Counsel and Conscience
Lutheran Casuistry and Moral Reasoning after the Reformation
By (author) Benjamin T. G. Mayes
Hardback (Out of print)
(August 2011)
ISBN: 9783525550274
6.34 x 9.33 inches
Price: $125.00
On back order
The first book that demonstrates how and why Lutheran casuistry arose.
In Lutheran Germany of the post-Reformation era (ca. 1580-1750), a genre of pastoral, ethical writings arose that consisted in casuistry and in topically or thematically related theological counsels. In this first volume of the new Refo500 series Mayes shows that this casuistry literature was intended to instruct and comfort the consciences of Christians. Lutheran casuistry, related to but also distinct from Roman Catholic and Reformed counterparts, arose especially as pastors looked within Holy Scripture, the medieval tradition, and the writings of Martin Luther and other Lutheran authorities for answers to ethical problems and doctrinal disputes, and then catalogued their findings. As an extensive example from this genre Mayes examines the Thesaurus Consiliorum Et Decisionum, published in 1671 by Georg Dedekenn and Johann Ernst Gerhard. This Thesaurus was an anthology of wise advice from Lutheran theologians and jurists, published to encourage readers to avoid individualistic ethical choices and instead to engage in an aristocratic process of moral decision making in which one would consult the wise men of the past and present. The counsels included in the Thesaurus address inter-confessional disputes, intra-Lutheran disputes, sacraments, church government, pastoral ministry, social ethics, marriage, sexual ethics, and many other topics. The topics of divorce and remarriage, especially, show the different ways in which Lutherans reasoned about moral matters. The author shows that in the Thesaurus the Lutheran casuistry literature, which has been overlooked in most scholarship of the 20th and 21st centuries, was in bloom. It arose to meet the needs of people who had doubts, and it continued to instruct and console Christian consciences for many generations.
- By (author) Benjamin T. G. Mayes
Other Titles in this Series
Was there a Lutheran Metaphysics?
The interpretation of communicatio idiomatum in Early Modern Lutheranism
Petrus Dathenus und der Heidelberger Katechismus
Eine traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum konfessionellen Wandel in der Kurpfalz um 1563
Word of God, words of men
Translations, inspirations, transmissions of the Bible in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Renaissance
The Council of Trent: Reform and Controversy in Europe and Beyond (1545-1700)
Vol. 1: Between Trent, Rome and Wittenberg
Ringen um den einen Gott
Eine politische Geschichte des Antitrinitarismus in Siebenbürgen im 16. Jahrhundert
Protestant Majorities and Minorities in Early Modern Europe
Confessional Boundaries and Contested Identities
The Irenic Calvinism of Daniel Kalaj (d. 1681)
A Study in the History and Theology of the Polish-Lithuanian Reformation
Common Man, Society and Religion in the 16th century/Gemeiner Mann, Gesellschaft und Religion im 16. Jahrhundert
Piety, morality and discipline in the Carpathian Basin/Frömmigkeit, Moral und Sozialdisziplinierung im Karpatenbogen
The Council of Trent: Reform and Controversy in Europe and Beyond (1545-1700)
Vol. 2: Between Bishops and Princes
Der Erlebnisraum Lutherstadt Wittenberg
Genese, Entwicklung und Bestand eines protestantischen Erinnerungsortes
The Holy Crown and the Hungarian Estates
Constructing Early Modern Identity in the Kingdom of Hungary
Managing Melancholy
Dynamics of theology, medicine and law in early modern Nordic Lutheran societies
Die politischen Gesetze des Mose als Vorbild
Entstehung und Einflüsse der politia-judaica-Literatur in der Frühen Neuzeit
The Council of Trent: Reform and Controversy in Europe and Beyond (1545-1700)
Vol. 3: Between Artists and Adventurers
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