Monergism Books

Description: Philip Melanchthon's Debate with John Agricola of Eisleben over Poenitentia

One of the world's leading Melanchthon scholars sheds new light on a little-known aspect of the Reformer's life.

In Law and Gospel, Timothy J. Wengert explores the relationship between penance and law in Melanchthon's theology during the time Melanchthon was opposed by another one of Luther's disciples, John Agricola of Eisleben.

Questions over the nature of poenitentia and its relation to the law and to the sacrament of penance, writes Wengert, formed the basis of the first public controversy among Luther's own students and profoundly shaped the nature of later Lutheranism by making the distinction between law and gospel one of the distinguishing characteristics of that movement. It is this controversy that the present study will investigate.

Timothy J. Wengert, associate professor of the history of Christianity at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, is a leading expert on Luther and Melanchthon. He has written numerous scholarly articles and books including Human Freedom--Divine Righteousness: Philip Melanchthon's Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam. His Ph.D. degree is from Duke University.

Timothy Wengert has published a fascinating blow-by-blow account of the debate over the issue of antinomianism between Melanchthon and John Agricola of Eisleben, an early advocate of reform who had been one of Luther's early supporters at Wittenberg. Wengert's detailed analysis of this debate provides valuable insights into the early development of an important aspect of Lutheran theology. This book is well documented and includes a helpful index and bibliography. For those interested in the transition between the first and second generation of the Reformation, this book should be required reading.