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Description of  On the Apocalyptic and Human Agency: Conversations with Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther

144386627X pdf There is little doubt about the fundamental importance of both Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther for western theology and anthropology. Both continue to invite critical debate on a host of issues that persist in their contemporary relevance, such as questions about human identity and destiny. This engaging volume brings together a group of scholars pursuing new directions in Lutheran and Augustinian scholarship on these issues. The first section on Luther and the Apocalyptic highlights Luthers deep groundedness in the this-worldly dimensions of his apocalyptic thinking. The authors in this section demonstrate how Luthers apocalyptic worldview leads back to earth, to living and dead bodies, to contemporary political realities, to glimpses of hope amid tumult. The authors utilize dimensions of Luthers apocalyptic sensibility to better envision how Gods promised future impacts the present. The second section on Augustine and Luther on Human Agency examines Augustines understanding of the human self, its sovereignty and its fragility, its agency and its confines. The authors in this section explore how the Augustinian monk turned Reformer of the Church, Martin Luther, used and evangelized Augustines understanding of the self. The authors invite readers to explore 20th and 21st century appropriations of these ideas in order to pursue these questions and their implications more deeply for themselves. Read more