Grace and Law in Galatians: Justification in Luther and Calvin
Ebook
Overview
The author does not aim to defend Luther’s and Calvin’s reading of Galatians against modern biblical scholarship but to read and hear them in their own contexts. He grapples with major theological themes underlying their approach: law and gospel, active and passive righteousness, faith alone yet not alone, attribution of contraries between Christ and the justified saints, human love and God’s love, Christ as gift and example, the creative power of God’s word, union with Christ, the economic action of the Son, the role of Holy Spirit in the justified life, faith in Christ and the faith of Christ, the uses of the law, true identity as God’s gift, flesh and Spirit, and radical discontinuity of the old existence and the re-creation of the new. Readers will learn from the Reformers how they apply a text or theological theme homiletically in a pastoral context and appreciate how their understanding of the gospel can spiritually nurture the life of faith.
Understanding the theology of the reformers means understanding how they have read the Bible. Dennis Ngien’s erudite study on Luther’s and Calvin’s interpretation of the Letter to the Galatians provides us with a thoroughly thoughtful and well-written exploration of how both reformers lifted the treasuries of Paul’s writing on the cross and on justification. Seeing both theologians focusing on a theology pro nobis, Ngien shows their message for today’s church and theology.
——Volker Leppin, Yale Divinity School
Grace and Law in Galatians does something original and significant. It is not primarily a study of how Luther and Calvin handled exegetical issues in the text, nor is it primarily a study of how Galatians shaped particular themes in their theology. Rather, it shows us how Paul’s letter was an indispensable basis for their understanding and application of the gospel itself. Ngien offers an important resource to all those attempting to understand and apply the gospel.
——Stephen J. Chester, Wycliffe College
Dennis Ngien has once again written a fantastic book. Brimming with original insights into Luther’s and Calvin’s engagement with Galatians, the reader is blessed with a sense of how the gospel enables us to live in Christ and in the neighbor. Ngien’s scholarship is outstanding, his prose inviting, and most importantly, his love of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom he writes, overflowing. We are in his debts for providing us with such a book.
——Christopher R. J. Holmes, University of Otago
The history of Lutheran-Reformed polemics has tended to occlude the substantial theological agreement between their founders. Ngien’s fresh reading of Luther and Calvin on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is sympathetic, contextual, and pastoral as he explores the Reformers’ respective theological nuances on a variety of important themes. Masterfully weaving together primary and secondary sources, Ngien’s book is immensely readable, academically-sound, non-combative, and essential reading for all who take the Christian life seriously.
——Dennis Bielfeldt, president, Institute of Lutheran Theology
- Title: Grace and Law in Galatians: Justification in Luther and Calvin
- Authors: Dennis Ngien, Michael Parsons
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Pages: 196
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666718423, 9781666718416, 1666718416, 9781666718409, 1666718408, 1666718424
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666718423
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T17:21:36Z
Dennis Ngien is research professor of theology at Tyndale University. Formerly the Alister E. McGrath Chair of Christian Thought and Spirituality, he is the author of several books including Fruit for the Soul (2015) and Luther’s Theology of the Cross (Cascade, 2018).