Description
Book SynopsisThis monograph bridges two discourses that so far have remained largely separate: debates about how and why secular modernity emerged, and Reformation studies. In telling the history of secularity, scholars have often focussed on late medieval shifts concerning the God-world-relationship (metaphysics). But how does the Reformation fit into this history? This book answers this question by investigating the implied metaphysics of the Reformation. To do so, it first proposes a new approach for studying the God-world-relationship in works which are not explicitly metaphysical, which is the case for most Reformation sources. Secondly, it applies this methodology to the work of one lesser known, but important reformer, Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499 - 1562), concluding that his work simultaneously inhabits two different models of understanding the God-world-relationship. The book concludes by highlighting the significance of this finding for understanding the Reformation and its place in the hi
Trade ReviewThis book is well worth reading. * David Haines, Religious Studies Review *
In the pages of her impressive academic debut, Metaphysics in the Reformation, Silvianne Aspray seeks to blaze a mediating trail -- by way of a methodological proposal -- between what she articulates as two different discourses pertaining to the origins of modernity. * Zack Kahler, The Heythrop Journal *
I would recommend this work for anyone interested in the theology of Peter Martyr Vermigli or the metaphysics of the Reformation more broadly. * Thomas Haviland-Pabst, Theology and History *
A worthwhile read. * James Clark, North American Anglican *
Beautifully written and lively * Andrew A. Chibi, Reading Religion *
Regardless of what one takes to be the greatest import of Aspray's study... it will undoubtedly be of interest to students of Vermigli. More broadly, her proposed methodology for discerning the metaphysical commitments of authors who do not explicitly speak of metaphysics as such is promising and deserves to be widely considered in virtue of the light it could shed on the Reformation at large, making this book a worthwhile read. * James Clark, The North American Anglican *
Table of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements Introduction: A Methodological Proposal 1: Divine and Human Agency and the Workings of Causality 2: Justification and the Workings of the Gift of Grace 3: The Eucharist and the Workings of Divine Presence 4: Political Theology and the Workings of Authority Conclusion: The Import of the Findings of this Study for Understanding the Reformation Bibliography
