Bucer, Ephesians and Biblical Humanism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • N. Scott Amos

   Pages 1-21

3. Historical Context

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23

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   2. The Old Theology and the New Learning at Cambridge to 1549

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 25-48

   3. “Remember the Readings and Preachings of God’s Prophet and True Preacher, Martin Bucer”: Bucer’s Sojourn in Cambridge, 1549–1551

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 49-76

4. The Praelectiones as an Exercise in Biblical Humanist Exegetical Method

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

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   2. “Ratio seu methodus Martini Buceri”: Bucer’s Prefatory Lectures on Ephesians and His Use of Biblical Humanist Theological Method

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 79-113

   3. “An Exposition of the Whole Doctrine of Salvation:” Bucer’s Deployment of Biblical Humanist Method and the 1550 Ephesians Lectures as a Whole

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 115-150

   4. Theology in an Exegetical Context: Bucer on Ephesians 1:3–6 and the Doctrine of Election

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 151-179

   5. Theology in an Exegetical Context: Bucer on Ephesians 1:13–18 and the Doctrine of Faith

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 181-212

   6. Conclusion

      • N. Scott Amos

      Pages 213-217

5. Back Matter

   Pages 219-222

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This book describes Martin Bucer (1491-1551) as a teacher of theology, focusing on his time as Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge between 1549 and 1551. The book is centered on his 1550 Cambridge lectures on Ephesians, and investigates them in their historical context, exploring what sort of a theologian Bucer was. The lectures are examined to find out how they represent Bucer’s method of teaching and “doing” theology, and shed light on the relationship between biblical exegesis and theological formulation as he understood it. Divided into two interconnected parts, the book first sets the historical context for the lectures, including a broad sketch of scholastic method in theology and the biblical humanist critique of that method. It then closely examines Bucer’s practice in the Cambridge lectures, to show the extent to which he was a theologian of the biblical humanist school, influenced by the method Erasmus set forth in the Ratio Verae Theologiaein which true theology begins, ends, and is best “done” as an exercise in the exegesis of the Word of God.

• Cambridge Injunctions
• Christian ethics
• Christian life
• Ephesians
• Martin Bucer
• Rhenish “school” of exegesis
• biblical humanism
• humanist-scholastic debate
• theological and exegetical method

“For biblical scholars and systematic theologians this work is significant for trying to understand the integral relationship between the disciplines. … For the historian of the early modern period Amos gives us a clear understanding of the ecclesial politics in sixteenth-century Cambridge. … As Protestants celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation this year they would do well to remember the contribution of Martin Bucer and biblical humanism within this global movement. Amos’s work helps us do just that.” (Brian Lugioyo, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 70 (1), 2017)

• Department of History, Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, USA

  N. Scott Amos

N. S. Amos is Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he has taught since 2002. Dr. Amos received the PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2003, and holds graduate degrees in History (MA, the College of William and Mary), as well as Divinity (M.Div., Th.M., Westminster Theological Seminary). His particular fields of interest are: Martin Bucer, specifically his practice as a theologian and exegete, and his relationship with the English Reformation; Bucer’s broader career; the English Reformation more generally; and the history of biblical interpretation. He has published essays on these subjects in Renaissance and Reformation Review, Westminster Theological Journal, Renaissance Studies, as well as in several edited volumes published by Brill, Mohr-Siebeck, and Librairie Droz. Dr Amos also shared (with Andrew Pettegree and Henk van Nierop) in the editing of The Education of a Christian Society: Humanism and the Reformation in Britain and the Netherlands (Ashgate, 1999), and contributed the article on Bucer to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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