Founded in 1979 by Gerard Berghoef and Lester DeKoster, Christian’s Library Press has been committed to publishing influential texts on church leadership, the vocation of work, and stewardship for more than thirty years. During that time Berghoef and DeKoster wrote significant works including The Deacons Handbook, The Elders Handbook, and God’s Yardstick, which still are in demand today. After the passing of Lester DeKoster in 2009, the imprint is now administered by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty. For more information about Christian’s Library Press, visit www.clpress.com.
With its commitment to pursue a society that is free and virtuous, the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty is a leading voice in the international environmental and social policy debate. With offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Rome, Italy, as well as affiliates in four other nations around the world, the Acton Institute is uniquely positioned to comment on the sound economic and moral foundations necessary to sustain humane environmental and social policies. The Acton Institute is a nonprofit, ecumenical think tank working internationally to “promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.” For more on the Acton Institute, please visit www.acton.org.
Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) was one of the most influential interpreters of the Bible in the sixteenth century, and his works garnered praise from contemporaries like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Erasmus. Melanchthon's 1555 commentary on Proverbs, originally written in Latin and translated here for the first time in any modern language, showcases his mastery of ancient languages...
May beggars be excluded from public spaces? May vagabonds be denied access to foreign cities? Should assistance to the poor rely on private charity rather than public welfare institutions? These and similar questions are at the heart of Deliberation on the Cause of the Poor, a remarkable treatise on poor relief by Domingo de Soto (1495-1560), one of Spain's most famous jurist-theologians.
The early French reformer Pierre de la Place (ca. 1520-1572) is usually remembered more for his martyrdom than for his life or work. La Place was, however, a significant figure in the French reform movement who made contributions through both civil service and writing. Appearing here in English for the first time, his Du droict usage de la philosophie morale avec la doctrine chrestienne...
This work offers an extraordinary perspective on the early modern debates about toleration and the binding force of agreements between people of different Christian faiths. Drawing on principles of contract law developed by jurists and theologians from the School of Salamanca, the Jesuit controversialist Martinus Becanus (1563-1624) argues in favor of the duty to honor promises beyond...
In this work the famed seventeenth-century pastor Richard Baxter provides worthy instruction in the proper valuation of earthly and heavenly goods, including practical and perennial lessons on how to pursue the common good in society. Baxter’s practical wisdom and doctrinal acumen, including his great theological achievements, were always rooted in his pastoral ministry among the English people...
On the Law of Nature is at once a traditional and eclectic treatise of moral philosophy by one of the sixteenth century’s most widely read Protestant authors. Niels Hemmingsen (1513–1600), the “Teacher of Denmark,” was a Danish humanist and theologian who studied with the “Teacher of Germany,” Philip Melanchthon, at the University of Wittenberg. Hemmingsen went on to serve as a professor...
A century has passed since the Russian Revolution, and many in the current generation regard even the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe as ancient history. But Karl Marx’s ideological legacy remains strong. While the specter of this nineteenth-century thinker perhaps loomed largest in the twentieth century, today Marx’s ideas continue to fall on fertile soil—even among Christians...
This translation is a selection from Lessius’ treatment of contract law in his larger work On Justice and Right. By drawing on diverse sources ranging from Roman and canon law to moral philosophy, Lessius offers practical advice in commercial and financial matters. These chapters on sale, securities, and insurance engage perennial questions concerning the lawfulness of insider trading...
The Protestant Reformation was a catalyst for social mobility, universal education, and the rise of modern market economies. In his classic study The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber showed the connections between Protestantism and the new economics. Weber, however, focused on the Calvinists and Puritans and speculated that economic success became a way of proving one’s...
The evangelical church has a social responsibility. But what is that responsibility and what does it look like in practice? This collection explores the nature of the institutional church’s responsibility, but also explores deeper questions related to the church’s social witness: Why is the church significant? How should it speak and act—and who should do the speaking and acting?
This treatise, appearing in English for the first time, engages the perennial question of how the laws of Moses ought to be applied to contemporary political situations. Through clear distinctions and theses, and by drawing on diverse sources ranging from Greek and Roman law to medieval Christian theology, Junius develops a method of classifying and interpreting the Mosaic laws that honors...
Opening the Scriptures is neither a new series of technical commentaries, nor is it a collection of sermons. Instead it offers devout church members a series of popularly accessible primers so that the average churchgoer can easily grasp them.
Abraham Kuyper’s seminal three-volume work on the doctrine of common grace (De gemeene gratie) presents a constructive public theology of cultural engagement rooted in the humanity Christians share with the rest of the world. Its author was a remarkable Dutch politician, journalist, educator, statesman, and Reformed theologian who wrote many works, but Common Grace is the capstone...
Abraham Kuyper’s seminal three-volume work on the doctrine of common grace (De gemeene gratie) presents a constructive public theology of cultural engagement rooted in the humanity Christians share with the rest of the world. Its author was a remarkable Dutch politician, journalist, educator, statesman, and Reformed theologian who wrote many works, but Common Grace is the capstone...
Opening the Scriptures is neither a new series of technical commentaries, nor is it a collection of sermons. Instead it offers devout church members a series of popularly accessible primers so that the average churchgoer can easily grasp them.
What relevance does Christianity have in our societal system—a system that so often seems to be ordered only by the ultra-complex machinery of state power and corporate strategy? The essays in this volume address that question by considering the relationship of the church to liberty, government, commerce, and education.
