Herman Selderhuis – författare

Winner of the 2018 Christianity Today Book Award in the History/Biography CategoryFamous for setting in motion the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther is often lifted high as a hero or condemned as a rebel. But underneath it all, he was a man of flesh and blood, with a deep longing to live for God.This biography by respected Reformation scholar Herman Selderhuis captures Luther in his original context and follows him on his spiritual journey, from childhood through the Reformation to his influential later years. Combining Luther’s own words with engaging narrative designed to draw the reader into Luther’s world, this spiritual biography brings to life the complex and dynamic personality that forever changed the history of the church. Written by one of the world's leading Reformation scholarsDraws on many of Luther's books, sermons, and lettersReleases on October 31, 2017, the 500th anniversary of the ReformationMakes the life and work of Luther accessible to a wide audienceWinner of the 2018 Christianity Today Book Award in the History/Biography Category

Constant change is a permanent feature of contemporary European societies – not least in relation to their religious landscapes. This transformation is driven by various religious and socio-cultural factors, some of which are intertwined, in conflict, or mutually dependent upon each other: ongoing individualization, issues of gender identity and sexual orientation, digitalization and artificial intelligence, and ecological crises.In this context, religion is caught in the tension between several – sometimes opposing – forces, and progressive secularization meets the increasing public visibility of religion due to migration and  religious pluralization. How can religions, with their moral, cultural, and symbolic reservoirs, contribute to holding diverse communities together, beyond national identity? Can religions promote the social cohesion of European societies? Can the imagination that drives different religious traditions provide religious and non- religious Europeans with resources to promote individual and collective change for the better?This 8th volume in the series EUARE LECTURES contains the six keynote lectures dealing with these – and many other – questions as these lectures were presented at the European Academy of Religion’s Annual Conference, organized by the Research Centre Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society at the University of Vienna. Authors of these papers are Franz Fischler (Former EU Commissioner and President of the European Forum Alpbach), Grace Davie (University of Exeter), Isabella Guanzini (Catholic Private University of Linz), Rik Torfs (KU Leuven), Tariq Modood (University of Bristol), Hans Schelkshorn (University of Vienna).

With Augustine, probably the most important church father of the early church, is the focus of interest. No figure had such authority throughout the Middle Ages, but also in modern times. This applies to such questions of sacramental and grace theology, historical theology, ecclesiology and anthropology as are extremely important for theology. Apparently no serious theologian could get past him. This applies all the more to the disputes during the Reformation. To put it bluntly, without Augustine the theologies of the Reformation would probably not exist. Every theologian referred to him - and yet this sometimes led to different theological perspectives. However, the subject of Augustine, which is documented and discussed in this anthology, stands in a broader context, on which a group of scholars, including Peter Walter, who died far too early, have been considering for a long time. These considerations were and are based on the observation, which can hardly be disputed, that research into early modern theological historiography is still shaped by the denominational interests and perspectives of the researchers. Of course, this circumstance contrasts with the fact that not only have similar debates and parallel developments occurred in all denominational theological knowledge cultures, but also with the fact that there have often been interactions or mutual influences. Therefore, a trans- and inter-confessional approach that explicitly takes these interferences into account promises methodological progress and new insights in terms of content.

The keywords migration, elite, and confession that form the leitmotiv of this book allow a focus on major subjects of research in early modern history. Concentrating on subjects relevant to the history of education, the essays collected here offer manifold insights into new source material and the evaluation of methods. The fifteen papers cover a wide range of topics related to the education of academic theologians and clergy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As training programmes differed from university to university, this gave rise to migration and an extensive communicative network. Although a final conclusion of methodological questions requires more research, the volume provides an important contribution to the interdisciplinary discussion between representatives of the many historical disciplines.The fifteen contributors: Luca Baschera, Amy Nelson Burnett, Otfried Czaika, Simone Giese, Anja-Silvia Göing, Leonhard Hell, Wim Janse, Julian Kümmerle, Andreas Mühling, Hans Peterse, Frank van der Pol, Sünje Prühlen, Alexander Schunka, Sven Tode, and Jason Zuidema.