This study charts the developing relationship between the Zurich church and Italian-speaking Protestants between around 1540 and 1620. It explores the close ties that were established between Zurich's senior minister, Heinrich Bullinger, and Italian evangelical exiles in Switzerland and elsewhere from the early 1540s, and describes how the Zurich church facilitated the spread of Protestantism in Italian-speaking regions such as Locarno and southern Graubünden. That process culminated in the setting-up in Zurich, under Bullinger's patronage, of an Italian Reformed congregation. A particular concern of the thesis is the threat to the integrity of the Zwinglian settlement posed by the ideas and activities of religious radicals within the Italian exile community. To begin with, Bullinger was confident that those 'heretics' could be accommodated within the emerging Reformed consensus. However, a series of doctrinal disputes during the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s revealed the extent of the radicals' differences with Reformed orthodoxy and compelled the Zurichers to revise their judgement. Bullinger's hostile reaction to the publication of the allegedly heterodox Dialogi XXX by his Italian colleague, Bernardino Ochino, signalled a move from conciliation to confrontation. From the early 1560s, the Zurich divines assumed an active role in the Reformed campaign to shore up Nicene orthodoxy against the criticisms of Italian antitrinitarians, and to expel radicals from the Italian-speaking churches of the Rhaetian Freestate. In the process, they endeavoured to counter the charges of heresy that had long bedevilled Zwinglianism by articulating a conservative, 'catholic' definition of their church's identity. The study concludes by examining how relations between the Zurich church and the Italian Reformed communities of Graubünden and its subject lands were placed on a new, co-operative basis once the radical challenge had been repelled. Through its support for those vulnerable congregations, I suggest, the Zurich church gave evidence of its continued commitment to the international Protestant cause during the period following Bullinger's death. The correspondence of Bullinger and other Zurich ministers forms the dissertation's most important source. The study also draws on works produced by the Zurich divines in the context of their exchanges with Italian evangelicals, the works of the Italian exiles themselves, and the records of Zurich's Italian-speaking community.

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This thesis seeks to answer the question of how Joseph Smith—History found in The Pearl of Great Price developed into a part of the canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the prophet Joseph Smith first dictated the text to his scribes it seems he had not intended for the work to become scripture, but simply to follow the Lord's divine mandate to keep a record. Additionally he provided the purpose in his document to "disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the facts, as they transpired." The format he proposed for the Manuscript History illustrates how it was originally not purposed for scripture. The compiling of that history took the efforts of many men and women and spanned the length of almost twenty years to complete. Joseph Smith had begun the dictation to his scribe George Robinson in 1838, but it was unfinished. Joseph later began the dictation anew to his scribe James Mulholland, first having the man rewrite what he had told to Robinson and then picking up the dictation from there. While the prophet had started and stopped histories before, this particular dictation began the enduring effort. The Manuscript History was developed from the original 59 pages that were scribed by Mulholland. By the efforts of other scribes, but mostly Willard Richards, the history was completed. The official statement of Brigham Young and Orson Pratt upon its completion said nothing of extracting portions for canon. But Mulholland's work seemed destined for a different purpose than the rest of the Manuscript History. It was printed serially in the Times and Seasons, and a few apostles seemed to catch a vision of what the manuscript could do for potential converts and members of the Church. Orson Pratt was especially a proponent of communicating certain key events as illustrated in his missionary tract "Remarkable Visions." A later apostle, Franklin D. Richards, would see the benefit of using the official history to distribute the history of the restoration of the Church to others. He extracted portions from Mulholland's text that covered certain main events in Joseph's life and printed them in his missionary tract The Pearl of Great Price. This pamphlet would eventually be canonized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1880. Joseph Smith-History's inclusion in the reclamation of revelation that occurred in 1880 was deserved. This is evidenced by examining the process of canonization and the guiding principles of canonization employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was canonized at the same time as many other revelations and at a General Conference saturated with many important events. Consequently it is difficult to gauge the reaction to its inclusion in canon, except in how it has been used since its canonization. After its inclusion into scripture the text has become a foundational piece of literature for the Church. The impact the text has had can be seen in the culture, missionary work, and doctrine of the Church. The focus of this thesis is to map the text's journey from birth to canonization.

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No description available.

Benjamin Keach, the most prolific Particular Baptist theologian of the seventeenth century, described himself as a defender of ‘Reformed Orthodoxy’. Despite this self-identification, modern scholarship has largely relegated Keach to a self-educated dissenting pastor whose major achievement could be found in his controversial support of hymn singing. Two recent dissertations have attempted to revise this view of Keach, but no scholarly work has yet attempted to wrestle holistically with Keach’s view of himself as a Reformed theologian. This work fills that void by reviewing Keach’s own understanding of the term ‘Reformed Orthodoxy’, reconstructing Keach’s connections both in the personal contacts available in dissenting London and Buckinghamshire and in the books at his disposal, examining the major aspects of his theology, and placing that theology within the spectrum of Reformed Orthodoxy. From the time of his entry onto the public theological stage, Keach quickly became identified with those with whom he networked intellectually. From his branding as a Fifth Monarchist to his identification first as a General Baptist and later as the most prominent Particular Baptist, those connections proved to be the most idiosyncratic characteristic of Keach’s theological pilgrimage. Those connections crossed the conventional lines of systematic theology and boundaries of religious sects, resulting in Keach’s theology crossing those same lines yet remaining Reformed in its major assertions. Following the organizational structure of Keach’s catechisms and confessions, this work proceeds by expounding and interrogating Keach’s major theological positions—his understanding of the Trinity including this doctrine’s foundational role in ecclesiology, the significance of the covenants, justification, and eschatology. Throughout this exposition, Keach’s theological lenses, shaped by his contacts and his independent, creative thought, become clear. Ultimately, Keach proves himself to be a capable Reformed theologian, able and willing to dialogue with the most influential theologians, yet consistently forging his own ground within Reformed Orthodoxy as a whole and more specifically Particular Baptist theology.

This thesis offers a fresh study of the sources on the history of the city of Jerusalem in the period between the reigns of the Roman emperors Theodosius the Great and Justinian I. In the Holy Land, this period roughly coincides with the arrival of St Jerome in 385 and the completion of Jerusalem's last major church building before the Persian and Muslim conquests, the Nea church, dedicated in 543. One of the main aims of this thesis is to investigate the role of imperial patronage in the city and contrast it with the growing influence of local actors, i.e. bishops, monks, and rich pilgrims who settled there. My reading of the sources makes clear that Jerusalem and the imperial court were more closely connected than previously assumed. This manifested itself not only in imperial building projects, but also in the exchange of theological concepts and ideas. One of my key findings about this traffic is that the cult of saints was introduced to Jerusalem from Constantinople, while, in contrast, the veneration of the Virgin Mary originated in the holy city and reached the capital from there. The thesis offers a new interpretation of patriarchal politics in the times of the Christological controversies following the Council of Chalcedon (451) and of the political self-perception of Jerusalem from the beginning of the sixth century onwards, when the city with its loca sancta entered into a new form of relationship with the emperor Justinian, who bestowed his favour on Jerusalem in the form of imperial donations in return for the support of his ecclesiastical policies by the clergy and monks of Jerusalem.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bonn, 1991/92. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-213) and indexes.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Bonn, 1991/92. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-213) and indexes.

No description available.