This chapter outlines the structure and the main themes of the book. Part I will deal with the nature of providence and evil, including sin. Part II will outline the objective dimension of salvation, namely the saving efficacy of Christ, his death and resurrection. Part III will expound the subjective aspect of our salvation, that is, how we appropriate Christ’s saving work through the theological virtues and the sacraments. To do justice to Thomas’s understanding of salvation we need to be attentive to its realized-eschatological, interpersonal and symbolic emphases. We must also jettison dichotomies prevalent in modern scholarship: Thomas’s soteriology is both ontological and symbolical; it is interpersonal and yet makes allowances for the restoration of justice. In occupying the perhaps somewhat inhospitable region between a purely historical account of Thomas’s views and a constructive systematic-theological proposal, this book aspires to offer a readable introduction to central aspects of his theology from a contemporary perspective.

Luther insists that salvation is a gift and brings one into a mystical union with Christ, which is the true meaning of Christianity. Passive righteousness, Christ’s favor and gift, becomes one’s own, and in faith gains knowledge of God, transformation, and holiness in conformity with Christ.

Hobbes redefines both distributive justice and merit in Leviathan. Distributive justice is turned from a virtue of subjects into ‘the Justice of an Arbitrator’ by equating distributive justice with equity – the natural law duty that sovereign and subordinate judges administer rights and goods impartially, without regard of person or rank. Accompanying this shift, Leviathan changes the meaning and grounds of ‘merit’. Hobbes now claims, ‘merit … is rewarded of Grace onely’: distributive civil laws create rather than track merit. Leviathan’s novel accounts of distributive justice and merit have major implications for what the natural law of gratitude demands. Citizens are now in addition bound by gratitude to give the sovereign ‘no reasonable cause to repent’ his good will in freely according them legal rights. Leviathan’s bold redefinition of merit ensured that citizens cannot possibly receive less from the sovereign than they deserve; thus removing a major source of civic grievances. Second, by making honours, property, and other civil rights the free gift of sovereigns, Hobbes established that citizens are bound by natural law duties of gratitude to humour and please their sovereign benefactor – including by performing their duties of political obligation.

With his “born again” experience with Paul’s letter to the Romans about justification by faith alone, and criticizing the Christian church for ignoring people’s suffering, Luther called for reforms in teaching and practice, reimagining the parameters and depth of mystical God–human relationship, with an increased confidence of God’s mystical presence in human life and its transforming impact. Freedom from despair and freedom to compassionate living, with an assurance of salvation by faith became the pillars of Luther’s explicitly Christ-centric religion.

After John XXII, the papacy came to see dogma as the outcome of slow development, and indecision as a legitimate option. The legacy of John XXII was twofold. On the one hand, his vision of a papacy entrusted with the development of doctrine endured. On the other hand, the difficulties provoked by his policy of initiating doctrinal development served as a warning to his successors. There would be no more precipitous innovations. The papacy would not be hurried and, so long as it had not reached a decision on contentious points of doctrine, it could forbid the opposing parties from bandying the word ‘heretic’ about.

While many scholars have argued that Augustine’s theology of grace underwent a shift around 418, making the grace of faith more inward, Chapter 5 proposes that instead, Augustine’s vocabulary of faith simply expands to encompass hopeful and loving faith, which are due to inward graces. Augustine’s expanded vocabulary can be seen especially through his distinction between three different senses of credere (believing). Credere Christum – believing truths about Christ – is necessary for true virtue, since faith orders actions to their ultimate end, but is not sufficient for it. Credere Christo – believing Christ – justifies when motivated by hope. Hope is both the desire for the grace to love and the first beginning of love by grace. Hope therefore explains many puzzles in Augustine’s mature theology of grace. Lastly, credere in Christum – believing in Christ – is a synecdoche for faith, hope, and love. It signifies not merely the means to righteousness but participation in Christ and the very essence of human righteousness.

Chapter 3 begins with how the Donatist controversy shaped Augustine’s theology of justification by faith because the Donatists represented the real possibility of having faith without charity. The chapter then turns to the key features of Augustine’s theology of justification formed by the Pelagian controversy, especially participation in Christ’s righteousness. Both controversies pressed Augustine to consider how justification is by faith if faith sometimes fails to justify, as in Donatists, lax catechumens, and impenitent Christians. In both de spiritu et littera (The Spirit and the Letter) and his sermons, Augustine addresses this through a deeper psychology of faith: faith only obtains the grace of justification when it is motivated by hope and fails if it is motivated primarily by fear. The chapter concludes with de fide et operibus (Faith and Works), exploring Augustine’s understanding of faith, works, and charity, his criticism of sola fide (faith alone), and his development of a new terminology for justifying faith: fides Christi (faith in Christ).