Why write about social justice? Why investigate income inequality? This book discusses the topics of social justice and income inequality within an economic, philosophic, and biblical framework that leads to an understanding of integrated justice.
MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO Abraham Kuyper and his followers recognized that knowledge (curriculum) and behavior (pedagogy) are embedded in everyone’s core beliefs about the nature of God, humanity, and the world. Kuyper delivered the two convocation addresses included in this volume to the students of the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) in Amsterdam in 1889 and 1900.
Opening the Scriptures is neither a new series of technical commentaries, nor is it a collection of sermons. Instead it offers devout church members a series of popularly accessible primers so that the average churchgoer can easily grasp them.
Opening the Scriptures is neither a new series of technical commentaries, nor is it a collection of sermons. Instead it offers devout church members a series of popularly accessible primers so that the average churchgoer can easily grasp them.
Abraham Kuyper’s Our Program was originally written to inform people participating in the Dutch general elections of 1879. The French Revolution was long over, but not its ideas. The influence of modern life and its secularizing influence was growing and reshaping the minds and hearts of Europeans and the rest of the Western world. What should the Dutch people believe...
Abraham Kuyper’s seminal three-volume work on the doctrine of common grace (De gemeene gratie) presents a constructive public theology of cultural engagement rooted in the humanity Christians share with the rest of the world. Its author was a remarkable Dutch politician, journalist, educator, statesman, and Reformed theologian who wrote many works, but Common Grace is the capstone...
The title of this commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism takes its inspiration from the catechism’s second question, which asks “What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?” The comfort referred to is that which is described in the famous first question and answer, the comfort of knowing “that I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, in life...
This Reformed Christian primer on work and faith champions the glory of God in all of life’s endeavors by tracing four key themes of economics in Christian confession and commitment and examining markers for human flourishing in the real world of economics, commerce, and markets. With scholarly passion and pastoral wisdom, tempered by the insight of economists, John Bolt presents a winsome case...
The Dicaeologicae was an immense Latin work that sought to construct a single comprehensive juridical system by collating the Decalogue, Jewish law, Roman law, and various streams of European customary law.
What should we do with what we are given? It’s a question Christians ask. Given, that is, by God who is the author of life, and time, and talent, and all creation. Life is God’s gift. So is time, the form in which life passes from cradle to grave, from birth to judgment.
Abraham Kuyper’s Rooted & Grounded is the Word of the Lord for the Christian church today. Christians know the Gospel must permeate every area of life organically, that every vocation is integral and not accidental to the missio Dei, as my friend and colleague Steven Garber is fond of saying. This is what Kuyper means when...
On the Law in General is a single chapter of Girolamo Zanchi's Tractatus de Redemptione, part of what has been called an unfinished Protestant "summa" akin to that of Thomas Aquinas.
In this treatise we find an insightful analysis concerning how monetary debasement and inflation increase prices, which proceeds to illustrate how such increases do not affect everyone equally—in effect, causing a revolution in fortunes.
Pentecostal Christianity is just over a century old, and yet its impact in that time as an evangelistic force for Christ has been astonishing. One foundational scriptural understanding of the Pentecostal movement is that the Spirit empowers us to carry out the work of the gospel. Without a dependence on the work of the Spirit, we are mere...
Why has the modern Baptist movement flourished while older denominations have declined? Liberal theology and slow-grinding state-church machinery are two reasons, but an even greater reason is ecclesiastical entrepreneurship! For more than two hundred years the Free Church with its “baptist” ecclesiology and evangelical ministry practice in spreading the gospel and starting new churches has...
Today we are all too well acquainted with a view of work and economics as necessary evils—means to an end. Our culture shouts its disapproval of work as bothersome, if necessary. It is conflicted over competing economic views and challenges the notion that one system can be better than all...
A century ago when this book was first published, marriage and the family were already weathering enormous changes, and that trend has not abated. Yet by God’s power the unchanging essence of marriage and the family remains proof, as Bavinck notes, that God’s “purpose with the human race has not yet been achieved.”
Lester DeKoster is the retired editor of The Banner, weekly news magazine of the Christian Reformed Church. He is the former Director of Libraries for Calvin College and Seminary. He currently writes and publishes books on Christian living from the Reformed Calvinist perspective.
An invaluable resource for all who are, or will be, involved in the church's ministry of mercy. Includes chapters on the nature and history of the diaconal office, concrete advice regarding budget and finances, suggestions for enlisting congregational participation in diaconal service, and thought-provoking perspectives on giving and stewardship.
The Unity Factor is rooted in the prayer of Jesus in John 17:20–23, a prayer that presents to us an unreachable goal. How can we ever live out Christ’s plan for us to be one in faith and mission when we are so deeply divided by social, cultural, racial, and doctrinal fault lines? Does it really matter whether or not we strengthen our bonds of mutual love...
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, an unprecedented opportunity exists to disciple the church in the fundamental biblical pattern of holistic stewardship. As the church becomes increasingly aware of issues of sustainability, seeks to understand and foster the role of business, and expands the message of the grace of giving. Edited by Arif Mohamed, Brett Elder, and Stephen Grabill.
Where do we find the core of life's meaning? Right on the job! At whatever work we do - with head or hand, from kitchen to executive suite, from your house to the White House! "Work is the great equalizer - everyone has to come to it in order to find meaning in living: no short cuts, no detours, no bargain rates."