Thanks to Michael at Twenty-First Century Tabletalk for alerting us to the publication of Cornel Venema’s dissertation. This is a great work. I did not find it until I had finished my own thesis on Olevianus. We reached very similar conclusions about our subjects. It’s published by an academic publisher and this work isn’t light reading but, for scholars who would understand Calvin’s doctrine of justification, this book is essential.
Would this be a good book to read in connection to Garcia’s latest volume? I know you’ve expressed some concerns over the latter’s take on pan-Protestantism. I plan to read his book soon. Could you recommend anything else that would challenge his reading of Calvin? I hope to come up with a short list of works for summer reading on this topic. Any help would be appreciated.
I haven’t got a copy of Mark’s book yet so I don’t want to say much. I’ve seen the contours of at least part of his argument and certainly Cornel’s diss. would be an essential place to start.
I am in a study group lead by Mark Garcia on his book. I have been talking with Scott about it, so it is funny that is brought up here. Garcia said today in our discussion, and seemingly from the book, that to say that
Union with Christ is the “Central Dogma” is actually wrong. He claims that
Union with Christ is a very important and prominent feature of Calvin and
that many agree that it is. Our union with Christ is intricately related to
our justification and sanctification. He is not willing to forgo “forensic
justification.” He also seems more interested to juxtapose Calvin with the
Lutheran theologicans that came after Luther since historically Calvin did
not interact with Luther. I told Scott all of this earlier today. I am interested to dive deeper and to discuss with Mark his views.
Here’s my question: “How much does it cost in American dollars?”. It doesn’t look like it’ll be cheap, especially when the summary is in German, before the English. James
It’s pretty expensive. Someone wrote to say that it cost them (somewhere) in the neighborhood of $80.
You can always ask your local library to get it or ask them to get it for you via inter-library loan (see the Wikipedia entry if you aren’t sure what this is).
Not sure if you can answer this or not, but has this been reworked quite a bit, or is it basically the same as his dissertation? Our library has the latter but not the former. If there’s new stuff in this, I might have to hound the library until they order a copy.
Can’t say. Haven’t seen it yet.