Martin Luther`s Understanding of God`s Two Kingdoms A Response to the Challenge of Skepticism
- Michigan Baker Book House 2010
- 208p
includes index and biblioraphy
1. Interpretations of Luther`s Idea of the Two Kingdoms during the Last Two Centuries 17 Mid-Nineteenth-Century Uses of Luther`s Concept of Two Kingdoms Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Developments National Socialist Perversions and the Responses Relevant Recent Treatments of the Two-Kingdoms Idea 2. The Skeptical Challenge of the Early Italian Renaissance 45 Early Italian Humanism and Skepticism Lorenzo Valla and Rhetorical Humanism Italian Humanism and Neoplatonism Critics of Neoplatonism 3. Northern Humanism: The Context of Luther`s Two Kingdoms 79 The Rhetorical Path and Valla`s Influence The Neoplatonic Path and the Influence of Ficino and Pico Luther and Humanism Earlier Twofold Conceptions 4. The Two-Kingdoms Worldview: How Luther Used the Concept in Diverse Contexts 113 The Early Use of the Two-Kingdoms Concept Further Refinement of the Two-Kingdoms Distinction in Biblical Commentaries The Creation Law and the Three Divine Orders of Human Institutions Theological Certainty versus Skepticism in the Worldly Kingdom 5. The Reformer Applies the Two Kingdoms to Christian Life 147 Luther`s Commentary on Ecclesiastes Christian Life as a Struggle for Faith Pitfalls and Patience Luther`s Social Ethos