Paul Hartog - Böcker

This commentary on Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians and the Martyrdom of Polycarp includes extensive introductions, the Greek or Latin texts, facing English translations, and substantial comments on each passage. The preliminary material investigates Polycarpian traditions and reconstructs an outline of his life. The introductory studies for both Philippians and the Martyrdom discuss text and manuscript traditions, date and place of composition, historical setting, literary genre and style, unity and integrity, purpose and themes, theology, and post-composition influence. The volume also explores communal self-definition, moral formation, and the transmission of traditions, including the use of documents now found in the New Testament. The commentary proceeds passage by passage, but also includes lengthy discussions of critical issues and key interpretive questions. The investigations survey the current status of relevant scholarship and contain balanced discussions of controversial topics and scholarly debates.

John Calvin's understanding of the extent of the atonement achieved in Christ's death is one of the most contested questions in historical theology. In common thought, Calvin's name is closely associated with the 'limited atonement' stance canonized within the 'TULIP' acronym, but Calvin's personal endorsement of a strictly particularist view, whereby Christ died for the elect alone, is debateable. In Calvin on the Death of Christ, Paul Hartog re-examines Calvin's writing on the subject, traces the various resulting historical trajectories, and engages with the full spectrum of more recent scholarship. In so doing, he makes clear that, while Calvin undoubtedly believed in unconditional election, he also repeatedly spoke of Christ dying for 'all' or for 'the world'. These phrases must be held central if we are to discover Calvin's own view of the subject. Hartog's conclusions will surprise some, and may hold significant implications for the Calvinist tradition today. Throughout, however, they are cogently articulated and sensitively pitched.