Paul Silas Peterson – författare

While Church attendance in the West is often cited as being in decline, it is argued that this applies primarily to the older established forms of Christianity. Other expressions of the faith are, in fact, stable or even growing. This volume provides multidisciplinary interpretations of and responses to one of the most complicated and controversial issues regarding the global transformation of Christianity today: the decline of "established Christianity" in the Western world. It also addresses the future of Christianity in the West after the decline.Drawing upon historical research, sociology, religious studies, philosophy and theology, an international panel of contributors provide new theoretical frameworks for understanding this decline and offer creative suggestions for responding to it. "Established Christianity" is conceptualized as historically, culturally, socially and politically embedded religion (with or without official established status).This is a dynamic volume that gives fresh perspective on one of the great social changes taking place in the West today. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of religious sociology, history and anthropology, as well as theologians.

This volume explores Christianity’s relationship with democracy in a global perspective.How are the various democratic ideals being addressed by influential Christian intellectuals, theologians, ethicists, churches and church leaders around the world today? The contributors reflect on the status of the democratic idea in the churches, theological academy and public religious life in a variety of social and political contexts. They consider how the democratic idea can be cultivated in Christian communities and intellectual traditions with a view to contemporary challenges.This book will be of particular interest to scholars of religion, theology and political science.

While Church attendance in the West is often cited as being in decline, it is argued that this applies primarily to the older established forms of Christianity. Other expressions of the faith are, in fact, stable or even growing. This volume provides multidisciplinary interpretations of and responses to one of the most complicated and controversial issues regarding the global transformation of Christianity today: the decline of "established Christianity" in the Western world. It also addresses the future of Christianity in the West after the decline.Drawing upon historical research, sociology, religious studies, philosophy and theology, an international panel of contributors provide new theoretical frameworks for understanding this decline and offer creative suggestions for responding to it. "Established Christianity" is conceptualized as historically, culturally, socially and politically embedded religion (with or without official established status).This is a dynamic volume that gives fresh perspective on one of the great social changes taking place in the West today. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of religious sociology, history and anthropology, as well as theologians.

The Reformation was the single most important event of the early modern period of Western civilization. What started out as a pastoral conflict about the sale of grace for money ultimately became a catalyst for the transformation of Western culture. In Reformation in the Western World, Paul Silas Peterson shows how the retrieval of the ancient Christian teachings about God's grace and the authority of Scripture influenced culture, society, and the political order. The emphasis on an egalitarian church - the ""priesthood of all believers"" - led to a more egalitarian society. In the long run, the Reformation encouraged the emergence of modern freedoms, religious tolerance, capitalism, democracy, the natural sciences, and the disenchantment of the papacy and worldly means of grace. Yet the egalitarian fruit of the Reformation was not uniform, as is seen in the persecution of detractors and Jews, and in the marginalization of women. In all its triumphs and innovations, evils and errors, the Reformation left a lasting double legacy - a divided church in need of unity and the possibilities of a liberated world.

The Reformation was the single most important event of the early modern period of Western civilization. What started out as a pastoral conflict about the sale of grace for money ultimately became a catalyst for the transformation of Western culture. In Reformation in the Western World, Paul Silas Peterson shows how the retrieval of the ancient Christian teachings about God's grace and the authority of Scripture influenced culture, society, and the political order. The emphasis on an egalitarian church—the "priesthood of all believers"—led to a more egalitarian society. In the long run, the Reformation encouraged the emergence of modern freedoms, religious tolerance, capitalism, democracy, the natural sciences, and the disenchantment of the papacy and worldly means of grace. Yet the egalitarian fruit of the Reformation was not uniform, as is seen in the persecution of detractors and Jews, and in the marginalization of women. In all its triumphs and innovations, evils and errors, the Reformation left a lasting double legacy—a divided church in need of unity and the possibilities of a liberated world.

although Hans Urs von Balthasar’s earliest publication is from 1925, and although he was a mature forty years old in 1945, there is a deficiency in the secondary literature regarding his early literature, its historical backgrounds and non-theological sources. In this study Balthasar is presented in relation to the various contexts in which he was both drawing upon and responding to from the 1920s to the 1940s. The major contexts analyzed here are the broad central European Germanophone cultural context, the Germanophone Catholic cultural context, the German studies context, the French Catholic renewal literature and theology of the early 20th-century, the popular journal Stimmen der Zeit, Neo-Scholasticism, early 20th-century French Catholic culture, Swiss fascism, National Socialist literature, the Renouveau Catholique, the George-Kreis and many others. Balthasar’s early anti-Semitism and some of the problematic aspects of his early work are also addressed in this study. His understanding of the modern age, his relationships with some key intellectual figures and his later reflections on his early work are also introduced. The book offers a comprehensive study of Balthasar’s early intellectual development.

Cotton Mathers synoptischer Kommentar zu Esra-Psalmen ist der Kern des umfangreichen theologisch-wissenschaftlichen Unternehmens, welches er "Biblia Americana" nannte. Darin verbindet er biblische mit säkularer Geschichte, untersucht das Problem von Leid und dem Bösen in der Schöpfung und betrachtet die Psalmen sowohl als hebräische Poesie als auch als christliche Weissagung. In seinen Anmerkungen zu Esra, Nehemia und Ester behandelt Mather verschiedenste Themengebiete, von der philosophischen Untermauerung der internationalen Gesetzgebung über die Gepflogenheiten vor Gericht im Perserreich bis zum uneinheitlichen Fortschritt der Reformen, die Esra und Nehemia durchzusetzen versuchten. In Hiob befasst sich Mather mit Fragen der Theodizee und Naturphilosophie. Der Psalmenkommentar zeigt seinen linguistischen Scharfsinn und sein Fachwissen als christlicher Hebraist ebenso wie seine Sensibilität bezüglich schwieriger hermeneutischer Fragen. Im gesamten Werk zeigt sich sein lebhafter Verstand, sein Intellekt und die Hingabe, die ihn zu einem der beliebtesten Geistlichen der Kolonialzeit machten.

Cotton Mathers Kommentare zu Sprüche, Prediger Salomo, Hohelied, Jesaja und Jeremia sind eine reichhaltige Quelle zur Geschichte der Entwicklung der Reformierten Theologie und der Bibelinterpretation in der Frühaufklärung. Mather befasst sich mit Übersetzungsproblemen sowie mit Fragen der Autorschaft, der Entstehung und des Genres der Texte. Diese Fragen wurden zu Mathers Zeit vor allem bezüglich der drei König Salomo zugeschriebenen Bücher kontrovers diskutiert. Ein zentrales Thema der Kommentare zu Jeremia und Jesaja ist die Bedeutung der Propheten für die Wahrheitsansprüche der christlichen Theologie. Der Band zeigt das Ringen der Exegeten in Mathers Zeit um das traditionelle Verständnis der hebräischen Bibel als Altes Testament angesichts eines wachsenden Bewusstseins der Historizität der Schrift. Viele der Kommentare bezeugen auch ein neu aufkommendes Verlangen, die Faktizität der Bibel im Rückgriff auf die Naturwissenschaften zu belegen.