Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-216) and indexes.
Contents:
Preface: Melanchthon's natural law as a combative concept -- Introduction: Melanchthon, political philosopher of the Protestant Reformation -- Sedition, tyranny, and law in the early 1520s -- "The causes that lead us to institute government and obey rulers" -- A true and learned philosophy according to the law of God -- Liberty, tyranny, and defence of the true religion -- Conclusion: Melanchthonian moral philosophy and the beginnings of Protestant natural law.
Summary:
This book is the first contextual account of the political philosophy and natural law theory of the German reformer Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560). Mads Langballe Jensen presents Melanchthon as a significant political thinker in his own right and as an engaged scholar drawing on the intellectual arsenal of renaissance humanism to develop a new Protestant political philosophy. As such, he also shows how and why natural law theories first became integral to Protestant political thought in response to the political and religioius conflicts of the Reformation. This study offers new, contextual studies of a wide range of Melanchthon's works including his early humanist orations, commentaries on Aristotle's ethics and politics. Melanchthon's own textbooks on moral and political philosophy, and pliemical works.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.