ENDORSEMENTS:
"Privileged to have been a friend of Robert Preus, I know that he would have greeted this book with a broad smile. Through his labors as well as Richard Muller’s, at least two generations have now rediscovered the exceptionally fertile gardens of Lutheran and Reformed orthodoxy. I heartily commend this work and expect it to contribute significantly to this trend. Michael Horton J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California "Jordan Cooper identifies the foundations of Radical Lutheranism in existentialism and linguistic philosophy and shows its incompatibility with the Lutheran Orthodoxy of Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard. Special attention is given to Gerhard Forde and Oswald Bayer, both of whose views have been appropriated by the literarily productive Steven Paulson. For the Radical Lutherans, Law is defined by what it does rather than what it is. This leads to placing the act of atonement not within God, or in the past event of Golgotha, but in the hearers’ faith—which is the existential moment when, in hearing the gospel, the believer is justified. Readers will find here an easy to read clarification of a movement whose claims to authentically represent Luther’s theology cannot be substantiated." David P. Scaer Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN |
TITLE: Prolegomena: A Defense of the Scholastic Method
SERIES: A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology (Volume 1) DESCRIPTION: Since the Luther Renaissance in the early twentieth-century, many scholars of the Reformation period have argued for a strong discontinuity between the early Protestant reformers and the following age of Protestant Scholasticism. Such a claim is exemplified by Radical Lutheranism, which purports that Luther’s theology is incommensurate with that of the scholastic movements of the seventeenth century. In this work, Jordan Cooper defends the scholastic approach as a genuine outgrowth of Reformation theology and offers a critique of the theological system of Radical Lutheranism. He does this through a thorough exposition of the method used by Martin Chemnitz, Johann Gerhard, and other post-Reformation thinkers. He demonstrates that the foundational metaphysical assumptions of the Lutheran scholastics are both consistent with the Reformation and necessary for the church today. This book is the beginning of a series titled A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology. 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jordan Cooper is an ordained Lutheran pastor in the American Association of Lutheran Churches, a Professor of Systematic Theology, the Executive Director of Just and Sinner, and the President of the American Lutheran Theological Seminary. He has also held positions in multiple Christian organizations on campus at Cornell University. Cooper has authored several books, including his ongoing A Contemporary Protestant Scholastic Theology series, as well as theological articles in a variety of publications, including: Credo, Modern Reformation, Logia, Conspectus, Sapientia, the Issues Etc. Journal, Rowan and Littlefield's Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation, and more. He has hosted the Just and Sinner Podcast since 2012, and also has a popular YouTube channel. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife Lisa and their two sons. |