Through an analysis of his Pauline exegesis in the 390s, especially Romans 7, Chapter 2 demonstrates that Augustine develops a consistent interpretation of Paul on justification: faith justifies because it trusts God to give the grace of charity to fulfill the law by the Holy Spirit in baptism. The chapter situates this interpretation within the predominantly baptismal theology of justification in Ambrose and North Africa. This context unlocks how Augustine’s account of faith justifying by obtaining grace is intended to interpret the catechumen’s reception of the Holy Spirit in baptism; in Augustine’s own analogy, faith is the conception of grace, and baptism is its birth. Turning to ad Simplicianum (To Simplician), Augustine’s changed view on election preserves this interpretation of justification by faith. The chapter concludes by applying Augustine’s interpretation of Paul to his conversion in confessiones (Confessions), though this also reveals Augustine’s need to explain why faith sometimes fails to obtain grace.

This chapter explores Augustine’s intellectual formation and conversion to Christianity in the context of late antiquity’s philosophical, religious, and political transformations. Tracing his journey through Manichaean dualism, Neoplatonism, and finally Pauline Christianity, the chapter highlights Augustine’s struggles with the nature of evil, the limits of human will, and the role of divine grace. Drawing on the Confessions, it examines Augustine’s dialogue with Platonism, particularly Plotinus, whose hierarchy of being and emphasis on inner ascent deeply influenced him – but could not resolve the question of the incarnation. Augustine’s embrace of Christ as both divine and human offered a radically new model of wisdom grounded in humility and love (caritas), unavailable in pagan philosophical traditions. The chapter contextualizes Augustine’s thought within Roman imperial history, the codification of Christian scripture, and the evolving notion of philosophy as a way of life. Ultimately, it shows how Augustine’s life and writings forged a new intellectual synthesis, in which classical reason and biblical faith coalesced into a powerful vision of human transformation, one that would shape Christian anthropology, literary practice, and theological reflection for centuries.

This chapter explores the life, conversion, and enduring intellectual impact of Paul of Tarsus, the pivotal figure who redefined the meaning of Christ’s message and helped establish Christianity’s universal reach. Drawing on the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s authentic letters, the chapter recounts Paul’s transformation from persecutor of Christians to their foremost theologian. Key themes include martyrdom (via the stoning of Stephen), Paul’s “vessel of election” status, and his mission to the Gentiles. Special attention is paid to Paul’s rhetorical engagement with Greco-Roman audiences, particularly his speech at the Areopagus in Athens, where he engaged Epicurean and Stoic thought. The chapter also analyzes major theological ideas from his letters – radical equality in Galatians, divine election in Romans, and the centrality of charity (agapē) and the resurrection in 1 Corinthians. Paul’s integration of Platonic and Aristotelian themes into Christian doctrine, especially in his vision of the resurrection and the soul-body union, helped shape the metaphysical and moral architecture of Christian – and western – thought. The chapter concludes by noting Paul’s legacy as a thinker who merged personal transformation with expansive theological vision.

Grace and providence, much like the sacraments (which are instruments of grace), are pervasive in the Confessions. Yet we learn about them, not from any explicit theorizing or argumentation on Augustine’s part, but by examining their role in the dual narrative: the personal narrative of Augustine’s life and the cosmic narrative of creation and redemption. This chapter considers how grace (God’s unmerited favor) and providence (God’s directing of the course of events in the service of his own ends) shape, but do not determine, Augustine’s life. Although there is no explicit consideration in the Confessions of the relationship between grace and free choice, the overwhelming message of the work seems to be that grace is indispensable but not irresistible: God makes Augustine into the kind of person who can accept grace, but not someone who cannot help but accept it.

This chapter discusses the definitions of the virtues employed by early scholastic authors and examines their systems for classifying the virtues, as well as their accounts of specific virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This chapter discusses the early scholastic debates on predestination and merit, which were influenced by Augustine as well as Peter Lombard. In particular, scholastics sought to explain the compatibility of contingent temporal actions and eternal predestination.

In a political system based on monarchy it is misleading to equate governance (the active and legitimate exercise of social control) with politics (the public debate surrounding that practice), for the basis of power and authority in late medieval England lay overwhelmingly in the personal rule of the king, and ‘public debate’ over how he did so was very rarely conducted in the open, though, as we shall see, it certainly could – and did – occur. For most of the time, however, there was very little ‘politics’ but an awful lot of ‘governance’. The basis of a king’s right to exercise governance over his subjects lay in the theoretically unimpeachable notion that he had been appointed by God to protect and advance the common interest of the kingdom.