About This Volume

On Justification through Faith defines faith as a God given gift that knowledge, trust, and assent that apprehends Christ. In this way, faith is the instrumental cause of justification, where Christ is the meritorious and material cause of the same. This faith is a judicial term, apprehending Christ and receiving a change of status before God from villainy to sonship. Gerhard also argues that true, justifying faith cannot be separated from love and other virtues. In other words, faith alone justifies, but true faith is never alone. Gerhard expands on the role of virtue and action in the Christian life in his paired volume On Works.

About This Series

The Theological Commonplaces series is the first-ever English translation of Gerhard's monumental Loci Theologici. Gerhard was the premier Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century. Combining his profound understanding of evangelical Lutheran theology with a broad interest in ethics and culture, he produced significant works on biblical, doctrinal, pastoral, and devotional theology. Gerhard interacts with the writings of the church fathers, Luther and his contemporaries, and the Catholic and Calvinist theologians of his day. His 17-volume Loci is regarded as the standard compendium of Lutheran orthodoxy, with topics ranging from the proper understanding and interpretation of Scripture to eschatology.

Useful for research on Lutheran doctrine, Gerhard's accessible style makes this a must-have on the bookshelf of pastors and professional church workers.

Each embossed hardback volume includes

the translation of Gerhard's Loci (originally published from 1610 to 1625) - a glossary of key theological, rhetorical, and philosophical terms - a name index - a Scripture index - a carefully researched works cited list that presents guidance for deciphering the numerous abbreviations of the other titles from which Gerhard quotes.