Publications

ABSTRACT - The retrieval of patristic exegesis made great strides during the revival of Renaissance humanism and the spread of European Reformations. While devotion to the recovery of the early church writings was primarily an intellectual movement, it was shaped and motivated by distinct social, political, religious, and philosophical developments of fifteenth and sixteenth century Europe. Humanists appreciated ancient Christian writings because they sought to combine piety with eloquence, which would reinvigorate religion for educated laity. When humanists, such as LeFévre and Erasmus, offered their translations and interpretation of Scripture and the church fathers, others responded with their own interpretations, whether Lutheran, Calvinist, Swiss Reformed, English, or Catholic. Although the development of confessionalization shaped the integration of Renaissance patristic scholarship, the patristic reception of Protestants and Catholics portrayed both respect and criticism of ancient exegetes because they now had to struggle in order to define their theological positions among a plurality of interpretations.

ABSTRACT- During the sixteenth century, migration of mainly French Protestants into Geneva resulted in a significant refugee community dedicated to discipline and poor relief. This article examines the ongoing impact of migration on the formation of religious communities and their correlation with the development of poor relief funds in a leading Reformation city. The social dislocation of religious refugees fostered a high commitment to their new identity as advocates of the Reformed religion and proponents of poor relief for foreigners. John Calvin, chief minister and French immigrant, articulated his ideals for establishing a truly Reformed community through the institutions of the church, the consistory and the Bourse française (French Fund) to support the formation of a new, corporate, religious identity. This article argues that aid for the refugees became an integral part of establishing this religious and social reformation from the 1540s to the 1560s as waves of refugees landed in Geneva.

ABSTRACT - Despite the demarcations of the political and religious spheres, Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) considered the city’s system of poor relief to be a pastoral concern. The chief minister of Zurich expected the wealth from confiscated church property to be used for communal needs and believed that the magistrates needed the ministers to guide them in poor relief reforms. This article demonstrates that Bullinger’s biblical interpretation was not peripheral to his political activity, but rather central to his contributions to poor relief and to the justification of his political involvement in poor relief reform. More specifically, Bullinger’s involvement in poor relief reform was a consistent development from his articulation of his theological views in the 1530s, applied to the Zurich context in the 1550s, and politically supported in the 1570s. An examination of Bullinger’s biblical interpretation and scriptural references in his commentaries, sermons, and speeches reveals a consistent concern for the care of the poor from the early years of his career to the end of his ministry in Zurich.

ABSTRACT - This paper addresses the Reformation problem of negotiating long-held values of poverty as a religious ideal with the emerging social values of profit and wealth accompanying the rapid economic development during the early modern period. Drawing insights from Scripture to be applied in the sixteenth century context, Calvin addressed the social problems of poverty and wealth that elevated neither the poor nor the rich, simply for their economic status, but rather for how they responded to their respective circumstances. Hence, Calvin could imagine the pious poor and the virtuous rich, while envisioning a social structure where voluntary wealth distribution would remove the causes of abject poverty. Calvin’s intersection of religious thought with his support of emerging social welfare systems resulted in a broader appeal for his views.

ABSTRACT - In this book, I argue that Lutheran and Calvinist writers used the church fathers as secondary authorities to compete for legitimacy in the Holy Roman Empire. The significance of this book is that it contributes a new theory to the study of the Reformation. While many have already written about what Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and other reformers said, very little has been done to explain on what basis of authority these reformers could speak and expect to be heard. The ability to be heard depended on the reformers’ ability to re-imagine church history in a way that would give ancestral roots to the Protestant tradition. This effort emerged most notably in the debates over the Eucharist or Holy Communion, which revealed the divisions over sacramental theology, anthropology, and Christology. As challengers to standard orthodoxy of the late medieval and early modern period, Protestants sought to establish their religiosu authority by going back to its historical roots and reinterpeting the past. What was at stake was the definition of Christian orthodoxy and the authority to decide that orthodoxy, which did not simply divide Protestants from Catholics (as is commonly thought) but divided Protestants themselves.

ABSTRACT - This essay examines how John Calvin and Joachim Westphal used the early church fathers in the sixteenth-century debates over the Lord's Supper. In the midst of competing Lutheran and Reformed interpretations of the Lord s Supper, the reformers looked to ancient authorities in support of their views against competing opinions. As controversies erupted, not only between Catholics and Protestants but among the Protestants themselves, references to the church fathers increased as the reformers appealed to the ancient tradition for confirmation on doctrinal and liturgical issues. This essay compares how Calvin and Westphal referred to the church fathers to authorize their own interpretations concerning the Eucharist and contributes to current conversations on the use of the early church fathers in the construction of Protestant "orthodoxy," and the history of biblical interpretation during the Reformation.

ABSTRACT - When John Calvin describes the Christian life, one key issue that arises is how believers are to use earthly and material blessings. The condition for using and enjoying these material gifts is that they be used rightly, namely according to the purposes of God. This paper illustrates how John Calvin understood the balance of theology and ethics in his sixteenth-century contest. If poverty is no longer the religious ideal, what does a pious Christian do with his or her possessions? By examining Calvin’s biblical interpretation of the last section in Acts 4 concerning the communal sharing of possessions and the first section in Acts 5 on Ananias and Sapphira, it becomes clear that the goal of reflecting God’s providence guides the use of material wealth and the answer to the question of how much one should give.