The Christian Intellectual Tradition from the Reformation to the Modern Era: A Reader and Companion

by Josh A. Reeves; Jennifer Woodruff Tait; Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug

and

2 more

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2025

Overview

This reader with commentary helps Christians understand and critically examine major arguments that have been made in the Western intellectual tradition through an examination of great texts. The book explores themes related to the natural world, human nature, politics, and God.

The core of a liberal arts education lies in the debates made possible by a shared set of texts and questions. Combining their expertise in science, theology, political science, and history, the authors guide readers through the most important sections of classic texts from the Reformation to the modern era, explaining their significance and the debates they sparked. The texts are organized around four themes: God, science, society, and human nature. Rather than simply summarizing the texts, this introduction presents them in a way that allows readers to engage directly with the material. The authors provide historical context, point out potential themes and connections, and encourage readers to explore the ideas and questions the texts raise. Reflection questions are included.

This book facilitates teaching for professors from a wide variety of disciplines and will work well for students in great books courses. In addition, it will be of interest to Christian classical learning organizations, including high schools.

Key Features

• Helps Christians understand and critically examine major arguments.
• Explores themes related to the natural world, human nature, politics, and God.
• Provides historical context, point out potential themes and connections.

Contents

Introduction: Why Study the Christian Liberal Arts Tradition

Part 1: Introduction to Theology

1. The Schleitheim Confession (1527) by Michael Sattler and Others

2. Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559) by John Calvin

3. The Interior Castle (1577) by Teresa of Ávila

4. Pensées [Thoughts] (ca. 1660) by Blaise Pascal

5. “Salvation by Faith” (1738) by John Wesley; “Free Grace: And Can It Be That I Should Gain” (1738) by Charles Wesley

6. “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of That Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Late Reverend, and Pious, George Whitefield” (1770); “A Hymn to the Evening” and “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773); “On the Death of General Wooster” (1778) by Phillis Wheatley

7. The Age of Reason (1794) by Thomas Paine

8. The Way of Holiness (1845) by Phoebe Worrall Palmer

9. On the Genealogy of Morality (1887) by Friedrich Nietzsche

10. Orthodoxy (1908) by G. K. Chesterton

Part 2: Introduction to History of Science

11. On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (1543) by Nicolaus Copernicus

12. “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina” (1615) by Galileo Galilei

13. The New Organon, or True Directions Concerning the Interpretation of Nature (1620) by Francis Bacon

14. The World (1664) by René Descartes

15. Observations upon Experimental Philosophy (1666) by Margaret Cavendish

16. “General Scholium” to the Principia (1726) by Isaac Newton

17. “A Lecture on Earthquakes” (1755) by John Winthrop

18. On the Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin

19. The Principles of Psychology (1890) by William James

Part 3: Introduction to Politics

20. Doctrine of Discovery (1500s-1600s), Francisco de Vitoria, Hugo Grotius

21. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1542) by Bartolomé de las Casas

22. Leviathan (1651) by Thomas Hobbes

23. Second Treatise of Government (1689) and Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) by John Locke

24. A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755) and The Social Contract (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

25. The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith

26. Federalist No. 10 (1787) and Federalist No. 51 (1788) by James Madison

27. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) by Edmund Burke

28. The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Karl Marx

Part 4: Introduction to Human Nature

29. Concerning Christian Liberty (1520) by Martin Luther

30. “On Cannibals” (1580) by Michel de Montaigne

31. Women’s Speaking Justified (1666) by Margaret Fell

32. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft

33. “Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature” (1843) by Dorothea Dix

34. “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?” (1852) by Frederick Douglass

35. Illustrations of Universal Progress (1865) by Herbert Spencer

36. “We Are All Bound Up Together” (1866) and “A Double Standard” (1898) by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

37. The Souls of Black Folk (1903) by W. E. B. Du Bois

Product Details

• Title: The Christian Intellectual Tradition from the Reformation to the Modern Era: A Reader and Companion
• Authors: Josh A. Reeves, Jennifer Woodruff Tait, Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug, Annalise J. K. DeVries, Gabrielle Stanton Ray
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2025
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• ISBNs: 9781493452026, 9781540968043, 1540968049, 1493452029
• Resource ID: LLS:9781493452026
• Resource Type: text.monograph.church-history
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-25T21:46:17Z