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Author’s Corner

Each week on Credo we welcome you to join us in the Author’s Corner where we will meet a set of authors whose recent books deserve your attention and might even help you grow in your knowledge of theology, history, philosophy, and the scriptures. We hope the Author’s Corner can keep you up-to-date on the most important books published today and where you can find them.

On today’s Author’s Corner we present you with a selection of works from T&T Clark, InterVarsity, and Concordia Publishing House.


Lutheran Theology: A Grammar of Faith (T&T Clark, 2021) by Kirsi Stjerna

This textbook explores the Lutheran theological tradition. Kirsi Stjerna looks at Lutheran sources, vocabulary and focal points through the lens of the Augsburg Confession and the Large Catechism, developing a distinctive Lutheran faith language that resonates with contemporary contexts and inquirers.

Lutheran Theology gives students the tools they need to understand Lutheran perspectives in the light of historical sources, to see the underlying motivations of past theological discourses and to apply this knowledge to current debates. Introducing the Book of Concord and Martin Luther’s freedom theology, it shows them how to engage critically and constructively with key topics in theology and spirituality, such as freedom and confession. Stjerna pays particular attention to the contribution of women theologians, and empowers students to bring Lutheran theology into conversation with other faith languages and traditions.

The Path of Christianity: The First Thousand Years (IVP, 2017) by John Anthony McGuckin

John Anthony McGuckin, one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient Christianity, has synthesized a lifetime of work to produce the most comprehensive and accessible history of the Christian movement during its first thousand years. The Path of Christianity takes readers on a journey from the period immediately after the composition of the Gospels, through the building of the earliest Christian structures in polity and doctrine, to the dawning of the medieval Christian establishment. McGuckin explores Eastern and Western developments simultaneously, covering grand intellectual movements and local affairs in both epic scope and fine detail.

The Path of Christianity is divided into two parts of twelve chapters each. Part one treats the first millennium of Christianity in linear sequence, from the second to the eleventh centuries. In addition to covering key theologians and conciliar decisions, McGuckin surveys topics like Christian persecution, early monasticism, the global scope of ancient Christianity, and the formation of Christian liturgy. Part two examines key themes and ideas, including biblical interpretation, war and violence, hymnography, the role of women, attitudes to wealth, and early Christian views about slavery and sexuality. McGuckin gives the reader a sense of the real condition of early Christian life, not simply what the literate few had to say.

Written for student and scholar alike, The Path of Christianity is a lively, readable, and masterful account of ancient Christian history, destined to be the standard for years to come.

Lutheranism vs. Calvinism: The Classic Debate at the Colloquy of Montbéliard 1586 (Concordia, 2017) by Jacob Andreae &  Theodore Beza

Two brilliant spokesmen. One passionate debate on the topics of the Lord’s Supper, the person of Christ, Baptism, and predestination. 

The 1586 Colloquy of Montbéliard was a formal religious debate attended by clergy, professors, noblemen, and chancellors alike. But this event that fostered both respectful discussion and heated argument really came down to a defense of beliefs between the leading Lutheran and Reformed churchmen of the day: the Lutheran Jakob Andreae, an author of the Lutheran Formula of Concord, and the Calvinist Theodore Beza, John Calvin’s successor in Geneva.

Lutheranism vs. Calvinism: The Classic Debate at the Colloquy of Montbéliard 1586 is an invaluable tool not only for the study of the history of confessional Protestant theology but also for avoiding mischaracterizing confessional Lutheranism and Calvinism. In this first-ever English transcript of the debate, the issues between classic Lutheranism and classic Calvinism are laid bare, showing not only how the differences in these confessional positions were—and are—real and important, but also how, in some ways, the two sides are in agreement.

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