Historical Method and Confessional Identity in the Era of the Reformation: (1378 - 1615)

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BRILL, 2003 - History - 416 pages
This volume deals with the basic problem of how theologians of all confessions handled ancient, mainly Christian, history in the Reformation era. The author argues that far from being a mere tool of religious controversy, history was used throughout the 16th century to express profound religious and theological convictions and that historians and theologians of different confessions sought to define their religious identity by recourse to a particular historical method. By carefully comparing the types of historical documents produced by Calvinist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic circles, she throws a new light on patristic editions and manuals, the "Centuries of Magdeburg," the "Ecclesiastical Annals" of Caesar Baronius and various collections of New Testament Apocrypha. Much of this material is examined here for the first time. The book substantially revises existing preconceptions about Reformation historiography and view of the past.

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Contents

LIMITS OF THE AUGUSTINIAN PARADIGM
6
BALANCE BETWEEN PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN
63
Calvin and Greek Patristics
101
PATRISTIC EDITIONS CONTROVERSY
130
HOW TO READ WHICH ANCIENT WRITERS?
196
LUTHERAN AND ROMAN CATHOLIC USES OF
253
PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC HISTORIES OF
326
Postscript
393
Index
407
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About the author (2003)

Irena Backus, D. Phil. (1976), Oxford University, Dr. theol. hab. (1988), University of Berne, Hon. D. D. (2001), University of Edinburgh, is Professor of Reformation History at the University of Geneva. She has published extensively on history of Biblical Exegesis and on the reception of the Church Fathers in the West

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