Joseph Haroutunian – författare

This volume, demonstrating the main elements of Calvin's doctrine as they appear in his many commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, speaks with singular power to the ordinary reader today. Included are more than two hundred selections under headings ranging from the Bible, knowledge of God, and the church. Introductory selections from Calvin's own writings also are provided.Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works--each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century--contemporary readers are able to engage the ideas that have shaped Christian theology and the church through the centuries.

This book represents the history of the New England theology from 1750 to 1830, revealing a significant conflict of attitudes and ideals involved in the decline of orthodoxy and the rise of the modern spirit in religion. It follows the course of theological discussion from Jonathan Edwards to Nathaniel W. Taylor, in whom liberalism triumphed. It shows how and why historical Christianity became unpalatable and unreasonable to the cultured in New England, how a great spirit was lost with the passing of the Edwardean theology, and how a new Christianity appeared in the place of the old. The author gives some clues to the source and nature of the weaknesses in present-day religious thought and makes a timely contribution to the launching of that reconstruction in Protestant theology, which is, admittedly, very much needed.

This book is a study of the misuse of power, which has become the chief social problem of our time. The usual attitude towards will to power is that it is a source of evil and should be held in check as much as possible. There is also the contrary attitude that will to power is a natural impulse that is indispensable for a good life. Our judgment in this matter depends upon whether it is we who seek power, or someone else. There is a natural love of power for a good end. There is also an unnatural lust for power that makes the exercise of power an end in itself. This lust is the corruption of love by a radical distemper in the human soul. It cannot be explained in terms of the quest for security, freedom, prosperity, or any other rational good. It is not caused, either by biological traits or by any particular environment. It is generated by man's despair with his destiny, by the "e;power of death"e; and the anxious guilt that prevail in human existence. Lust for Power is primarily a description of the process by which love of power is changed into lust for power, with special emphasis on the new power available in our technological society and upon the despair evoked by "e;the modern world."e; In the last chapter, faith and culture are presented as the double antidote to lust and as the conditions of a life at once natural and good.

Wisdom and Folly in Religion "e;is addressed to all who have been unable to escape the tragic sense of life, to all who contemplate with fear and pity the lot of suffering, sinful man on the torn earth, and to all wrestlers with God. It speaks to and confirms our doubt in the efficacy of religion to save us from disaster; it is almost exuberantly iconoclastic in its attack on modern superstitions. "e;But Haroutunian's iconoclasm is deeply religious. His anti-religion is like that of the prophets and his protest against contemporary religion is like that of the early Protestants. . . . The note of assurance, the confession of faith in divine sovereignty and in the forgiveness of sins are more moving and fundamental elements. "e;The writer has gone far toward the accomplishment of two tasks which are but one for him. The first of these is the effort to make explicit and to interpret in Christian terms the implicit religious content of the modern mind. . . . The second task is that of stating afresh the faith of the Reformers which modern Protestantism sets forth in pale images when it does not pervert it."e;H. Richard Niebuhr from the preface