Thomas Cranmer's Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love

Front Cover
OUP Oxford, 2001 M04 6 - 308 pages
Self-serving lacky, self-deceiving puppet, Swiss Protestant partisan, or sensible Erasmian humanist: which, if any, was Thomas Cranmer? For centuries historians have offered often bitterly contradictory answers. Although Cranmer was a key participant in the changes to English life brought about by the Reformation, his reticent nature and lack of extensive personal writings have left a vacuum that in the past has too often been filled by scholarly prejudice or presumption. For the first time, however, this book examines in-depth little used manuscript sources to reconstruct Cranmer's theological development on the crucial Protestant doctrine of justification. The author explores Cranmer's cultural heritage, why he would have been attracted to Luther's thought, and then provides convincing evidence for the Reformed Protestant Augustinianism which Cranmer enshrined in the formularies of the Church of England. For Cranmer the glory of God was his love for the unworthy; the heart of theology was proclaiming this truth through word and sacrament. Hence, the focus of both was on the life of on-going repentance, remembering God's gracious love inspired grateful human love.
 

Contents

The Theology of Thomas Cranmer
1
Contrition as Repentance
28
AugustinianInfluenced Scotist Penance
65
Erasmian Penitence
84
Lutheran Sacramental Penance
116
Justification in Cranmers Great Commonplaces circa 1544
157
Public Protestant Augustinianism
213
Conclusion
248
Appendix
254
Bibliography
279
Index
295
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