by Matthew T. Gaetano Abraham Calov (1612-1686) is arguably the most important Lutheran theologian of the second half of the seventeenth century. He received his doctorate at Rostock in 1637, then taught and was a pastor in Königsberg before becoming a rector of the Danzig gymnasium in 1643. He apparently hoped to study with the great… Read More The Holiness of the Church in Abraham Calov
by Matthew Gaetano In a previous post, I discussed Henri de Lubac’s criticism of the position of Bellarmine and Suarez on the pope’s power to depose Christian kings. Though he believed that such a position was already obsolete in the context of his own day, he called this position–quite widespread from the Middle Ages through… Read More John of Paris, the Deposing Power, and the Punishment of Heretics
by Matthew Gaetano In my previous post, I discussed theologians who offered interpretations of the doctrine of the two swords before the Second Vatican Council. While some hierocrats believed that the pope’s two swords made him lord of the world, Vitoria, Bellarmine, and Suarez argued that popes had indirect power in temporal matters. Papal power… Read More Henri de Lubac’s Criticism of Indirect Power
by Matthew Gaetano In the excellent dialogue hosted at the Regensburg Forum several months ago about Vatican II, religious freedom, and political theology, Boniface VIII seems (quite understandably) to have been in the background. His 1308 bull Unam Sanctam makes several claims that remain important to contemporary theological discussion. Boniface speaks of two swords: the spiritual and the temporal. Both… Read More Boniface VIII’s Two Swords and the Theologians
by Matthew Gaetano The Jesuit theologian, Robert Bellarmine (d. 1621), has appeared quite a few times in the early days of The Regensburg Forum. His Controversies offered one of the most thoroughgoing challenges to Protestant theology. And Bellarmine’s Controversies came in for extensive criticism from hundreds of Reformed and Lutheran theologians–at times quite harsh. For our effort to… Read More Ranking “Errors” and the Assurance of Salvation
by Eric J. Demeuse In an important work recently translated into English,[1] the French Dominican Benoît-Dominique de la Soujeole presents a bold and largely successful “introduction to the mystery of the Church.” This 628 page “textbook,” as he calls it, is anything but what that arid term suggests. Offering both an historical examination of sources… Read More How Many Churches? A Critique of Benoît-Dominique de la Soujeole