and properly so. A reader predisposed to doubt the accuracy of any memoir will mistrust Kung's portrayal of his own importance these events. But Kung offers concrete evidence of his popularity with reformminded laity and clergy-including bishops as dissimilar as Frings of Cologne, Suenens of Brussels, and Gushing of Boston. He documents his high profile the Vatican II years, recalling, with unconcealed satisfaction, huge audiences and spontaneous applause. Mary McGrory (writing America June of 1963) called him the youngest, most famous and perhaps most controversial 'expert' at the Vatican Council, and described Catholic University audience of three thousand sitting in rapt silence for an hour and forty minutes, ending with a standing ovation (p. 314). Kung estimates the average audience on his 1963 tour of America at three thousand-rising on occasion to five, six, or eight thousand. I can believe it, for I have seen him hold the attention of hall of over thousand on three different nights Ann Arbor-in long and unforgivingly academic examinations of the theology of eternal life. His fame-or notoriety-carried him right into Kennedy's Oval Office, citadel to Kung of different but no less admired new frontier. He understandably has very kind words for his time the United States. Kung is an ecumenist, European, and cosmopolitan; but he is also Swiss and proud of it. References to mythic dates the history of Swiss independence (1291,1315,1386) supply patriotic motives to the freedom theme. Kung deftly defends Swiss neutrality World War II, and finds no Nazi sympathizers among his family or his family's circle of friends. Swiss political culture forms his outlook on the world-an almost instinctive antipathy to all dictatorship state, church and society, to all state totalitarianism and ecclesiastical integralism-and makes him resistant to the worship of church leaders and the idolization of institutions, whether party or church. It nourishes democracy, human dignity, and toleration, but also sense of responsibility (p. 16). These brief pages are offered as an insight into the values and passions that impel him to his career as reformer. In tone and content Kung never falters his commitment to the principle ecclesia semper reformanda. He does not shrink from recording his impatient, aggressive, censorious, and hostile responses to the forces of repression and retrogression-yet there is repertoriai quality about them that can transcend the personal. He recaptures the intensity of the struggle at Vatican II between freedom and obedience, reform and tradition-and the disputes these tensions produced over collegiality, curialism, ecumenism, liturgy, sacramental theology and practice, and, above all, the application of historical criticism to scripture, doctrine, and moral theology. Much of the agenda of the reformers recalls the Reformation of the sixteenth century-and Kung makes the most of those links. …